Vogue 1132 - Red Jacket

A Big Thank You to All of You and A Big "Duh" for Me

Thank you all for the compliments on the jacket and for all the suggestions as to what could be the problem with those wrinkles. I have come to some of the same conclusions after taking a look at my fitting books: Fabulous Fit by Rasband and Liechty and Fitting & Pattern Alteration by Rasband, Leichty and Pottberg. (That last one is not cheap, but an excellent book.)

A big "duh" for me because I've had this very issue in the past - just this past winter, in fact - and forgot all about a few new alterations I need to do. I have a set of standard petite alterations I do, but as I've become more educated and pickier about fit I've realized that there more alterations I need to make things fit better. The shoulder thing is a newer one, and I should have picked up on the fact sooner!

So, what are some of the problems/solutions? I actually think that in my case, it is a combination of several of these things, suggested by one or more of you:

• sloping shoulders
• narrow shoulders
• not enough interior support of the fabric in the shoulder area
• shoulder pads not thick enough, this goes partially with the sloping shoulders
  

With that in mind, I tried a few things to remedy those wrinkles. I added additional padding at the shoulders and that did remove some of the wrinkle. I currently have a 1/2" shoulder pad in there. I used to not use shoulder pads at all, but my shoulders are too sloped at this point to continue without shoulder pads. I think it was just a fear of those linebacker-like ones from the 80's, which were hard enough to carry off if you were a normal size, let alone a petite.

I tried pinning out some of the excess of the side front piece. That helped some, but then limited my mobility at the shoulder and made it too tight. I'm on the fence about this alteration. The side on the right of the photo is pinned out and has extra shoulder padding. The side on the left has nothing.

I then pinned in a couple of layers of hair canvas to the side on the left of the photo and the problem was much better even without the extra shoulder pad.

At this point, I think I'm going to use a thicker shoulder pad and retro fit the front shoulder area with some fusible hair canvas. This is not, of course, included in the pattern directions, but neither is underlining or some of the other finer tailoring techniques that this jacket could benefit from considering how tailored the style is.

I'll get that stuff done and show you the result when I show the dress and jacket together. Maybe tomorrow I'll get the current set of costumes finished and the dress muslin started!

Parting Shot: Needs A Costume? No. The play does not include a character described as: Cat. Large, orange and exceptionally nosey.