Patternmaking Final Project: The Suit

There was a moment there, staring at my textbook on drafting the suit jacket a few months ago when I was actually uncertain if I could finish my Pattermaking course.  See, I went to class for the first month of the semester and then had to take the rest of the class as an independent study.  I visited the professor during her office hours, but by and large, I had to do all the work of figuring out how to draft a jacket (and trousers and knit garment) on my own.  But it's done and I survived (and earned an A!)

Our final project was a suit.  Not exactly the one I envisioned on the first day of class (which had a waistband and back pleats and a portrait collar!) but one that is my own style nonetheless.

I adapted my original jacket pattern to have a feminine rounded collar and lapel, with a scalloped detail at back of the two-piece sleeve.  There are flap pockets, with a welt underneath.

I'm very pleased with how the jacket turned out.  It fits well (and it's comfortable!) and the fabric is beautiful and versatile (from Britex, seems to be unavailable).  All told, the jacket probably took 12-13 hours of sewing time, including taking out both sleeves and resewing them *after* the lining was in place!  Many thanks to my husband for taking the kids to the aquarium so I could have some uninterrupted sewing time on the weekend!

The jacket is fully lined in a lovely aqua rayon Bemberg (using the bag method).  The sleeve hem is created with a separate facing piece.

I have to say, I do not love the skirt.  It was fine for the assignment (it's drafted and sewn well enough), but I don't like the fit or the clearly-not-invisible hem (yikes, it's seriously appalling in these photos!).  To match the jacket, the coordinating skirt has that same scallop at each of the gore seamlines, which I created using separate facing pieces.  Such a pain to sew!

The skirt has a waistband facing and side zipper, with the same aqua lining as the jacket.

Because the skirt has those hem facings, it would be non-trivial to adjust the fit of the skirt, which would otherwise be fairly straight-forward with the many seams.  So, to make it useful, I may just crop it up a bit and then adjust the fit.  But, I have about 2 yards left of the lovely wool twill and plan to make a pair of trousers!

Happy to be done!  Now to start working down my enormous pile of lovely fabrics!

Resewlution 2014, December garments #1 and 2 (not counting a second, undocumented Plaintain tee)