Craftsy.com and The Iconic Tweed Jacket

In my recent post, I shared that Craftsy.com was running an awesome sale on their classes.  If you read it, you know I had quite a few classes in my cart and was trying to decide if I should cut it down a bit.  However, it was too hard to choose, so I didn’t cut any classes from my cart.  Shocker, I know.

This weekend, I watched The Iconic Tweed Jacket with Lorna Knight.  There seems to be so much going on with this style jacket right now.  I’m participating (and way behind!) in the French Jacket SAL hosted by Inna at The Wallinna and Leisa of A Challenging Sew.  I also recently picked up Claire Shaeffer’s book Couture Sewing: The Couture Cardigan.  So when this class came out, I was VERY tempted.  At the same time I wondered how much of the information would be a repeat of what I already have available.  In the end, I took the chance and added this one to my Craftsy cart during their fabulous sale.

While some of the material does repeat, a lot of it is still fresh.  Lorna approaches this jacket a little differently in places.  I found myself mentally comparing the different techniques and choosing which I thought would be my favorite method.  To begin, she constructs her jacket using the seam allowance and not by marking the seams as I’ve been shown previously.  I love her method of stabilizing the front center, neck and sleeve hem.

Most of all, I enjoyed her teaching style.  (Of course I’m a sucker for the accent…I thought it might be Irish, but she appears to be British??)  She is very methodical and seems to anticipate the questions you are thinking in your head.  The pace was wonderful, neither too slow or too fast.  Lorna offers great tips along with her reasoning for the methods she chooses.  I will definitely be referring back to this class.

If we’re lucky, Craftsy will have plans to bring Lorna back for other classes!

Another review you might find interesting is Red Point Tailor’s:  The French Jacket courses review – part 1

I also watched most of Angela Wolfe’s, Sewing Designer Jeans, and I finally finished Sandra Betzina’s Pants Fitting class, but those reviews are for another day.

And by the way, did you see A Challenging Sew’s post yesterday?  Leisa is planning a sew along (SAL) beginning in January using the free patterns Marfy has made available.  For all you newbies to Marfy, and to current fans, this should be a fun SAL.  (See previous post for more info on these patterns.)

That’s it for now.  Happy Holidays!

Latest on the Little French Jacket

My grandsons have been keeping me busy this week and I haven’t been able to work on my LFJ muslin.  I’ve been trying to shop for trim and play with design instead.  There is no really good resource for trim here and I really hate to order online since trim can look so different once it is in.  This is what I have come up with so far locally.

The first is a light brown gimp that’s laid on a gray rickrack ribbon.  The choices on the right are two identical trim, one in silver and one in a silver/gold mix.  Of the two I’m leaning toward the silver and gold.  It appears very gold in this photo, but I think in person the mix comes thru better and picks up the two tone on the buttons.  The silver is a little bright on that navy…not bad, but it would have to be a deliberate choice.

And I’m still trying to find a good fitting muslin.  I’m cutting out the Vogue 7975, which so many are using, and another Marfy 2252.  I’m paying more attention to bust, shoulder and chest measurements and comparing to pattern pieces.

The Marfy 2252 came with the 2010 catalogue and has princess seems like the French jacket.  It does appear to be built for shoulder pads, so I will be taking that into account and altering that out.

 

On the left is the Marfy front.  You may be able to see my alterations.  I’ve redrawn the bust to add approximately 3/4″ and vertically sliced the pattern to the right of the grain line and added about 3/4″ there as well.

On the right is the Vogue 7975.  The bust measurements are okay which means the shoulders are going to be too large.  You can see that I have moved that shoulder line in to allow that seam to create a dart.  The double lines you are seeing are the seam line which I have marked and the patterns cut lines.  While I learned to sew using the cut line and sewed that way for decades, I have really grown to enjoy   working from the seam line instead.  I have found I have much better results with seams coming together.

I’ve taken the day off today and Monday and will be working again on those muslins.  I’m really ready to start working with the fabric.

More to come.

(Hashtag for this sew along is #LittleFrenchJacketSewAlong)

Little French Jacket and New Book

Hot off the presses and into my hands!  😀   This is Claire Shaeffer’s latest, Couture Sewing, The Couture Cardigan Jacket.

Amazon will sell these at a more economical price soon, but Taunton Publishers had these in stock and ready to ship. I’m in full planning mode for the little French jacket sew along and just didn’t have the patience to wait. Great delivery time. Taunton did an excellent job.

I am already half way through the book and love the instruction and illustration style.  (Should have shown a few photos..sorry!)  Orderly and easy to understand. Usually I use these as a reference and turn to them about specific problems. This is the first time to actually sit and read my way through a book of this sort. Well worth it.

If you have Claire Shaeffer’s previous couture sewing books, many of the techniques are the same, but I love how she walks us through the steps of putting this jacket together.  I haven’t broken out the CD yet, but I expect it to be as good as her Couture Workshop CD which I have.  I’ve watched it a few times already and have picked up some great techniques.

Seriously, if I could get past the fitting, I would be a happy woman.  The fitting just ends up making me so mad!