Stylearc Prinnie Jacket

This past winter I attempted sewing some cooler weather clothing.  Not with a whole lot of success.  The blog title gives it away; I am a summer sewing gal.

I decided that  ponte jacket would be a good addition to my wardrobe.  I bought the Grainline Morris Blazer pattern, but I put it aside because I don't get great fit from the Grainline patterns and wasn't mentally up to the fitting challenge.  Some weeks I am in the mood for fit, others not so much.

I hunted through a heap of patterns, and then decided on the Sylearc Prinnie, which is actually designed for leather, not ponte.  I think ponte was pushing the boundaries, and led to a few problems with the final garment.  You can see the front panels dragging down in the photo below.  The pattern is for a lined garment, but I only used the facings and omitted the lining.  I interfaced the facings, but this left them with a different stretch than the jacket, resulting in some bagginess in the front panel.  After the jacket was made, I tried to go back and interface the front, with only limited success.

I sewed a muslin of the body of the jacket in a woven fabric, and made a fairly hefty narrow chest adjustment, as well as a small bust adjustment.  The shoulders looked fine in the woven, but in the ponte, they dragged down, even after stabilising.  I ended up taking the sleeves out and cutting a narrower shoulder, which made the armhole bigger, and since the sleeve caps had little or no ease to begin with, I ended up having to stretch the sleeves slightly to fit the new armhole, which shows in the back photo below.

The jacket has several press studs along the hem line so that it can be worn draped as below.

I think that this design would sit better on a bustier person than me.  Even after a narrow chest adjustment, there seems to be oodles of fabric hanging about.

Now for some of the details.  I top-stitched the seam lines using my cover stitch machine.  I also top-stitched the pockets so that they would flap about.  All the panels are a groovy feature of this design.  Even the sleeves are panelled, which I guess is to best make use of a leather hide if you were making the jacket in leather.

In all, this jacket feels like a bit of a wadder.  I haven't got rid of it yet, because maybe I just need to work it into my wardrobe more.  I don't even know when to wear it.  By the time I am cold enough for a jacket, I want something that covers my neck and chest to keep me warm.

I don't mind the drape of the jacket when it hangs like this;

I worry that it more often looks like the photo below.  I must have had a blanket this colour in my childhood, because when I look in the mirror, all I can think of is a big apricot blanket.

The white tee in the photos was made using Jalie 2805, which is an oldie but a goodie.