McCalls 6329 Palmer/Pletsch
This was my first ever lined jacket and what a steep learning curve! At the time I'd never heard of Palmer/Pletsch, never heard of tissue fitting, toiles (though toil I had!), or the revolutionary thought that you can alter patterns to suit your body shape. Why, I had been led to believe all my life that patterns are made to the correct body shape and if you select the right size then the resulting garment should fit. It all sounds ludicrous now...
I used a delicious Amy Butler fabric: Soul Blossoms - Passion Sari Blooms in "Moss" for the jacket. I really wanted to capture the border, and of course this was going to be nigh impossible given the three dimensions of a garment, however, I don't think I did a bad job. I used a light blue "Bemsilk" for the lining. I bought the Amy Bulter fabric online from Fabric.com and the Bemsilk came from Lincrafts.
Once I finished the jacket and tried it on (I didn't try it on during construction) I found that my voluptuous upper arms didn't fit in the sleeve! I set the jacket aside in my wardrobe for two months....During this time I kept sewing, but more importantly I started reading and learning. I bought as many "Stitches" magazines as I could from the YMCA charity shop up the road from my workplace and this was how the scales fell from my eyes and I learned about pattern sizing and personal fit.
I went back to the jacket, unpicked the sleeve lining and outer fabric of the sleeves and resewed the upper arms - saved by Palmer/Pletsch's generous seam allowances and ingenious construction. Suffice it to say the jacket now fits, and overall this project was a great lesson : )
