Amazing Fit Blazer - Some confusion

My quest to make a couple of jackets this year has certainly slowed down. There hasn't been any update on this goal as progress has somewhat stalled.

I made my decisions on patterns to try back in January, and the ziggi pattern turned out a bit of  pain at the muslin stage and so, is in the naughty corner.

Therefore, I subsequently turned to the other pattern that I had selected; the Simplicity 2446 "amazing fit" blazer pattern. However, I have only gotten as far as unfolding the pattern sheets and identifying the pattern pieces before I got confused and put it all away again.

To recap, I chose the 2446 pattern because I liked the idea of it having different bust sizes, meaning I could avoid a FBA and hopefully reducing the number alterations I'd need to make.

Because it's an 'amazing fit' pattern, it has quite a large section in the instructions on selecting your size. The principle is that "there are three unique sets of pattern pieces, each one for the different bust cup sizes". When it says 'three unique sets of pattern pieces' it actually means that there are three versions of the side front piece, all the other pieces of the jacket are the same.

The instructions for determining your size tell you to first find your bust cup size: by comparing the bust and high bust measurements, and determining cup size by subtracting one from the other; a 0.5-1" difference is an A cup, 1-2" a B cup and 2-3" a C cup. With a bust of 37.5" and a high bust of 35", that puts me comfortably in the C cup section.

It then says that the "patterns have all been based on the body measurements given. once you have selected your pattern size, compare your bust measurement to the chart given on the pattern envelope". So, I refer to the size chart...

 

The size chart refers to "bust" measurement, so based on that and the instructions I interpret it as saying I should select size 14/16 based on my 37.5" bust.. and this is where I got confused. Am I supposed to select my size based on my bust or upper bust measurement?

And this is where I got confused... It seems to me that if I select the size for my bust size and also select the option for cup size C I'm just going to end up with a jacket that's way too big for me all over (rather than too big everywhere except the bust).

Since the only difference between the cup sizes is the added size at the bust in the side front piece, it makes more sense to me to choose my size based on my high bust measurement; the overall bust circumference will be correct for my bust size, and the rest of the jacket will be proportional to my bust:high bust ratio.

However, the pattern doesn't actually say to do that. (I know sometimes I can take things too literally, but I think instructions like this is somewhere I can expect to take things literally).

Am I reading the instructions wrong? Should I select my size based on my high bust measurement? How would you proceed?

Unless I'm thinking it through completely wrong and somebody points it out to me, I think my plan will be to make up size 12 based on my upper bust measurement, along with the C cup side front piece for the same size. I've got some twill to use to make a muslin, as I figured I was better off using something with a little more body than


As an aside, I wonder if you also spotted the (other) glaring error in two of the pictures of the pattern above? The instructions refer to the three side front pieces as 2A, 2 and 2B, but the pattern piece inventory (and on the actual pieces) they are named 2A, 2B and 2C. Great work there Simplicity *rollseyes*

Ziggi - A day's worth of muslins...

So I spent today making muslins for my planned Ziggi jacket. Yes, muslins plural, and I'm not done yet. I kinda think I would have been better off just drafting myself my own jacket, I wouldn't have been much worse off given what you actually get when you buy the Ziggi pattern, it's not like the instructions are anything worth paying for.

First up, let's recap... I have some gorgeous aubergine wool suiting that I want to make into a biker style jacket, and from limited selection of options, I settled on the Style Arc Ziggi pattern.

Now, the style arc patterns are single sized, so you can print only one size at a time.

My bust and waist come in between the 10 and 12, and hips between 12 and 14. For this reason I chose the size 12. Interestingly, my "upper arm girth" places me in the size 8, but my "shoulder breadth" just above a size 14. When you buy the pdf pattern you get three sizes, so I bought the size 10-12-14 bundle of patterns.

Above is the muslin of the size 12, straight out of the envelope.

Starting with the good; I really like how the collar is sitting. And despite the size chart suggesting that the sleeves would be too big I like the width of the sleeves.

And onto the bad issues...

The pooling at the back is somewhat expected based on my body shape, and I didn't worry about that straight away, working on the principle of starting at the top and working down with fitting... the most obvious issue was the armholes. The armholes came very far down, impeding my arm movement an awful lot.

It bunched up as shown above when I moved my arms around at all. My first thought was raising the armscye, but I noted that the bust felt a little more comfortable when the jacket was bunched up around my shoulders like that, so I tried removing some vertical length from between my armpits and shoulders...

Pinning out the excess did seem to help, and achieved the goal of having free use of my arms (a somewhat important thing don't you think?)

I did some partial unpicking and slashed and overlapped all the pieces and stitched them down to check out this alteration a bit more (see above pics), and thought it was promising enough to transfer to my pattern pieces. As this alteration had reduced the overall length of the jacket, I added the length back in at the waist to make the jacket the length I wanted it.

And so my second muslin...



While the principle of my alterations were good, there are obviously still quite a few problems...

Two changes I could easily make to this muslin were that I had added the length too high in the back, and now the seamline of the back peplum piece is sitting too low, so I shortened the upper back pieces and lengthened the peplum to move this seamline up. I also added half an inch of width to the bottom of the peplum while I was redrafting it, to give the jacket a little more ease over my behind....

(Yes, that's my "I've spent a whole day on this muslin and it still looks terrible" face).

