The Marcy T Jacket She is DONE! (and I love it!)

I have to start this post with a huge THANK YOU to the folks at Stitchers Guild who helped me so much with fitting, and especially ejvc, who took a lot of time (during a particularly busy time of her life) to give me numerous bits of golden info that have forever adjusted my ability to fit.   I am SO glad I decided to take the fitting issues (heavily documented in these previous posts) on this jacket to a new level for me - I think it's going to pay off big time in future pattern adjustments :)

Another thing I'm uber grateful for is Penelope, my Grand Dame 201, who did all of the work on this jacket, including sailing smoothly over the valleys and hills created by a thick and juicy fabric, beautiful top stitching (as always), and a stellar job of getting right up next to the hooks and eyes on the tape I used for the closure, using her super-skinny zip foot:

I just loves me a good old
straight stitch vintage Singer :)

The fabric is of unknown origin (a great buy from Fabrix!), but it's a soft, comfy fleece on the inside, and I believe a wool blend on the striped side.  It's quite substantial, and fairly stable for a knit, with maybe about 15% stretch.

As crazy as it may have been to muslin a knit garment with with a woven muslin, it paid off - both in what I learned during the process, and in the finished results :)

I visited Steph while she was house-sitting near me today - perfect timing, since she's also working on her (awesome!) version of this jacket - I hope she has it finished and blogs about it soon - she's doing some piecework on hers, and lining it - it's going to be beautiful!   Here are some shots she took, in my "tough girl" (hah!) outfit:

The bundled funky look, wearing Marcy T pants V8712,

my fabulous Harlequin Feltworks scarf, and of course,

my to-die-for Trippens:

And the not-so-bundled funky look:

I almost forgot to take a shot showing the side and back fit, showing the results of all those muslins:

Unbelievably, I could have removed even MORE fabric from the back and the upper sleeve, but everything else is pretty good.  You can see how the CB seam comes together here.  I could also still add a bit of a shoulder pad on the left shoulder, so I'm not QUITE finished yet....

Heres a close-up of the CB seam, which is topstitched on each side of the seam.   The stitches really sink into this fabric though!   I also topstitched on all of the collar edges, and did 2 lines of stitching on all of the hems.

Some miscellaneous notes about the pattern:

• The last step on views A and C is to place "one long edge [of the hook and eye tape] along the placement line"....which edge, I wondered.... and then, after just picking one edge & trying it, I realized that it doesn't matter where you place your tape...the placement line is basically just a suggestion, and you can move your tape wherever you want it, thus snugging the jacket up when it's hooked, or loosening the fit.   No need to be anal about this step.
• Once you know your size, or have any fitting issues worked out, this really is a super quick and easy pattern to make up.   Very little work for such a great result!   And even though it's a bit edgy, your fabric and closure choices can make it into something rather sedate, or something wild and fun :)
• The collar ROCKS.   Someone asked if I thought the collar pattern could work if fitted onto a different TNT jacket pattern, and I think it would be very easy to do, simply by extending one of the front pieces to accommodate the extra collar length.   

If you've already suffered through all of my muslin-making and notes on this, you can skip the rest of this post; if you're interested in making this pattern up (and I do recommend it!), you may (or may not) find the following details helpful.  :)

Changes I made to the pattern:
Narrowed the shoulders (I usually need to do this, but the shoulders on this pattern are VERY wide)

• Forward shoulder adjustment (again, I usually do this, but it took several attempts to get it right on this pattern)
• Lowered the Sleeve Cap.   A LOT.
• Adjusted the curve of the sleeve.  
• Eliminated excess fabric from the back at the armscye and upper  side seams.
• Raised the armscye (which is cut very low in the pattern)
• I used stay tape instead of fusible interfacing at the shoulder seam.  Minor, but perhaps worth mentioning.
• Created a back seam, so that I could give the boxy shape a bit more of a fitted look.
• Shortened the sleeves
• Broad Biceps adjustment (the nice way of saying arms-that-used-to-be-muscular-and-are-now-just-flabby adjustment)
• Shortened the jacket even shorter than the short version (and I'm long-waisted!   Go figger.....)   
• Angled the lower hem so that the back was shorter; front was longer
• Folded the collar so that the "other" side shows - I like the contrast of the front flap, so extending it to the collar seemed logical to me.

If you're still with me, here are some shots of my pattern pieces placed over the originals:

In conclusion, I not only love my jacket, but I am incredibly grateful for the fitting lessons learned!  I seem to be ready to soak up more pattern adjustment and fit tips; when I met with Steph this morning,  she gave me another bit of golden fitting info that I can't wait to put into use!

I think that it's like many explorations into new territory - everything can seem so overwhelming at first, because there's so much to learn, and then, as you begin to understand things, the next steps get easier and easier, and the "Aha!" moments show up more frequently.  Have you had those turning points in your sewing when everything started to fall into place with more clarity?

Here's to sharing and receiving as many "Aha!" moments as we can, and giving thanks for such a generous community of people willing to share - I'm still incredibly grateful for all of you :)