Boy's Tailored Jacket .... continued....

Well, after that unintentional blogging break, my son made his Confirmation 3 weeks ago yesterday, and it was such a lovely, pleasant day, which was also incredibly busy, by the time all our brothers, sisters, parents, nieces and nephews arrived to our house after the ceremony.

The weather was unseasonably sunny for Ireland which meant the children (all 22 of them) spent most of the day playing outside in the garden, and the adults (18 of them!)were able to relax because the children were happy. Our families don't get together too often, simply because of the numbers involved, but all the planning, cleaning, painting and cooking is worth it when everyone has such a good time. It ended in in the usual Irish way - the sing-song!

There's always some bit of drama - my husband deciding to paint 3 main rooms in the house just two days before, and you know it didn't particularly bother me because my focus was on the jacket for my son that I felt it was 'necessary' to sew. I actually removed and re-sewed the 2 sleeves of the jacket the morning before the ceremony.

The saga of the jacket started with realising that the navy jacket I initially made was too short, despite having measured the length carefully and even shortening the pattern pieces to fit. So, 2 weeks before, I was making a new 'tailored' jacket! That looks very casual and flippant written down, but I can assure you I was not at all casual about it :-)

Luckily I had a really nice light wool fabric which I had thought I might sew up as a skirt or dress for me, and I cut up 2 old shirts for the lining. This fabric was much more suitable than the heavier navy wool, and it was easier to sew with.

On this version, I decided to go with a vent in the back and vents in the sleeves, using Burda instructions - not a great idea. Though the vents look ok from a distance, I was winging it.

The reason I was taking out the sleeves of the jacket the morning before, was because of an absolute beginners mistake - not marking the relevant notches and then (doh!!) decided to match the seams of the sleeve with the seams on the back of the jacket, simply because I thought it would 'look' better. The hours I spent trying to figure out why the sleeves were dragging so much on the shoulders ..........

My MIL gave me a lovely silver confirmation medal that my husband had also worn, so the night before I was 'googling' how to make a ribbon rosette! I sort of winged that too, but again, it looks better at a distance!

He looked very smart in his jacket, and I think the faults were only noticeable to me.

I learnt a lot by making these jackets, checking out the details on RTW jackets is very helpful, especially if sewing instructions are a bit vague, and leaving a good long hem allowance, measuring and remeasuring the jacket length, also marking notches very carefully (less said .....!), and probably most important - "do NOT procrastinate when sewing for occasions"

but I hope to avoid making another jacket for quite a while.

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