So, at the end of a day of muslining I still have a heap of problems, for which I'm thinking the following changes for muslin number three:

- Add a little more length back in where I removed it between the armpits and shoulders to hopefully alleviate some of the pull lines from the armpits
- Take the width of the shoulders in by about 1.5 at the top, tapering to nothing by the lower sleeve piece (note my comment earlier about being worried about making a size too small for my "shoulder breadth" - what a load of tosh that measurement is! It's too big in the shoulders, not too small!)
- Do a sway back adjustment to remove some of the pooling at the small of my back
- Do a small FBA through the middle of my "middle front piece", to add some more ease and shaping through the bust
- Possibly add a little waist shaping through the side seams.

What do you think? Would you make those changes based on the above photos? If not, what changes would you make?

...and if I do eventually manage to get a good fit, I then need to work out how to make equivalent changes to the lining pieces.

Which reminds me of another frustration with this pattern; the pattern notes that the lining is optional, however you have to print all the pieces, there's no option for printing just the shell and/or lining pieces. This is frustrating me right now in particular as I'd quite like to reprint just my outer pieces, but to do so I'll have to reprint the whole thing. The lining and shell pieces are completely mixed together on the pattern sheets, so it's not even like I could just print some of the sheets to print the shell pieces again. I'm very disappointed by this.

Jacket Pattern Decisions

An enormous thank you to everyone that suggested jacket patterns after I asked for suggestions the other day. In case anybody else was interested I thought that I would share the options that I've collated, and infact, writing out this post has helped me make my decisions.


The Blazer

Three main patterns came out as suggestions for the blazer; McCalls 6172, Simplicity 2446 and Vogue 8333.

 

M6172 was suggested by Gail, who has made an inspiring version of this pattern recently. This pattern certainly ticks all the basic boxes, but I think I'd prefer something a little more curvy

V8333, is a Claire Shaeffer Custom Couture Collection pattern, and apparently has instructions for both RTW and couture construction techniques. I really like the sound of the instructions of this pattern, I think I want welt pockets as opposed to the in seam pockets in this jacket, and also think I prefer 2 buttons over 3.

 

And the pattern I think I'm going to use is the S2446. It is one of the amazing fit patterns that has different pieces for different cup sizes, which I have heard good things about and will hopefully make it easier to fit. It has two buttons and lovely angled welt pockets. Unless I discover another pattern, I think S2446 is my girl. (So if anybody hears about an Australian sale on simplicity patterns please let me know)


The Biker Style

For the second jacket, with regards to recommendations one pattern was mentioned over and over and over; the Style Arc Ziggi. However, the price tag of the Ziggi has made me do a bit of searching to see if there were any other options around, which found me the Kwiksew 3764 and the Burdastyle Larissa.

The KwikSew 3764 has the colar and zip style that I'm after, but I'm not sure if it's the styling on the envelope or how the pattern really is, but it looks really boxy. I think a jacket as boxy as that would be pretty unflattering on me.

 

Similarly, the Burdastyle Larissa is also fairly boxy, and also pretty cropped, I am planning to make an upper hip length jacket so it can be worn with jeans etc as well as waisted garments.

And so that brings me back to the Style Arc Ziggi. There was obviously a reason that most people suggested it. The princess seams in the pattern will add shape (or provide the opportunity to at least), and it looks like it's already upper hip length. I've been informed that the instructions leave quite a bit to be desired, but there is a sew along out there for the jacket which should help with the construction. I guess I'll be digging deep into my pockets and going with this pattern.

Jacket plans - can you help?

I would like to make at least one jacket this year. I have two pieces of fabric I want to use, and a vague idea of what the jackets will look like, but not much more than that yet.

It might seem a little early to be thinking about jackets (particularly given that it got up to 37C in Melbourne today), but the fabric I have isn't that thick so I figure these would both make great autumn jackets and I want to be able to take my time.

One of the jackets I want to make is a normal blazer style and I have some dark green wool for it:



The second jacket I want to make I have some aubergine coloured wool for, and am envisioning a biker style jacket with an asymmetrical zip:



However, I don't have any patterns lined up for either of these jackets, so I thought I would put it out there; do you have any recommendations for patterns for either of these styles?

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.

Grey Dress and better Minoru Pics

I have a few pics to share today, the first is a dress that I made yonks ago but hadn't photographed until yesterday, and also is some better pictures of my Minoru jacket, as the previous ones didn't show the colour very faithfully.

This dress is New Look pattern 6726. I've made it up before, but this time went for the normal straps rather than the buttoned ones (as the buttons are painful when carrying a bag!). For this dress I used some fabric that I got from Tessuti called "Peppercorn" (unfortunately I can't find it on their site). The fabric was some kind of blend, and is lusciously soft, I wish there was a way for you to stroke it through the computer screen, it's so lovely.

As I'd spent ages fitting the dress last time and had marked those changes onto the pattern pieces I didn't bother fitting at all along the way when making this dress. I figured the brown version fits me great still so I'll be ok. Turns out there's a bit of a fitting issue along the princess seams in the bust which aren't obvious in the dark brown fabric but are glaringly obvious in the grey.

Nevermind, the dress is still more than wearable, and most of all has the super awesome pockets that I love so much from the first version. (I do like this dress, despite my expression in the above picture suggesting otherwise!)

And the second thing I wanted to show you today, the better photos of my Minoru Jacket. Nothing against Laura, who took the first photos, and did a great job under the terrible conditions (after dark, inside with average light and using my crappy camera). Now I have some daylight photos where you can see the jacket a little better.

Front and Hood (less comically large when my hair is tied back):

Back:

Ready for the rain:

Don't you love the oversized collar:

And more importantly, I can't believe I forgot to show a picture of the lining last time!!

If you want to make a Minoru yourself, make sure you head over to the sewaholic shop, as the pattern is now in stock!