Simplicity 4109

Sorry I’ve been absent for so long but life has been so busy the past few weeks! Not only are my classes going very well (yay! and thank you to all of my wonderful students) but I had to cut and sew the upholstery for my son’s new restaurant to boot. His soft opening was on Friday night and I’m so happy with the way the booths and chairs turned out. And, of course, I’m so proud of him to have done so much and not yet even 23 years old.

Now that the dust has settled (only temporarily as I have to decorate for Christmas!) I decided that I needed a quick and easy project before going back to my outerwear jacket. Of course, my project queue is a mile long but this cute little swing jacket from Built by Wendy caught my eye!

I used a hot pink mid-wale cotton corduroy that I bought from Kashi at Metro a few years ago. I interfaced the facings, both collars, pockets and flaps with Pam’s fabulous Pro Sheer Fusible. The pockets are cut on the bias and just wouldn’t behave (they kept twisting) so I had to fuse them. Which reminds me, lately I’ve been reading so much online about not pressing corduroy. Where in the world did that come from? There is no problem pressing (even fusing!) corduroy. I generally press it from the wrong side or steam it and brush it with my hand or a self fabric scrap from the right side. You do not need a Velva or needle board.

Notice that I omitted the 5th button down the front. You really do need that 1.5 space (at least!) between the last button and the hemline. The 5th button just made the jacket look homemade, IMO. And, ahem, please note that the original BBW jacket in the pattern photo only has 4 buttons with the correct amount of spacing at the bottom so I am at a loss as to why Simplicity added another button.

I had overlooked this pattern in the past but it is a real gem. The back neck facing (not shown) is quite large and nicely shaped, the pocket flaps and collar (there is a separate two-piece bias undercollar) are very well shaped and the sleeves go in without a hitch. The pockets are cut on the bias,

as are the sleeves.

Of course, since I am on a mission to bind everything in sight, I bound all of my seams with a 1″ double-fold binder. I wanted some orange (I’m on an orange and hot pink kick) and found this orange/pink/purple Hoffman Bali batik in my stash, yum.

I started with a size 8 and made a 3/4″ full bust, forward shoulder and sway back adjustments. I went back and forth over whether to move the horizontal dart to a vertical dart and the horizontal dart won out because it’s barely noticeable when the jacket is being worn. A vertical dart in corduroy is a bit more fussy since you want to avoid a wiggly line down the front.

Okay, now it’s back to work on the outerwear jacket in between getting my Christmas decorations up and planning my Thanksgiving menu!

Yes, I know this is jacket #11 (woohoo) but I have at least three more jackets that I want to complete before years’ end! And, lucky me, Ann found a chiffon to match the red charmeuse for my Milly blouse so I have to squeeze that in before the big party!