New Jacket and Refashioned Skirt!

Here is another two-for-one post! I refashioned this embroidered skirt and liked it so much I made a little jacket to go with it.

I bought the skirt because of how much I liked the embroidery. Isn't it great?

I should have taken before photos since, birds aside, the skirt had some glaring problems. It had a strange asymmetrical flounce at the waist, was about 2 inches too long to be flattering on me and didn't fit well at the waist.  It also had a side seam zipper that was wavy and never ever laid flat.

I fixed all those things, moving the zipper to the center back, removing the flounce, shortening the length and refitting the skirt. I even added a grosgrain facing rather than a new waistband. You can see my not perfect, but always improving, fell stitches at the edge of the grosgrain.

New CB zipper and hook and eye with grosgrain waist facing.

                                                                                                                                                         
It came out really great, if a bit short for my usual office style.

I was so happy with it that I was immediately inspired to sew up an easy coordinating jacket. I used view D of OOP Butterick 5567.

I made view D (bottom right of envelope)

This is the second view of this pattern that I have sewn up, but the first I've blogged about. The pattern is a quick and easy sew and would make a great first jacket pattern for a new sewist. It is unlined, and only slightly fitted. The darts are sewn and then top stitched - a very nice touch. The only fitting change I made was to grade from the 8 to the 12 from the underarm to the waist.

I'm attracted to the shape of this jacket, which you can see well here:

I used a baby blue wool fabric that has been in my stash for quite a few years. I bought it when I was thinking of making a cape - it has a plain weave and a sort of rough woolly feel to it and lofty hand. It gave the jacket a firmer hand than was intended for the pattern. In a thinner fabric with a softer hand, you would get a bit of drape around the collar, whereas this jacket's collar sort of stands at attention, which I like.

The only notable sewing details are that I finished the seams with bias binding. Above is the hem before I turned it, which I also bound in bias tape. You can see the top stitched dart in this pic.

For a closure, I had one largish snap professionally set at Star Snaps in the NY Garment District.

And the one sewing trick that I like for this sort of project is the one where you use fusible interfacing to cleanly finish the edge of your facings. (Below) The method is simple. First, trim 1/8" to a scant 1/4" from the interfacing on the edge you plan to finish (you need this to account for turn of cloth.) Next, sew the fusible interfacing and your facing piece right sides together at the edge that you want to finish. Last, turn to the inside and fuse creating your neatly finished edge. Voila!

Neatly finished facings.

There's not much else to add other than I love this outfit and think this jacket is a real winner for a very simple but cute topper. I'm sorry it's OOP, but I can see how it is a bit of a sleeper. I have a feeling this will not be the last time I sew it. The short sleeve versions would be really fun as part of a casual summer suit in linen.

Stay tuned for my first version of this jacket which is part of my 5 piece mini-wardrobe.