innards

since this jacket made its debut on the blog last friday it has already seen a fair amount of wear this weekend. even though its leather, and you'd think it might be heavy and hot, its actually the perfect light layer for the cooler nights and windy days we've been having.

as promised, i've collected some more detailed shots of the jacket for you - since i know as sewing bloggers we love to peek at the insides and see the stitches and seams up close!

there's that pink bemberg lining! if i had to do one thing differently on this jacket it would be the lining. here's why: i sewed the lining a little big (instead of using a 1/2 inch seam allowance like i did on the jacket, i used 3/8 inch) which is what i did for my red jacket. however i inserted this lining using the bagged method rather than the hand sewn method i used for the red jacket and i think it looks a bit too big. i know you want extra room in a lining for ease of wearing, but this looks a bit fluffy to me. it doesn't affect the wear of the jacket - no bunching or twisting or anything - but when i look at it inside out it does look a bit floofy.

i pinked the edges of the front draped part and the back facing as a decorative element. i've always had a soft spot for the way a pinked edge looks and since the leather doesn't actually fray it doesn't serve any functional purpose (except the function of making me smile a little - its like a little ray of sunshine back there...)

here you can see how the drape in the front works. its basically just an equilateral triangle thats been tacked on - although its much more secure than that! it doesn't roll around the neck like a traditional lapel, instead it falls from the side of the neck at the shoulder seam.

i used topstitching both as a decorative element and to give strength to certain areas of the jacket. i especially used it around the draped lapel to help ease any strain there. you can also see the sleeve seams here. i didn't use any sleeve heads or shoulder pads in this jacket because i really wanted it to be soft and unstructured. i suppose i could have used some muslin or organza or something in there just to fill out those dimples, but i'm not too fussed about it.

and here's my nemesis... the set in sleeve. as i mentioned in an earlier post - this sleeve draft isn't perfect, but i just needed to move on. the sleeve gets a few funny wrinkles when i wear it, but i can also lift my arms above my head, type on a keyboard, drive, and basically use my arms for whatever i need to use my arms for - like flag twirling. just kidding. i don't twirl flags. but i could in this jacket! so i'll take a few weird wrinkles. will i use this sleeve draft when i make a jacket again? probably not. i'll probably try and draft a new one. but i definitely feel like i've learned a bit about sleeves...much to my chagrin...

so i wanted to say a quick word about some blog administration stuff (snooze fest, i know). after getting yet another comment about how difficult it is to comment on my blog i decided to change my commenting platform. this commenter was kind enough to suggest i download disqus, and i took the suggestion, because honestly, while i know that blogger has the worst setup for comments ever (i mean, can anyone read those obnoxious security words??) i really had no clue that i even had another option! so thank you, theperfectnose - your wise words were much appreciated.

that being said - after importing all my past comments into disqus, my replies are now all out of order! i love reading the comments on my blog and the fact that you all take the time to say hi and leave some kind words here just means the world to me. its really important to me to let you know how much i appreciate your comments by replying - but now all my replies are out of order and not matched up with the right comment!! so if it looks like i didn't reply to your comment, that may not be so! it just might be out of order and floating around amongst the other comments.

anyway, i hope this will make commenting on the blog easier for everyone from here on out!

xx