VACC part 1a: a birthday present

So despite the fact that I have made AT LEAST four garments for other people (so generous), I have so far not featured any other models on this blog. Mostly that's because I get all excited about giving things to people and then forget I have to take pictures. After I gave my grandmother her jacket (long story, but I did eventually manage to remake it in time for her birthday), I caught myself thinking "it's okay, I can just take the photos when I get home" because I apparently think I still have access to things after I give them as presents to people who live in other cities. Anyway, I was determined not to do that this time, and so this post will contain actual photos of another person. Organised Jen!

I offered to make my mother two garments as a birthday present this year. Well, I offered to make one, but then she picked out two bolts of fabric and I didn't have the heart to make her pick between them. I don't begrudge extra sewing for my mum; she does far more than she should for me and also is one of my best friends in a sharing-far-more-than-we-should way. She picked material for a jacket and a skirt, and I decided to start with the jacket. I still had some reservations about the skirt pattern I was planning to use, so starting with the other one to give me more time to think seemed like the safer option.

And here it is:

The pattern is Simplicity 1467, which seemed to fit most of her requirements. Light, no closures, enough detail to make it interesting without crossing over into weird. It has princess seams, a lightly gathered peplum, and optional shoulder pads that I quickly opted against, because Mum doesn't need any extra structure there. The fabric is an embroidered cotton that we got from Fabric Land.

The jacket is unlined, and I didn't want ugly-looking seams showing on the inside, so I flat felled them. I've never flat felled a seam before this jacket and I really like it as a finish, though I wanted them to be the other way round (flatter part on the outside) and I thought that's what the tutorial I was following was directing me to do, but apparently not. I tried asking some questions online and I am none the wiser about this, so I will need to do a bit of experimenting before I try this again.

Hey, look, an insides shot! Other people seem to do this a lot, so I'm going to try doing it occasionally too because I am a giant copy cat who doesn't really know what she's doing.

Also, this was the first garment I took the iron to after moving. The iron I've been using for the past year was my former landlord's, and it was the WORST. It couldn't press worth a damn but would imprint the pattern on the bottom of the ironing board permanently onto the fabric, the steam function only worked once in every twelve times, and filling the water tank would result in one giant gush of steam and several days of leaking on everything before going back to being way too dry. I never ironed stuff before I started sewing, so this was basically my only experience of irons. Using Patrick's iron, which is just a bog standard one he bought because it was purple, is quite a different experience and I managed to actually press the jacket seams. I could not get the collar to do what I wanted it to do, though, and it's my one regret about this jacket. I did interface it, but I feel like it needs something else and I'm not sure what. Mum doesn't seem to mind, though.

She was really happy with it. It's versatile, casual but still pulled together, and it fits her well (hooray for guesswork grading!). Mostly I think she's happy that she can now stop going jacket shopping and hating everything she tries on. Jackets are really hard to find. Everything that isn't super casual is a blazer, and I'm sure I don't see blazers on enough people for them to be the only jacket available. Maybe clothes shops and I just don't understand each other. 

More insides! Flat felled seams and invisible hem. Yes, the invisible hem is a bit wonky on the inside, but it's on the inside so nobody's going to see it unless I put a photo of it up on a blog for some reason. 

Overall, a success. Hopefully birthday present Round Two will be equally successful. I did the fitting this week, so it should be ready soon. Timing wise I'm not sure if I can get photos of her wearing it, but we shall see. Yay unselfish sewing!