Little steps in the right direction

I did it! Finally!

Last night, I cut the fabric for my jacket. A very nice black wool suiting. I will cut the horsehair interfacing tonight and hopefully make some small start on contruction. I plan to go for pad-stitching this time around.

Shown in this picture is also the last real change I made (other than fixing the drag line in the sleeve). I attached the bottom side of the front piece, to the main bit of the front, leaving the dart only in the bit above the pocket. This is a nifty little trick which you will often encounter in RTW and also in some commercial sewing patterns. For quite a while, I didn't know how it was done and this is the first of my jackets to have this feature.

The point is, there is not enough room for a seam allowance on the horizontal seams. However, that's OK because a bound pocket will be inserted at that spot. So: a pocket which would require cutting into the fabric anyway.

If anyone is interested, I will try to remember to take pictures when I start sewing those darts and pockets.

For now, I don't have a lot of time and I will have to look up some extra information on hand-tailoring (mostly to make up my mind about which is the best way of doing it...) but I am quite eager to get started. Finally back to real sewing, after so many muslins.

P.S.

About the gloves, I didn't forget, but there hasn't been any progress (want to sew jacket...). But at least, I'll try to answer to some of the questions and suggestions given to the glove post:

- Darci, I am also carefully considering the option of making an 'ultimate' pair of gloves by hand. In thin leather. Even though I know hand sewing leather is a PIA. And I think you might be OK using thin leather or suede for a pattern written for faux stretch suede. Real leather has a slight stretch of its own, it's only the fake versions which either do or don't stretch.

- Marina, it's sort of a mini-sew along. It's me, Carolyn, Darci and some ladies following Carolyn's blog. Posting about it isn't very organised but it would be great to have you sew along with us.

I hadn't thought about tracing gloves yet, but you have a point there. It would also enable me to have the thumb gusset I want. And be a load of work...

- Our Heroine, thank you for the link, I haven't looked yet but I will before I proceed with those gloves.

- Carolyn, I didn't forget about seam allowance. We are, however, using different patterns. One would expect Vogue to use the same basic shape for both, but maybe they didn't. In which case I think your pattern should be our sew along recommendation for fit. About the stretch issues for leather, see my answer to Darci. Your gloves don't look stretched tight and the pattern is written for stretchy stuff, so you should be OK with a naturally slightly stretchy material. Marina was mentioning the pre-stretching to avoid bagginess in relation to tracing existing leather gloves (at least, if I understood correctly)

- gwen, my top-tip so far: if you have Carolyn's pattern as well, the fit on that might be better. If not, stay tuned.