The front and back of the jacket are now attached at the shoulder seams, but I didn’t mention the pockets and tabs, which were constructed before the shoulder seams were done.
The pockets were fairly straightforward really, just like jeans pockets. Sew the inner pocket, in this case made of black quilting cotton, to the outer pocket along the curve, clip and under stitch the curve, then turn the pocket lining to the inside and press. Lay the pocket assembly onto the underlayer and line up the pocket curve with the correct markings (this must be done very accurately if the pocket is not to gape unattractively). The top and side seam of the pocket assembly are then tacked in place so they don’t slip out of alignment, then the pocket lining is sewn to the edge of the pocket underlayer to make the pocket bag itself. In this case, the pocket assembly forms the whole of the front peplum piece. The pockets are quite a nice size and overall I am very pleased with how they look on the jacket. I wasn’t quite sure whether the pocket bag should be trimmed so that it is not caught into the seam allowance of the facing when it goes on. In the end I trimmed it so it would only just get into the seam allowance since this should anchor it in place and stop any possibility of the pocket lining leaping out every time I pull my keys out of my pocket.
The tabs on the front were a bit of a puzzle to deal with at first. They are part of/an extension of, the mid front panel and lie over the peplum seam allowance but are not caught into it so there is a hole in the front of the jacket under the tab.
Marfy likes to put these little puzzles in their patterns, this is not the first garment with a hole I have had to deal with. I am fairly sure there is some correct method for doing this, but as I don’t know what that method is, I am using the “bodge it and scarper” method. Before I sewed the mid panel, I chalked the seam allowances on the tab section. When the panels were all sewn together and I was pressing them, this meant I could press the seam and then continue down the tab, following the chalk markings, to turn the edges and ends of the tab to the inside nice and neatly and then catch stitch the allowances down, once I was content that both tabs were exactly the same size and shape.
The pockets were fairly straightforward really, just like jeans pockets. Sew the inner pocket, in this case made of black quilting cotton, to the outer pocket along the curve, clip and under stitch the curve, then turn the pocket lining to the inside and press. Lay the pocket assembly onto the underlayer and line up the pocket curve with the correct markings (this must be done very accurately if the pocket is not to gape unattractively). The top and side seam of the pocket assembly are then tacked in place so they don’t slip out of alignment, then the pocket lining is sewn to the edge of the pocket underlayer to make the pocket bag itself. In this case, the pocket assembly forms the whole of the front peplum piece. The pockets are quite a nice size and overall I am very pleased with how they look on the jacket. I wasn’t quite sure whether the pocket bag should be trimmed so that it is not caught into the seam allowance of the facing when it goes on. In the end I trimmed it so it would only just get into the seam allowance since this should anchor it in place and stop any possibility of the pocket lining leaping out every time I pull my keys out of my pocket.
The tabs on the front were a bit of a puzzle to deal with at first. They are part of/an extension of, the mid front panel and lie over the peplum seam allowance but are not caught into it so there is a hole in the front of the jacket under the tab.
Marfy likes to put these little puzzles in their patterns, this is not the first garment with a hole I have had to deal with. I am fairly sure there is some correct method for doing this, but as I don’t know what that method is, I am using the “bodge it and scarper” method. Before I sewed the mid panel, I chalked the seam allowances on the tab section. When the panels were all sewn together and I was pressing them, this meant I could press the seam and then continue down the tab, following the chalk markings, to turn the edges and ends of the tab to the inside nice and neatly and then catch stitch the allowances down, once I was content that both tabs were exactly the same size and shape. When sewing the panels together, I chalked the waist/peplum seam allowance on the two outer panels and matched that exactly with the notches on either side of the tab which are put there for that purpose. I back stitched two or three times just before the tab, for strength. Then I sewed my peplum onto the upper body, being careful to leave a gap in the seam (also well backstitched) which forms the inseam buttonhole. I pressed most of this seam open but clipped the seam next to the tab so that I could press the allowances upward behind the tab. This can be seen in the photo above, which shows the reverse of the jacket with my finger poking through the gap.
I made a little facing for my tab out of lining fabric, but cut it longer than the length of the tab by quite a bit as shown above. The lining was shaped using a cardboard template of the tab end, but cut slightly smaller than it. I pressed it over the template and pinned it, then slid the facing up through the hole in the seam and placed the shaped end just inside the edge on the back of the tab. This will be sewed down by hand when I get around to it, and the excess length at the top of the tab will be folded over the seam allowance I had pressed upward, toward the inside of the jacket, and also sewed down by hand. I've pinned it to check it will work and it does seem like it will close that pesky gap. 
2 comments:
Such detailed worked, love how it is progressing.
Marfy really makes you use your brain creatively to tackle those little isues. Love the details.
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