Cordova Jacket

Because Sewaholic garments seem to be the theme around these parts at the moment, I thought the next finished item I would show you would be the Cordova jacket I recently finished.

Yeah, yeah, I know that a wool jacket isn't the most obvious of makes considering it's still summer here (37 degrees today! Still 31 degrees at 10pm as I write this). I wasn't originally planning on making this jacket when the pattern was first released, but then I saw Sam's lovely navy version and fell in love. I couldn't stop thinking about making one, thinking that I could wear at work (since my office is freeeeezing!). But I didn't buy the pattern to start with. I stayed strong. I had other things planned, many things, and didn't want to buy the pattern and have it sitting around not being used.

But then one day when I was visiting Sarah I cracked. I mean, there was all those patterns there for her online store, buying just one wouldn't hurt would it? I mean really it was being well behaved, as I could easily have come home with stacks of patterns! And so the Cordova pattern came home with me.

Over my Christmas holiday I made up a muslin. I didn't make too many changes (partly because I was a bit scared of how to replicate anything too complicated in the lining, as the lining pieces are differently shaped to the outer pieces).

• I narrowed the shoulders, by taking fabric off the edges of the armholes, so the sleeve seam hit on the bone at the edge of my shoulder, rather than a fair way out from it.
• I did a sway back adjustment, taking out a wedge in the back at the top of where the peplum hits the sides. 
• I also took a strange wedge shape out of the back over my shoulder blades, with the most being taken out of the princess seams, tapering to nothing at the centre back and armholes. 
• Lastly I shortened the sleeves by about 3cm.

I got the fabric from Rathdowne Fabrics. The outer fabric is a wool suiting (actually I can't remember if it was pure wool or a wool blend) in a slightly mottled grey. I then picked a dusky pink lining fabric, which I LOVE. I think it is just the right amount of contrast without being too over the top for work wear.

Do you want to know my favourite thing about this jacket? I think it's the only hip/high-hip length jacket I own that I don't have to pull awkwardly and tight around my hips to do up! The first time I put it on and did up the zip it just popped into my head that this must be what putting clothes on is supposed to be like!!

The construction was pretty simple. I just followed the instructions for the pattern step by step. There was no fancy tailoring techniques going on here*! I was surprised with how quickly it came together actually. The only change to the construction that I made was to add a grosgrain ribbon hanging hook on the back facing. I just folded under the ends and stitched it by machine at each end of the hook. Then I did some hand tacks to hold the back facing to the seam allowances at the centre back and back princess seams so that the jacket doesn't do funky things if I hang it by said hanging hook.

*Not that I'm against those of you that make amazing tailored garments, I'm just too scared to try them myself quite yet

After wearing it a few times and also looking at these photos I'm a little concerned that the jacket is a little bit big for me. The first time I wore it was with my hollyburn skirt (in some of the pictures above) and I don't think that was necessarily the most flattering outfit; a bit too much volume on my bottom half. I'm much happier with how it looks in the photos with the jeans so will bear that in mind for future outfits. (Not that I wear jeans much these days)

You can see that the back fits pretty well though, no wrinkles at the lower back like I often get.

Unfortunately, the sway back adjustment has made it slightly shorter in the back than the front. I was aware that this would be the case before sewing up the jacket, but trying to work out how to modify the lining pieces to match any changes that would fix that was making my brain hurt, so I decided that I would pick my battles. I don't need to perfect everything the first time round, I can leave some lessons for another project!

So overall, a nice little jacket, and not a massive time or $$ suck, so I'd class that as a win!

What about you, have you considered making a Cordova? Do you hate Air Conditioning as much as I do?

Cordova Muslin

I popped round to see Sarah last Sunday and accidentally came home with a copy of the Sewaholic Cordova Jacket Pattern. I've been thinking about making one to wear at work for a while, so decided to bite the bullet and at least make a muslin to see the shape of the jacket on me, without the extra peplum.

So this afternoon I traced off the pattern (in a size 10) and stitched up a muslin. I really like the pattern so far, but I think it needs a few tweaks to perfect it for me. However, I really need some opinions/advice as to what you guys think I should do. (Apologies for the harsh light and slightly fuzzy pictures - I'm still trying to get the hang of self-portraits!)

 

Looking both in the mirror and at the photos, most of the fit issues are in the back of the jacket. However, I do think I need to narrow the shoulders slightly, the seam sits at the end of my shoulders rather than at the end of the bone, so the top of the sleeve is completely empty! If I want to do that do I just take it off the armhole?

There's also a tiny bit of pulling under the bust, but i'm not sure if it's enough to worry about or not? (I'm questioning it as I have no idea how I'd do a comparable alteration to the lining as it has different seamlines!)

 

It's the back where it's a mess - my lovely protruding behind and sway back pushes the jacket up and causes lots of wrinkles. Above you can see how it sits with just a minor amount of movement before the photo, and below left I deliberately lifted my arms above my head and didn't pull it down again at the back after at all.

I can't decide if i need to do a sway back adjustment, add some extra width around the hips (somewhere?) or shorten above the peplum. The seam of the peplum falls slightly below where I really start to widen out, but I don't know where it would be most flattering to fall. I think if i shortened above the peplum I'd get rid of a fair bit of the creasing and blousing in the back because it would have more ease to drop back down where it's supposed to be sitting, rather than getting stuck above my hips. Adding some more ease in somewhere below the hip could also possibly help with that? What do you think? What would you do?

(Obviously once I've fixed the back wrinkles I'll have to assess the length so it doesn't swing up in the back like it is at the moment)

I've also spotted diagonal lines running from my shoulder-blades to my armpits on the back - would I fix that by adding a smidge to the back side seam? (more obvious in the above photos than below ones)

 

Also, how long are sleeves supposed to be?

And lastly, not a fitting issue but a problem I had - when sewing it together the back pieces are supposed to be longer than the peplum but mine weren't - they were the same, and then the peplum was longer than the front piece. I double and triple checked, that was the only way around the peplum would go in, as the double notches went at the back/side-back seam where there was an extra notch... Help?!

In conclusion - I desperately need a good book on fitting, so in addition to any fitting advice, any fitting book recommendations gratefully received.