Putting it to Work

Last night I decided to look through my jacket patterns and see if I could find one that cried out to be made up in my new festive red plaid. I knew I wanted one with some shape, because I already have a boiled wool boxy-style red jacket, and it needed to be fabric frugal, because I got the minimum amount of fabric to make a jacket (well, it *was* $28/yd)

I pulled out a jacket that I'd made and reviewed a year and a half ago and gotten tons of compliments; it's Silhouette Patterns' Robin's Jacket.

The black/silver on red mini-plaid would look great w/black binding and black snaps, which I have on hand. I'd already decided I need to lower the shoulders a bit...they're designed for 1" shoulder pads, which feel a bit linebackerish to me. But, when I put on my original jacket just to check the fit otherwise, I realized that the upper chest/front armsceye looks almost identical to the original FSG muslin!

Here's the photo from the review (no, I haven't redone my hair; it's from April '05):


Now, this is not to be a tailored jacket by any means; it's one layer construction. So it will need to be a little looser fitting, just to allow for the fact that there's no lining under it to help it skim the body. But all the same, I believe that when I lower that shoulder, I will trim out a bit of the front armsceye...Oh, wait! That jacket has true shoulder princess seams...I could alter it there! Hmmmm.....

Wow. I didn't expect to use my lessons quite so soon... ;)