Vogue 2053: Jacket in Cream Corduroy

For my latest Fabricville blogger project, I decided to make a dress and a jacket -- well, I've only finished the jacket thus far but do have the dress on the cutting table now! 

This Vogue 2053 was enticing, I pictured it in this lovely cream corduroy from the latest offerings at Fabricville.com. The fabric is indeed very nice, but this project was SO HARD. This boxy jacket was more complicated than it appeared at first glance. It has paneled front and sides, full length sleeves with a working vent, and is fully lined.

This wasn't too awkward until I got to the lining the sleeve part. Oh my goodness. It took me almost an hour of fiddling before I figured out how to stitch the sleeve hems and vent extension together inside out and then flip it so that it sat correctly with no holes! My brain was tired. Something I discovered was that none of my tailoring books had any instructions on this specific part of the process, and I couldn't find anything online that showed me what the Vogue instructions were trying to tell me to do. Finally I just tried a few things, unpicked a few things, and finally got it right. Whew! 

The other difficulty with this project is in the fabric itself. It's a beautiful cotton corduroy, but it does shed terribly when working with it. And pressing is another issue: I had to be very careful and press gently on a folded towel so that I wouldn't crush the wales. But it's hard to get it perfectly crisp when you can't just squash it down. I used a lot of steam and time and it mostly worked, but it does wrinkle up again fairly quickly. Especially in the sleeve where there is a lot of bulk. 

I took about 3.5" out of the sleeve length but I think I could stand to take one more inch if I try again. And if I did try again, I wouldn't bother about the working vent, I would just make a shorter simple sleeve ending. As it is, I didn't bother putting buttonholes in the vent, I just stitched the buttons right through both layers. The sleeve is boxy and doesn't need a working vent. 

Close up of the sleeve vent - kind of looks 
like my face when I finally finished it!

One thing I decided at the beginning was that I didn't want to use the corduroy for the facings. I felt that would be too bulky, and it could also cause the jacket to stick to the clothing underneath if it was at all grippy. So I auditioned a few fabrics in my stash, but ended up going with a pale linen in my upcycle pile - it was an old pair of summer pants that I didn't like wearing but were made of a lovely linen. It was perfect for the facings and I like the contrast on the inside. I used an 'oyster' lining from Fabricville for the rest of the lining, and found some very cool brass buttons there too. 

I learned quite a lot making this, and also made quite a few errors. I feel that I could size down a bit but it is way too late now to make any adjustments; I'm kind of tired of the project ;) Things I learned for next time - use a more pressable fabric, size down a bit, and don't bother with the sleeve vents. I think if I changed those trouble points, this would be a fairly quick project on a second go. As it is, after all the effort, I'm fairly pleased with how it looks, but am also not 100% convinced that this boxy style is right for me. I'll try it styled a few ways and see how it goes. It might go right into someone else's closet -- or not, depending! 

Vogue 8805 in Leafy Red

This is my latest project as a Fabricville blogger. I was choosing from the most recent fabric releases, so after much deliberation finally picked this 100% cotton corduroy. It was a hard decision! But when I saw the deep red with the cobalt, green & black motifs I thought it would fit in nicely with my 80s inspired sewing of late. Also it's quite seasonal, looking like falling leaves.

 

It's a lightweight & fine wale corduroy so I thought it would match up well with a simple shift that doesn't require any real movement in the fabric. I used Vogue 8805, but combined the middle & bottom panels, to only have the yoke seam left. 

Fortunately the print matches up well enough that even that topstitched seam doesn't break up the visual  line. I didn't shorten it at all so while it's thigh-high on the model it's just at the bottom of my knee, my preferred length.

I added side seam pockets of course; I marked the waistline while I cut it out to give me the pocket placement line. I just used my standard pocket pattern. 

Another change I made was to line it with some black bemberg lining. I cut the lining only for the bottom half of the dress, below the yoke. I basted it to the bottom piece & sewed the yoke on, topstitching all 3 layers together. This allows a stiffer fabric, and one that likes to stick to itself as well as any tights, to hang better and not frustrate a wearer. Nothing worse than a dress that tangles up between your knees as you walk!

The back neckline has a slit which closes with a hook & eye. Unfortunately I find that it pops open while I am wearing it, not sure why, so I am going to replace it with a button & loop. 

