The Burgundy Jacket - Final Post
I am glad I finished with this jacket! It is nice to have something new to wear, but really, I'm glad to be done with the fabric! Don't get me wrong, the fabric is beautiful; the color, texture and warmth are all really nice. Working with the fabric was another story. Stretch french terry can be spongy, slippery and stretchy and oh yeah, did I mention that it also curls when cut? For some reason, the fabric I had did not like anything higher than the medium setting on my iron. Anything higher and it would melt. At least my iron is cleaner now than when I began the project.
While not the best fabric attributes in combination, it can be worked with. My serger with differential feed made a big difference in how the fabric behaved, as well as a lot of hand basting, stabilization in key areas with fusible interfacing, a stretch needle in my sewing machine and lowering the presser foot tension in my sewing machine. Hand basting was the single biggest help in the whole project. Tedious, yes, but it really kept things in place, whereas even trying to machine baste things would cause stretching and mismatches.
Even the hems were difficult. For knits, I usually fuse a narrow strip of knit interfacing to the fabric edge, turn and coverstitch. Not so with this fabric. Even with the differential on the coverstitch machine, I had a horrible looking hem. I eventually brought out the narrow Heat n Bond and fused the hem in place first and then did two rows of straight stitching on the regular machine. Not my first choice, but it did produce a nice, clean hem.
All that said, I am really happy with the jacket! The pockets turned out just like I wanted them to.
The fronts look nice from both the inside and outside:
The neck facing on the collar turned out nicely, too, after some hand basting and topstitching:
I'm not sure that I'll ever sew this type of fabric again, given a choice of regular french terry or even regular sweatshirt fabric. At least now I know! Although I'm pretty stubborn and don't give up too easily on projects, a lesson for you to take away from this project is to not give up on something too easily. Keep trying to find solutions and answers before you put that project in File 13.
This week: some things for my son and a welcome return to sewing a nice, plain old woven cotton!
Parting Shot: Special Delivery. Just to prove he's got all the cat instincts, Wellie has claimed this box for his own. Not that he can lay down in it or anything, he just sits there. He's done this several times since I got the box, but it will be removed tomorrow.
12 comments:
That was a lot of work, but the jacket fits you and its a nice color.
Sew cute, Summerset! The jacket, I mean, on you. And Wellie's definitely cute in "his" box, too.
Beautifully finished! The color is very flattering.
Love the jacket! This will have a lot of memories. . .lol.
El
Given the troubles you described, that's a miraculously fine finish on the inside. And a beautiful jacket over all, of course.
Well it turned out great, you would never know it gave you so much trouble, the finishes look really professional.
All your patience paid off - you have a great looking jacket!
This jacket turned out great. I'm not sure I would have stuck with it.
Wellie looks like he's saying "The box sez priority male and I definitely are one."
Very cute and professional looking.
Lovely jacket! The color's and style are stunning on you!
Good for keeping up to the fabric. It looks lovely on you. Congratulations for your daughter. She did very well.
Well worth all the time and effort!
Difficult fabrics are a major mojo killer to me too. I'm glad you're done, the jacket came out great, and now you can move on to calmer waters!
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