The Painterly JacketMay 31, 2024 As this had been burning a hole in my mind for almost 2 years now, I pretty much knew what I was going to do.
And I'm always pleased when my mockups are at least somewhat close to the final product. In the final product, I did incorporate some of the sleeves in the major prints, and although it may look a little fixed with them matching on each side (to the design
that is on that same side), I didn't like it turned around. I cut a third sleeve to check that out, and it just didn't look right.
So this is exactly how I pictured this outfit in my head. These are the Sailor Sue StyleArc pant, but I call them the Amal Clooney pant.
Obviously, very few of us are as tall and lanky as Amal Clooney, but that doesn't mean we can't have this same look. It means that Amal Clooney, this tall drink of water, has a larger area to play with to find her sweet spots (hem length, jacket length,
crop-top length), than we shorter people who may not ever be close to a tall drink of water.
That's the magic of these Sailor Sue Pants. They are cut so beautifully that they can be worn by those who aren't as svelte as we think. The secret weapon here is proportion. Remember that downloaded tool from a couple of weeks ago? That's the ticket for helping with these proportions. The secret is that because we aren't as tall, our "sweet spot" is much smaller and often
hard to find, but it works.
So what do I mean by we can wear the same clothes as Amal and look good.
Simply put, it's proportion that makes the difference. But there's a consideration with proportion.
This may not look like a huge different between the "sweet spot" (in green) on the left as on the right, but it is. The sweet spot on Amal is a lot larger than the sweet spot on me (I'm about 5'2" a lot shorter). Both these models have the same hip
girth and bust girth, but they have completely different heights, and that's what makes the proportions trickier for the shorter person than for the lanky tal person. This is proportion.
So who would have thought that I could wear that same cut pant as Amal, only I have to make sure that the proportions are correct. I have to nip in at the knee a little and I have to be very careful how I do that. I can't take in too much and I
certainly can jagged the edge by taking in too much and having a V silhouette.
Like this right leg - where I've morphed it to make my point. The left leg looks fine, but the right leg looks like what we've done to it - take it up at the knee only tried to take in too much and caused it to have a jagged profile.
So the leg hangs straight - that's key. This is about that drape that is so key. The next is that I did something fun with the hem. I purposely knew I was going to wear flats with this. The jacket is a summer jacket and meant for a more
casual look, which is not anything with a heel or a boot or anything like that. So I made the pant so it did not have a crush or break in front (nice and smooth from the hip), and yet was longer in back. This is a great look for a pant that you know you are going to wear with a flat all the time.
The design in the back is just as important as the front. The front has the wildflower in a dexter position, which means it comes from the right shoulder to the left hip. Doing the same in the back (right shoulder to left hip) means the design has a
fuller side on the right shoulder, as in the front, and the balance, movement, and space happen in the backside as much as the front. It's not mitchy-matchy, but it moves well, particularly when I can pick up some of the black line drawing of the background of the flower.
Finally the jacket - lots of folks have asked about the jacket. Back in the Ice Ages, when I was first posting about my sewing online through a Typepad blog (that certainly dates me), the gals were
talking about this pattern and how it wasn't a swing jacket (a la 40s), and it wasn't a fitted jacket, and they didn't know what it was. This was from the Burda Style magazines. And I really liked many of the styles they were doing in the 90s, 2000s, and 2010s. And I like reading and keeping up with the blogs on these patterns. One was from February 2009 127.
Here was the big problem was that it looked like the pattern had a waist, but you weren't sure where it was.
What was worse, is that this photo, from the magazine made it look like there was a waist in the jacket (and that super duper raised waist that I love so much), but there was no such thing. This photo was and is deceptive. They had a clip holding this
in at the waist in back.
And the back piece wasn't much better. There were two straight lines in the front, two straight lines from the neck to the hem in the back, and two pleats from the back, which frankly did nothing. But the
collar was to die for. So, I set about reworking the pattern for what I wanted.
I brought the seam in front a little out from the neck so that I could pass that seam line over my bust and waist for better fitting but kept the bottom about the same cause I could insert a little pocket in there, and who doesn't like a pocket in their jacket?
The back was similar; only the close points to the center back didn't bother me, but I also flared that line out and fitted the shoulder/waist area. You always want to keep the same line in the back that you have in front. Hence, the curved French seam in front will be a curved French seam in the back. As in the photo of the picture, I knew I could let the jacket be open to have a nice lapel look without all the folderal of the normal tailored lapel.
This jacket collar was and is fabulous. Now, on some versions, I put the top button and actually wear it with that top button closed so that the jacket can provide some protection from the hard-core air conditioning. But I knew I wouldn't do that with this
look. BTW, this has no clip behind it to give it that artificial waist-nipped look as the Burda pattern photo did.
So, back to patterns. The Burda 02-2009 127 is still available on the BurdaStyle.ru site - if you can figure out how to get the
pattern without the whole magazine and pay in rubles, which might be more trouble than it's worth. But there's another fairly close pattern, only don't fold the collar down - do it as I did (more on that next week - with a video). It will require those front seams to give you better-fit seams from collar to hem - for both front and back and angle them out
so that you can catch your bust point in front and put pockets in the bottom part of the sleeve. Also, don't make the lapel hard - fold it over.
Having a go-to, quick little summer jacket is really fun. I actually have this in a couple of weights because the thing looks so good. When you ask yourself, is it worth doing all this work to have a jacket pattern that you wear repeatedly, yes - it is. I literally pulled it out of the pattern stack, ironed out the
pieces, and cut it out, and because it's unlined, I had it done in less than 2 days.
Having a go-to pattern like this is fabulous, but it also comes with the experience of knowing what looks good and what doesn't on our figures. I'm getting ready to cut out a pair of Land's End Yoga pants I had made right before the hipsters came out of Alexander McQueen in 1996. Before that, pants were made to hit the waist. I loved these pants so much that I copied them after
they lost their shape and still have the pattern today.
Next week, I will show you how I did some pad stitching to really knock this jacket out.
The SewingArtistry Resource Library is designed to contain information to not only make your sewing better, but to aid in you fitting and flattering your shape, size and style. Check it out.
Look for future classes coming in 2024
The Core Pattern Shirt, (one of my favorites for woven core pattern that you can make into a myriad of different
garments),
Basic Knit Top (core pattern class for knit basic tops, shells, tees, dresses, and tunics)
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