Yes!

It's done. I've finished the jacket.

Sure, I will probably give it another pressing and it certainly deserves a more glamorous photoshoot than this one. But the important thing is this: the sewing is all done. I did the final bits of handsewing last night.

These are just some quick pictures of it, taken when I came home from work today. They don't show a lot of detail, even after a bit of lightening, but you can at least see the pocket and, of course, make out the silhouet.

I hope I can convince E to take some better pictures this weekend (hopefully with matching trousers, but I'm not sure I'll be fast enough at making those).

By the way, what trouser shape would you prefer with this jacket? Now that it's finished, I think it could go with any shape I wear...

This jacket is all about old-school tailoring. There is horsehair in the front and collar, the hems and also in the sleeveheads, to keep those points up.

As a result, there is a ton of handsewing in this jacket, from the basting you've seen, to the padstitching and then some in the hems. For those, I bagged the lining as usual but then, I pressed the facings, added horsehair on the inside and catchstitched the seam allowances of the facings to the horsehair, while catching threads of outer fabric onto the horsehair as well.

Although I can sew very neatly by hand, this was the ideal fabric for it. The dense wool doesn't fray very much and it just doesn't show the stitching on the outside.

I have every intention of going back to regular posting, so I will show you some details of the jacket tomorrow. And then, I'm keen to get started on spring-stuff, I want to show you a recent vintage find, I may do a tutorial of a simple project I'm planning and I may just give away a multi-lingual pattern magazine...

Stay tuned, I will be back soon ;)