OMG....Twice In One Week!

My husband has been out of the country for the last week for work, so what better opportunity to get my teeth into a bigger project.  I didn't have to worry about shutting myself away and being anti social, I could just disappear for a few hours each evening and get lost in a project.  Since returning to work, getting lost in a project for several hours back to back, has been a rare treat but one I have enjoyed over the last week.  The results are a Sewaholic Cordova that I love!  I have had this pattern for months and finally got round to making it up because of the threat of spring.  It was on my winter sewing list and if I didn't do it now, it would be too late.

The fabric I chose was a lovely cherry red wool suiting from this op shop fabric haul, that I had intended to make a skirt out of.  When I pulled it from the cupboard though, I discovered that I had 2 metres of it and couldn't bear to cut into it for a skirt which would only use around half of it.  It was begging to be made into a jacket.

As with all of the other Sewaholic patterns I have made, I cut the jacket in size 6.  The problem that I had though, was how to match the lovely cherry coloured fabric to a zip.  I briefly entertained the idea of a regular red zip before dismissing the idea as garish.  A plan then began forming.  I decided to contrast the cherry red with black.  I had black lining from another op shop fabric haul and with the addition of a black zip and some black embroidery thread, I think I had a plan.

Initially I had my doubts about the success of this jacket.  It really didn't fit me well at all.  The shoulders were too wide, it was baggy and shapeless in the back, side insets were badly shaped at the back and the sleeves were just plain wide and baggy.  It was looking like a big alteration was in order to even get this jacket any where near wearable.  Oh dear, my lovely cherry wool may well have been better made into a skirt!  Just as well then that my husband was away and I had both the time and patience to remedy it.

The first area to get me attention was the shoulders.  I reshaped them removing 1.5cm from the top of the shoulder and tapering out about halfway down the armhole.  I then cut 1cm off the centre front to bring the bust darts in line with where they needed to be. I then inserted the zip so I could turn my attention to the back.  I did a sway back adjustment to the centre back seam and unpicked the last 10cm of the curved inset where it stuck out at an odd angle, and reshaped the inset to fit into the back of the jacket nicely.  My attention now turned to the sleeves.  I removed 1cm from the sleeve seams tapering up to the armhole. 

With the adjustments complete, I was ready for a little embellishment.  This was the most time consuming part of the entire project.  Using three threads of black embroidery thread I hand stitched a row of decorative stitching around the curved insets before stitching up the zip and around the neck.  The sleeve hems, the jacket hem were all hand stitched as well as the lining and lining sleeve hem.  A couple of late nights, and a bit of television later, and my Cordova was complete.  I have to say, I think this may be my all time favourite jacket and this pattern has gone from a never again to a tnt in the course of one jacket!

I have to make one disclaimer though...the photos above were taken after a day of wear, so please excuse the wrinkles.  They are not a fit issue, merely wrinkled fabric.