The felted sweater jacket Vogue 1385

My personal Richard Avedon was not around today. That meant two things. First, I had the day to myself and second, there was no one to take my pics but me. I tried the old backward mirror trick and did not do well. but I have one photo that will give you an idea of how the muslin has worked out. It actually fit rather well  with the issues being in the back. I need to do a swayback adjustment and cut a smaller size for the back  as you can well see in this awful photo taken in my basement with the only full length mirror I own. Please tell me everyone's basement looks like this. 

The front of the jacket fit not too badly . The dress form is my clone. My previous issues with Betzina patterns is in the sleeve shoulder neck area. If I cut the smallest size of her's like I cut everyone else's smallest size and then adjust, well, her patterns are so tight in that area that they are completely unwearable. This size C proves that out as the upper chest area fits quite good on myself. I don't get why. I am very narrow shouldered and this  is her equivalent of a size fourteen, something I have never even come close to in patterns. I have to adjust down those size sixes I get from other pattern companies/designers for my narrow shoulders. This one fit really smoothly in that area (eye roll). But below the black line it is large. The bust is at the apex but the width is too much. So, I will cut the size C in the neck shoulder regions, cut a smaller size for the torso, and I am also going to cut this much shorter, about 8 inches. It looks much better as a short jacket with my proportions. 

                           

Now that the muslin is together I am firming up my other additions to the design. I think I am going to overstitch all the darts with a strip of the felted wool and a triple zigzag stitch to secure it down, all on the outside. The red lines show what I am thinking. Those are all darts. With the fabric being all one color, and no closure, the design really needs some further textural embellishiment and I think this is it. Creating your own look is an ever evolving process and this "strip dart" thing is today's brilliant idea. Tomorrow may be a whole different story. Do you work like that, creating as you go along? I always have a vision but remain totally open to change and my design ideas are ever evolving until a garment is completely finished. 

Isn't this ruffled neckline fabulous? I am also thinking of adding a center back seam to help with the swayback issues and doing the darted strip on the back as well. 

You can really see how large the torso and sleeves are in this pic. I do like those darted sleeve cuffs a lot. I am going to remove a tiny bit of ease from the sleeves but will keep the ruffle for the cuff and I plan on making them a bit shorter, more 3/4 length. 

So that is where we are in the fitting and design process for this garment. 

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And what on earth is this mess above?  Some years back I picked up the perfect light for my sewing room. It was a floor lamp, had three lamps that were adjustable, and was marked "FREE" on someone's curbside. I grabbed it, brought it home, and its been in my sewing room ever since, lighting up my cutting table and photos on demand. 

Today I moved it aside to get a better picture of the garment on my dressform,  No problem. Once done with pictures, I went to move it back and the lamp moved but this busted hunk of concrete stayed behind, making it now unusable. An unplanned trip to town, twenty bucks at KMart, and I am back in business with the same type lamp I just lost. I looked at the OTT lites at Joanns but found they just weren't bright enough compared to these three lamps on a pole with full spectrum bulbs. I am back in business!!!.............Bunny