It's about exploring and sharing my creative adventures (mostly sewing these days) ~
~those activities that sometimes obsess, usually inspire, occasionally frustrate
~and always provide a delightful maze to wander through.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Another Marcy T Winner - #1 of 2

If I combine my Marcy and Katherine Tilton patterns and pretend they're a single designer (which they definitely are NOT, albeit there are design similarities), I'm pretty sure that at this point I've made up more of their patterns than any other single designer.

I must like what they do.  :)

This time it's Marcy's V8088, now OOP, and I'm SO glad I have it!   I made up my version of the jacket using a freebie fabric from one of my local sewing groups.   LOVE the fabric print, and even though it's almost certainly a poly/nylon sort of blend, it's thin and fairly breathable, and besides I LOVE the fabric print!  (did I say that already?)

I meant this fabric as a practice piece, and sewed it muslin style (i.e., sloppy basting stitches, unfinished edges), but ended up liking it so much that I took it apart, made my alterations and sewed it up 'for real'.  The results have given me an outfit that is getting a whole lot of wear lately!

The rusts, deep sagey blue-greens, beiges and burgundys coordinate with a lot of other pieces in my wardrobe, and anything that dresses up jeans just a little is a winner in my book!

The alterations:

1.  Shortened it by about 2".   Be careful here!   What I thought about shortening the back was wrong - it's deceptive.  There are triangular side pieces that can easily throw you off - I shortened the back and ended up needing to eliminate the 1" hem on the back piece in order to have it meet the sides.  Definitely do a muslin if you want to change the length!
2.  I cut in the armscye (which is also an oddly cut piece) by over an inch for my narrow shoulders.   I did not change the sleeve cap at all - cutting in the armscye and leaving the sleeve cap as is sometimes works out fine for me, since I really dislike sleeve puckers.
3.  The sleeves have a facing that is turned back to form the cuff.   After I sewed the facing on, I sort of liked the look of turning back the cuff, but leaving the facing free to hang down.   So I sewed a hem on the end of the facing, essentially re-designing the "cuff".
4.  I didn't use any contrasting fabrics or embellishments; and I used a decorative stitch to finish the hems and edges (the pattern just calls for a zig-zag)

This jacket has garnered a lot of compliments, no matter what I pair it with - a definite winner!


I immediately set to work on making a version in what was to be my Final Fashion Fabric - it's another winner, but I don't have pics yet.   That post will be coming up soon....

Isn't it fun when a muslin/practice piece/toile ends up being a wardrobe winner?   Have you had unexpected successes like that?   Feel free to link your success stories in your comments...I'll add them to the post, if you would like :)

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love this. You will get lots of mileage out of it for sure!

Linda T said...

Oh, this is WONDERFUL! Love the fabric and glad it turned out so well for you. It looks fabulous from here!

Margy said...

One of my favorite MT patterns. I have made MANY of these. Your top is FABULOUS. How can you top this?

shams said...

Beautiful, JillyBe. And it looks even nicer in person!

Dilliander said...

Totally fabulous Jilly!

Mary said...

The fabric is wonderful and perfect for this design. I love this jacket on you-the colors and style are so "you".

Karin said...

This is a winner! I love anything that will dress up jeans too. It the right sort of pattern for such a pretty and interesting piece of fabric.

prttynpnk said...

Total winner! The colors, the shape- lovely!

RhondaBuss said...

Love the jacket. Now, you have my mind racing as to how we can combine the two names, maybe, Marcine Patterns?!! You know, like how they combine celebrity names and make them one i.e. "tomcat" for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. But wait, that ended badly, so maybe we had just better keep them separate and allow them to go on creating lovely patterns :)

Martha said...

Commented on PR but just had to see and read and gush more. Great piece.

Andrea said...

Beautiful!

Louisa said...

What a lovely print! That is a perfect layering piece.

gwensews said...

That jacket is so perfectly YOU! It looks great with jeans but would also be pretty with a skirt or over a sheath dress.

Jillybejoyful said...

lol yup....I'll leave them be....

Jillybejoyful said...

I can certainly see why people make it multiple times. I'm pretty happy with #2 already :)

Jillybejoyful said...

Thanks for the lovely comments everyone - I really am happy with this top, polyester and all! ;)

Glenda said...

Gorgeous, and such helpful information, too. Thanks!

twotoast said...

What a great top - I often find that I disregard patterns because of the styled photo (yep, I know, I should also check the line drawings), and then as soon as it is OOP I see a great review . . . . but that is why we have Etsy and Ebay. Right?!

Jillybejoyful said...

Yup....been there, done that....

Goodbye Valentino said...

Great jacket, Jilly! It suits you to a T and I like the exposed facings :)

Carolyn said...

I love everything about your cardigan! It's easy to see why you've received lots of compliments for it :)

me said...

Beautiful jacket/cardigan. Wonderful fabric
Marciae