My new summer jacket

After having somewhat mixed feelings about how my last few garments have turned out, it was quite a relief to make something that I really love: Jacket 131 from the May 2008 issue of BWOF. It's a little overcast here today in San Diego, and unfortunately, my flashed washed out my gorgeous fabric a bit: an Italian Metallic linen from Fashionista Fabrics. The fabric has subtle little silver threads running through it, and in person, I think that the silver buttons really help the fabric pop. Granted, with the flash, I think I look a little washed out, overall, in this picture, but in person, it's a really cute jacket.

Even better, I feel like I really nailed the fit with this one. There are no weird wrinkles anywhere, and nothing is pulling or feels tight anywhere, and it isn't too large across the upper back or chest. I used the Burda Plus 44 as my starting size and didn't even have to make many adjustments (just an FBA and full bicep adjustment). This is the first time that I've made up a BWOF in a 44, and I think I'll be using this as my starting size from here on out (although in patterns that only go up to a 42, I'll probably play around with that and just add to the places where I need the extra fabric).

This was also my first successful project with princess seams. I'd played around with another pattern that had them a few months ago and through a botched FBA and failing to stay-stitch and clip the seams, I wound up with a pretty ugly wadder. I feel a lot better now that I have something princess seamed under my belt...especially since about half of the patterns in my stash have princess seams. With my full bust and generally curvy figure, I think that these are a lot more flattering on me than patterns with only a few darts (or ugh, dartless patterns).

I'll be wearing this jacket open most of the time. I think that it looks particularly cute with a brightly colored top underneath. In fact, this outfit with the green t-shirt is exactly what I'll be wearing when I head out to see the new Indiana Jones movie with my mom in a little bit. (Gotta show off the new jacket to her, too.)

Catching up...

Ahhhh...it's been a bit of a whirlwind of a month:

1. I changed jobs and no longer work at a company that expects me to be on-call 24/7 as a "trade off" for "letting" me work from home (the story behind this is that my old company relocated to the Bay Area but kept me on staff). Yay. Of course, this means that I'm back to commuting into an office again.
2. I've been getting a lot of custom orders through my Etsy shop. It's wedding season, and I knew that my styles have generally been popular for wedding party orders, but wow, I never expected things to take off like this. I'm not trying to brag, but I've been a little overwhelmed with my spike in orders.

I'm still trying to sew when I can. I'm currently working on Jacket 131 from the May 2008 issue of BWOF. I'm absolutely loving the fit that I'm getting with this. It's a little loose in the waist, but I can take it in a pinch, and that semi-empire-waist band hits me right at the thinnest part of my torso. This has been my first successful experiment with princess seams, too, so I'm also really proud of how those came out. Not to mention that the fabric that I'm using for this is gorgeous: Italian Metallic Linen from Fashionista Fabrics.

The only bad thing is that this is a really trendy/distinct style, so I'm not sure that I'll want more than one of these, but with what I've managed to sew so far, this jacket has done a ton for my fitting/sewing confidence. I think you'll be seeing a lot of princess seamed garments from me in the future.

Caity, I did actually finish the dress that I talked about in my last post. The fit is really nice (I'm loving these Burda Plus patterns for those of us who are a bit curvier), but the fabric that I chose turned out to be a bit conservative (in the quantity that it's used in the dress) for my taste. You can read my review of the dress on Pattern Review. Don't get me wrong, it's a cute dress, it just reminds me of something that I'd buy at Ann Taylor Loft...a look that I'm trying to get away from a bit, since it seems like everyone my age does most of their shopping there.