Polly II

This week in class I managed to do no sewing. My homework for this week had been to cut out my fabric, lining and interfacing of my jacket of which I only achieved the former. I did purchase the lining (more on that in a separate post) and some matching thread but didn't get round to cutting it out (read "couldn't be bothered by the time 9pm on Friday night came around") - I figured I'd need to do my outer shell first in any event. I took some interfacing along to class as I wasn't sure what to use and our teacher gave me some better stuff to use (which was dark grey as opposed to the white I had, which is better for my fabric). So I spent the class shortening the sleeves (who'd have thought - those 'lengthen or shorten here' markings have an actual purpose), making sure I transferred some markings (still some left to do on the dreaded collar), cutting out the interfacing it and fusing it using this awesome machine where you feed it in at one end (no pins) and it spits it out at the other end off a little conveyor belt. It's brilliant! I think it did shrink my fabric a little but should be fine (eek). In the picture on the right you can see Maud modelling the bodice section with the front facings on the inside, all interfaced and ready to go. When I first started I was worried that the weave on the fabric I'm using was actually quite loose and the jacket would be quite flimsy when it was finished. But two layers of the fabric (at the front) plus the interfacing plus the lining is going to equal one pretty cosy jacket!

As ever, I am doing a lot of the easier construction at home before next week (the bodice sections, the sleeves, maybe the peplum, and the pockets) and I will leave the tricky bits (setting in the sleeves, attaching the collar) to the class when I can get some expert help. But when I was doing the pocket flaps I noticed some scrap offcuts of fabric, and how nice the selvedge was (picture left). I thought it might be nice to use this as trim on the pocket flaps, so I cut it into even strips and sewed it on to the right side of the outer pocket flap before sewing the flaps together and turning them the right way out. I might even make some patch pockets to go on the front of the jacket - I think the flaps look a little lonely by themselves.

I've never made patch (or any other kind of) pocket before - I'll need to find a good online tutorial or how-to, and have a look in some of my sewing books. Any suggestions of good places to learn this??