Anyhow I love this fabric! It's the perfect weight for this time of year & I really love the print and colours of it. Perfect cozy Fall dress that could even make an appearance at Christmas 😉

Vintage Blues in Jumper Form

I did it again -- made another jumper! I'm getting addicted to these :) This time I used a 90s pattern, Simplicity 8788 and matched it up with a bright blue, wide wale corduroy that I picked up at the thrift store way back before lockdowns were a thing. It was one of my more delightful finds. 

I wasn't sure what to do with this corduroy, but finally clicked with the simple square-necked version (View C) of this pattern. I liked the straight lines, the square neck and the single pocket that crosses the side seam. I could have moved that pocket up an inch but I think it still works. I lined the pocket and fully lined the jumper as well. Corduroy isn't wearable without a lining, it sticks to itself and to any tights I attempt to wear. All my cord skirts and jumpers are lined. 

Fortunately I had a nice oyster-tone lining in my stash that went beautifully. And I also used the small leftovers from my recent "Europeon" blouse to cut the facings, since the colour tones matched perfectly. As I've mentioned before, I like a facing over a lining in a case like this because I find the lining always peeks out no matter what. With this project, I am almost as enamoured of the lovely insides as I am of the outside. 

This was a fairly simple project, aside from the care I had to take with the cord itself. I lightly steamed it, without pressure, to get some of the creases out, and found that it was easy to work with (except for having to use my little tabletop vacuum every time I cut a piece out to remove all the fluff). It doesn't have many seams so it went together beautifully, and as I mentioned, that inside finish is lovely! I just cut the same pieces in lining, 1/2" shorter, then hand basted it around the neckline and arm openings, and attached the facings on top. 

The only big change I made was in construction order. They had you sewing up the jumper and then attaching the pocket to the side seam. Nuts to that -- I sewed up the right side seam, attached the pocket while it was flat, then finished up the other side seam and shoulder seams. MUCH easier to handle. 

The only tricky part was getting the hem to sit flat and settle; it's a bit bulky with that fold of corduroy. I just catch-stitched it to the lining on the inside and it works for now but I may have to go back and firm it up a little. 

Anyhow, I was happily able to finish this off on the weekend and wear it right away. I am really pleased that this pattern worked so well with this beautiful, larger wale corduroy. It fits nicely and wears well too. All one can ask for! 

Bianca in Fall

This is Part One of my current Fabricville Blogger Project; I chose to make the Jalie Bianca (a pattern I've been eyeing for a while now) in a rich Eggplant Feather Wale Corduroy, thinking that it would work nicely as a fall dress and also as a jumper!

The fabric is soft and malleable -- but as it's corduroy there is really no drape so I chose to make the straight shift view without sleeve bands. It's perfect as a straight jumper style dress, with no closures to worry about, and the best patch pockets! Huge and attached into the side seams as well as being topstitched. 

This pattern has no closures, but both front and back are cut in two, with a centre seam. If my corduroy had a bigger wale so that the stripes were more noticeable, I might have cut the two front pieces on alternating grainlines so that one was vertical and one horizontal. I think the play of light and texture on the two would be interesting! But since this fabric is very fine, I just went with one direction for the whole dress, the nap facing down. 

This is a great pattern, as expected from Jalie. Because I was making it in a non-suggested fabric, I did make a couple of changes, however. The original pattern has a back neck facing and a front bias facing. The facings are attached prior to sewing the shoulder seams. 

But, since I wanted to fully line this dress/jumper, I chose to use bias facing all around the neck so that I could sew the shoulder seams of both dress and lining and baste together at the neckline before attaching the bias facing. I could have just sewn the lining in as the finish, but I prefer lining to sit under a facing at the neckline, because I feel like otherwise a bit of the lining always rolls out no matter how carefully I understitch it. That's just me; you could definitely finish the neckline with the lining if you're less worried about that than I am! 

I also finished the sleeve edges by basting the lining and dress together and attaching the bias arm facings as well. It's a nice tidy finish, and fortunately I had a lovely winey-purple bemberg lining left over in my stash that worked perfectly. I decided to stitch the lining down into the hem like I have for the last two jumpers I've made, because that holds it all together neatly and there's no twisting around with the heavier fabric and tights when the two layers are firmly attached. 

When I finish Part Two of this project, it will add to possibilities of this Bianca!