OK, there’s a fair few photos to show for this project, so I’m mixing things up a bit and splitting this into two posts. First up, the pattern & alterations.

The Design & Pattern

Burdastyle 2013-11-117

Doesn’t the jacket look so cool in Burda magazine’s photos? I was seduced. Ever since I sew Marc Jacob’s pastel moto jacket I wanted one in non-traditional color & fabric. I like the simple style lines. It offers a load of possibilities for showing off my double-face fabric: color-blocking, visible reverse side.

Size Used

34 rather than recommended 36. Because it’s closes to my Jacket Block which I’m using to guide fitting changes.

Changes Made

Fitting changes

I’m still trying to work out the best way to use my Jacket Blocks for altering commercial patterns to improve the fit. Here’s my current not so scientific approach:

1. Lay the commercial pattern over my Jacket Block aligning at CF / CB waist. I’ve traced the pattern onto tissue paper, but also kept my Block on tracing paper to make this easier.
2. Compare & decide what needs changing, and by how much. Now the how much is a bit of a dilemma, especially when my Block is currently more a Sloper with only the wearing ease and no design ease. There’s the risk of removing all the design ease and end up with the same jacket over and over again. So I decided to try this: Where the pattern doesn’t match the Jacket Block, I check if it at least matches the Moulage & Top/Dress markings before deciding whether to change or not. (My Jacket Block also has markings for the Moulage & Top/Dress Block’s key reference points like bust & shoulder points, bust/waist/hip widths.) For example, I didn’t increase the CF  pattern piece’s bust width to meet the Jacket Block bust points because it already meets the Moulage & Top/Dress Block bust point. And while total front bust width (after FBA) is less than my Jacket Block, it’s close to my Top/Dress Block bust width; add to that the back Bust width is slightly wider than my Jacket Block (at princess seam), so I think I have enough bust ease.
3. Where the shape is really different from my Block, and standard alteration doesn’t get it close enough, I sliced & diced the innard of a pattern piece to pull the seam line into a shape that more closely resemble my Block. See the changes to the Front & Back side bodice pieces for example.

So using my Fitted Shoulder-Princess No-Shoulder-Pad Jacket Block (what a mouthful!) as the yard stick, these are the changes I end up making:

• Short Waist Adjustment: This time shortened at the chest level so the armhole is smaller / higher like on my Block. Sleeve cap height also shortened to match.
• Low Bust Adjustment
• Front-Back Body Shape / Full Bust Adjustment: Done the unorthodox way mentioned in my previous post. So shifted some of the dart shaping from side seam to the front and back princess seams.
  
  

  Splicing & dicing to pull the seamline into the right shape.

  

  How my unorthodox approach compares with the standard FBA approach.

  

  My unorthodox approach to get side front to match my Jacket Block.

  

  Standard FBA result in less width at the bust & armhole area that’d need more fiddling.
• Sloping Shoulder Adjustment
• Uneven Shoulder Adjustment: Done the Cabrera-Meyers “Classic Tailoring Techniques: A Construction Guide for Men’s Wear” way, except with tissue pattern rather than the actual fabric. See my summary in a previous post.
• Short Arm Adjustment: Partly done in the lower sleeve area (not hem), and partly in the sleeve cap area to match length removed from bodice armscye for Short Waist Adjustment. So the sleeve cap is shallower.
• Widen Sleeve slightly to give me 2″ ease at bicep level. A few other people have complained that the sleeve is too narrow for them, even with stretch fabric. So you may want to check the widths. I have thin arms & could have gotten away with no widening. But 2″ sounds more comfortable for a jacket. I widened at the back sleeve seam. This also gives me a bit more ease in the sleeve armscye – the original pattern doesn’t seem to have any ease. I also followed Jeffery Diduch’s instruction in Threads July 2013 for guidance on how much sleeve armscye ease to include where. I kind of winged this as the pattern doesn’t have as many match point as in his pattern. But I subsequently found his online instruction on how to check the ease of these commercial pattern sleeves.
  
  

  Checking the sleeve shaping & ease at underarm…

  

  Checking the sleeve height…

Design changes

• Shortened sleeve further: Removed the extra 3″ length in sleeve as I want a more traditional Moto Jacket sleeve.
• Added sleeve vent & zippers.
• Removed the waistline seam by cutting the peplums as one with the bodice pieces. I was worried about thickness of multiple layers at intersecting seams.

Rather than testing the fit next with muslin I cheated with pinned pattern tissue. Looks OK on Q me thinks…apart from that humongous collar which needed slight shaving / shaping near the collar points so the fabric wouldn’t get all bunched up when the front is zipped to couple of inches above the bust (like in the Burda catalog photo).

So here are my final patterns. I thought I was going to reuse this pattern, so transferred the patterns to card stock (minus seam allowances) to use for fabric cutting.

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Tomorrow: The fabric, construction notes & reveal!