Into this jacket:
In just the one day, and with doing the entire thing by hand - no machine involved!
Well, this is how far I got on day #1:
Not too shabby! I was able to get up the next morning and finish it enough to be able to wear it. . .
I really feel like this went pretty well, considering that I did not make a mock-up before cutting in to my fabric! I should have probably shortened it overall just a bit, as I'm pretty short-waisted and there's wrinkling there telling me it wishes to be shorter, but it's nothing too extreme. . . Really, I think the only things I need to fix are to move the shoulder strap, and rotate the sleeve. The pattern (which is the JP Ryan jackets pattern) had me lining up the sleeve so that the sleeve seam lines up with the bodice seam under the arm. This is not correct! If you do that, the nook for your elbow will be sticking out of the side/front of your arm. And that's why you see the end of the sleeve being all wrinkly on me! So, I'll need to rotate the sleeve a bit, and then I think it will be just about perfect.
All in all, I'm super happy with it! And now I know that I can hand-sew an entire 18th century jacket in less than 24 hours. In fact, I kept a little log of all the time I spent on it, and it actually came to 13 hours and 6 minutes! It actually should have taken a little longer than this because I didn't finish the second half of the jacket as nicely as I did the first half, and I've yet to make eyelets. . . Just for kicks, when I go to do all that, I'll have to track that time too!
WOW! Gorgeous jacket!
ReplyDeleteA very belated thank you to you!
DeleteYou are the sewing goddess I will pray to next time I have a problem!
ReplyDeleteAww, thank you so much! (Very belated - sorry!)
DeleteLooks great. I still maintain that handsewing can be just as quick as machine for the experienced handsewer.
ReplyDeleteThank you (very belatededly!) And, I so completely agree!
DeleteTHAT is freaking awesome! I'd still be reading the pattern! : )
ReplyDeleteThanks! It helps that I'd used this pattern before, so I had a basic idea and knew it was close enough to fitting that I could skip the muslin. ;)
DeleteHi, just googled 18th century jacket and your site came up which is great because I am in the process of making the same jacket and am looking for advice on the sleeve! This is the first JP Ryan pattern that I've used. I decided to make a fitting muslin. I am having a hard time fitting the sleeve into the arm hole. There's not a lot of info with the pattern and she says to "pin sleeve to bodice, matching notch in sleeve head to shoulder seam. Continue pinning in sleeve, gently easing sleeve to fit." I am used to pinning sleeve seam to side seam in a bodice but this doesn't line up. The shoulder seam is very set back on shoulder (which I understand is historically accurate. And the top of the sleeve seems way large for the arm hole--I feel I will end up with more puffing of the sleeve than easing. Did you have this problem? Betsy
ReplyDeleteThe sleeve on this pattern is ridiculously too large for the armhole, for sure! I ended up taking out quite a bit of fullness because this goes WAY beyond what you'd have to "ease" in. So, it's not just you! ;) I'll have a rake around for the pattern pieces and see if I can give you some tips on where to pull out the fullness from/how to line it up, etc., if you like?
DeleteDo you want to shoot me an email - I'm jenniloves2sew (at) yahoo (dot) com - and I can help you?
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