An Engineer's Guide to Handwork

It's done!  Final completed blazer I spent most of the month of January working on this, cutting and interfacing and sewing. I did the cutting out in sections, starting with the interfacing and then the main fabric. I waited to cut the lining until I was ready to sew it, following the advice of another sewer who suggested that since there is so much cutting for this project it's helpful to not do it all at the same time. That did work well for me - there is a huge number of pieces to cut out and keep track of. I traced the pieces onto the fabric, pinning the layers together inside the lines to ensure the two sides were the same. Pattern weights were a combination of mason jar pickling weights and a couple of cans.  Cutting out the interfacing with pattern weights and red chalk Cutting out the main fabric - pinning the fabric layers together and more tracing Jacket torso put together on the dress form, with the lapels clipped open to help shape the roll line The sewing process ...

 Muslin take 2!  This time, I adjusted the front and side pieces for a 1/2" shoulder slope and a 1/2" forward shoulder adjustment, combined into a 1" change to the front piece only. Because I don't want to change the armscye, the shoulder change needs to continue down into the underarm area, to keep the length the same and make sure the sleeve still fits. I used the pivot and slide technique here too, to make sure the length didn't change. Then matching the notches on the modified front and side panels allowed me to transfer over the change, and pivot back to the back edge.  Sketch of the adjusted front and side pattern pieces I recut the body pieces, with the shoulder adjustment and staying with the size 18 for the full size. I pulled the sleeves and collar off the original muslin and put them into the new one. Getting pretty close to being ready for the real thing! Blazer - size 18, front and back views The sleeves are definitely too long, but I'm not sure ...

 My dreams of making a blazer that actually fits me are inching towards reality. I started with the Jasika pattern from Closet Core patterns. I knew that I was going to need to make a full bicep adjustment, since my arm measures 16" and the finished garment size is 15.75". I added 2" to get a reasonable amount of ease. I also followed the advice the ever helpful Carol Kimball on Ravelry to pin the flat pattern pieces together to check the fit. This made it obvious that the back was going to be too long and I needed to do a sway back adjustment. Pinning out the lower back made it sit much better.  Initial paper pattern fitting on my dress form I adjusted the back pieces for length, using the pivot and slide technique suggested here. I shortened the center back by 1 1/2" (since the fold I pinned out was 3/4") and tried it on the dress form. Making the initial pattern adjustments to the paper patter made the back fit better, but there is clearly a shoulder slope...