Butterscotch Jacket - Vogue 9039

This little flower is a miniature iris and it is always the first flower to bloom in my yard in the spring.

 

Years ago I planted the bulbs randomly in the flower beds.  It is always a pleasant surprise to see them, but this year it  reminded me I needed to finish my jacket before it got too warm to wear it.

 The jacket  is sewn from a lovely tweed fabric in the golden brown color I call butterscotch. Butterscotch is a type of confectionery whose primary ingredients are brown sugar and butter. Family members will be smiling as they read this.  My favorite snack is made by smearing a piece of toasted bread with  butter  and  a liberal sprinkling of brown sugar. Microwave for 1 minute and you have  instant toffee on toast, yum!  Who wants to eat raw chocolate chip cookie dough, when you can eat the creamed butter and brown sugar mixture made in an earlier step of the recipe?   I love the flavor of  butterscotch, but I never wear the color.  For some reason, this fabric kept catching my eye.

 The jacket pattern  I used is Vogue 9039

I liked this  pattern because it was fitted, and the pointed, vented sleeves and the inset corners in the bodice seaming and the collar were style details I was interested in sewing. This jacket pattern looks very similar to popular jacket styles (shown on a lot of celebs) by Helmut Lang about 2 years ago. His jackets were where I got the idea to use leather for the collar.

 Set in corners, inset corners and  inset reverse corners are names used to refer to the same styling detail and they are featured in many patterns. 

They can be challenging  to sew depending on the fabric and the angle of the corner.  There are several sewing method  that turn up in pattern directions and tutorials.  I did some research to refresh my memory on how to sew them and list some of the different methods I found below.

Video-conquering-inset-corners Dressmaker method using organdy to reinforce corner

Blog Post -Inset-reverse-corners   Leisa uses similar technique to the video on ravely boucle fabric

 

Article "Conquering Inset Corners" in the June/July 2002 issue of Threads (#101).


Blog Post - Corner seams tutorial -interesting use of temporary stabilizing on the StyleArc Victoria blouse

 Blog Post - How-to-sew-a-corner-seam   Great pictures, but I prefer to stay stitch inset corner and clip before  sewing the seams

 Video - Louise Cutting   Threads Magazine Insider video ( will have to join or pay small fee to see extended library of articles and videos)  using Steam a Seam fusible tape and topstitching. Lovely, quick technique for sporty look.

DVD - Cynthia Guffey -  If you happen to have her "Corners "DVD in your sewing library. She uses low tack painters tape to mark seams before stay stitching  and takes a stitch diagonally across inset corner. She is my inspiration for precision sewing.

The inset corners were sewn quickly and without incident. The jacket was backed by  a fusible interfacing so raveling was not a problem. I use the easy method. Mark seam lines. Stay stitch inside corner seam along marking,  Clip inside corner, and sew seams pivoting at clipped inside corner.

The issues I had with this jacket, which derailed my sewing  momentum were:

1.Wide extended shoulders  The shoulders were very wide. I found this out when I tried on the assembled body without the sleeves. I reduced the shoulder width by ½ inch, but they were still a bit too wide and required extra interfacing to maintain their shape so they would not  collapse off the end of my shoulder. I did not want to use shoulder pads.

 2.  Sleeves too long. I shortened the sleeves by 1" so that the sleeve edge hit my wrist joint in the front. Yes, the pointed part of the sleeve does extend over the back of the hand. But the sleeve looks better when the front hem is where a normal straight cuff sleeve would normally end. Because the pattern directions have you finish the sleeve hem and vent before inserting the sleeve, I didn’t discover the problem until after I had inserted the sleeves in the jacket. So I had to shorten the sleeves from the bottom, re-cutting the shaped sleeve vent facing. I do not normally have to shorten full length sleeves on Vogue patterns.

 I like the jacket,  It goes well with the slacks and blouse I blogged about  recently.  And I found several other coordinating fabrics in my stash. Another top has been completed and a 2nd one is in progress. 

Vogue 9039 Front

Vogue 9039 collar close-up

vogue 9039 side view