It took all day but....

the jacket has a notched collar. Not the best notched collar in the world, and not without a fair bit of sighing, muttering and some exercise for the seam ripper (which by rights should be the fittest seam ripper in England given the amount of work it does). However, it is better than my only other attempt since this one does at least have lapels that are the same size and shape as each other and lie at the same level on the jacket front.

I used the instructions from the Terry Fox video to construct the collar, rather than the tailoring book and it did work well, but wasn't as easy as the video seemed to suggest... though I suppose these things generally aren't. This method has you attach the facing first, sewing to the dot at the notch of the collar/lapel. This is then pressed and steamed before the collar is even put on. The undercollar is then put on, sewing from one notch to the other, starting and finishing exactly on the dot of course. Because the facing is already on, it is (relatively) easy to see where you need to stop sewing. The undercollar seam is then pressed open. The top collar is sewn onto the undercollar next, again, starting and stopping exactly at the collar notch dot. This is then pressed. You now have a jacket that has a collar, and a lapel, but there is still a part of the facing flapping around loose, the part which goes across the notched part (which I think is called the gorge line but I am not certain of that) and extends into the part of the facing which is sewn over the first section of the collar (and sewn to the back neck facing if the jacket has one).
To finish the collar, you fold the seam allowance in on the unsewn section of facing and lay it nicely over the notched lapel area, where it starts to look like a proper collar at last. You hold the jacket over your hand and make the collar lie the way it is going to in the finished garment and pin at the corner of the lapel/collar notch so that it is exactly smooth and nothing is pulling or bubbling. Then reach inside the jacket and carefully pin the seam allowances of the facing and the jacket together, taking the temporary pin out but ensuring you don't move anything at all when you do so. Then flip the area inside out so you can sew it on the machine, again, stopping exactly on the collar notch dot. When you turn the facing back into place, you are supposed to have a perfect notched collar. Well, my seam ripper got a bit of exercise at this point but eventually I got it to look reasonable. Its not quite as easy as it sounds and I think I might have missed a step somewhere when I was transcribing the notes on what to do from the video so I could take them up to the sewing room to use.
I intended to take photos at every stage to document the birth of the collar. However, the batteries were dead when I got the camera out to take the first shots, so that was the end of that idea. Maybe next time I make such a collar I will be more organised.

There is something going on with the upper back... no idea what, but the jacket isn't smooth over the shoulder area. I've ripped the back stay out to see if it was that. This helped, but didn't fix it. I suspect it might be the stay in the shoulder. Its the first time I've stayed the shoulder and eased it to the stay, and also the first time I've had this weird problem with the shoulders. Next time I make the jacket I won't stay the shoulders to see if it really was that which caused it.

I forgot to stay the neckline and with all the handling I think it stretched. When I came to put on the collar, I had to ease the neckline to fit the collar, and have a slightly too full area below the collar as a result......... or, perhaps its because I had to take a little bit of length out of the back at the neckline on the muslin, transferred it to the pattern but forgot to walk the seams to check it all fitted together correctly.

The collar on this jacket is really, really small. It looked sort of small on the muslin but I didn't really take much notice. It looked quite small when I put the collar stand in, but I just thought it had a short stand and plenty of collar to lie over the seam. Nope, its got a teeny, tiny collar at the back. I actually rolled the collar a quarter inch to the wrong side so I had a little bit more collar back there. As I am quite a small person, it doesn't really matter all that much, and it can be worn up at the back easily and it looks rather nice like that. It does cover the neckline seam when worn in the correct place, so it must be supposed to be that way, but close examination of the picture in the catalogue didn't suggest it would be quite that small.

Finally, I have been struggling with this thought all week, ever since I started putting the jacket pieces together.... My fabric is really lovely. My pattern is really lovely. BUT, the fabric and the pattern don't complement each other as I had hoped they would. The wonderful seams and lines of my jacket pattern are totally lost in the pattern of the tweed. To say I am disappointed would be an understatement. But there is always version two. Would I be asking for trouble to make this jacket in cotton twill? With top stitching to highlight the lovely lines of the pattern?