Roll the Die: Nummer

 The die roll:

So!  The project: Use some Ikea "Britten Nummer" fabric to make another Burda 6800

And this time I made it right!

My issue with the previous two Burda 6800s I made was that I did not notice the marks on the pattern, or the bit of pattern direction illustration, indicating that there should have been an offset from the bottom of the center front/facings section compared to the rest of the pieces.  Since I hadn't noticed, I assumed they should have been aligned; the first version I made, I managed to ease the extra length into the curves of the seams, and I noticed that there was something off about the way the zipper ended up very rippled.  I knew it was because of bias issues, but I suspected it was regular mishandling and not a mistake caused by missing markings and instructions.  I was also extremely baffled when the lining ended up so short.

When I made the second version earlier this year, I noticed the offset in the instructions...after cutting things out with pattern  matching that assumed the bottom edges should line up, so I had to make the same construction error.

But!  This time!  I was prepared for the offset and managed to recognize that I had transferred waist markings to the traced pattern that would help line everything up. I should probably be embarrassed that was a surprise.

I had two yards of this 60" Ikea fabric (part of the family member destash from a generous friend, thanks again) which was just enough to cut the entire shell as one, without the contrast the pattern expects (and also with narrower lapels.)  I knew there was nowhere near enough fabric to do proper pattern matching, but I figured I could still treat the words as stripes and roughly match things that way, helped by the waist marks.

It worked well enough!

If I had white lining fabric, I would have used it if only to make the imperfectly pressed pocket opening edges less obvious.  It also would have helped keep the seam allowances from being so obvious.

But I did not have white lining fabric, so I decided to use the thrifted glowworm green.  It's not as obviously visible through the shell fabric as I expected it would be, although, as mentioned, it does stand out a bit right around the pockets.

Pockets which are extremely shallow and honestly are probably more useful as design features than as pockets.  But they're design features I like, so I will keep marking the corners with chalk and using a ruler to draw connecting lines on the back of the fabric pieces and still feeling really hesitant to cut through that seam line.

I did my usual edge stitching followed by top stitching, then trimmed away most of the remaining seam allowances so they wouldn't be so obvious through the fabric.

I also edge and top stitched all around the edges of the lapels and collar and jacket in general, which the pattern does not request but that's not going to stop me.

And of course the lining!

Which of course I haven't done the final pressing on the lower fold, but at least that lower fold actually exists.

And in the sleeves, too--finally getting the rest of the lining right helped me figure out things about how the sleeve lining is supposed to behave.

I may eventually figure out how to finish the sleeve lining without the hand stitching the pattern directs, because we all know how much I don't like doing hand stitching, but at least this stitching is in an area that has no chance of being seen during normal wear.

 

 And, incidentally, there ended up being very little need for hand stitching on the jacket body lining when things were sewn as they should be, so that was nice, too.

I made quick shoulder pads again, just to make sure they'd be the same color as the lining so they wouldn't show through the shell fabric 

I made each of them with two layers of batting, so they're fairly lofty. I traced existing shoulder pads to get their shapes right.

The biggest difficulties of this pattern are transferring the markings and just...dealing with all the pieces.  But nothing is challenging, so it all eventually flows together and hey there's a finished jacket!

...with an extremely accidental potentially offensive sequence of number + part of another number very prominently on the back. (I understand that most people probably won't recognize it, but I want no association with it in any case.)

I quickly realized an appliqué would work to cover it.  My first impulse was to make a cat appliqué, but some more thought said a lemniscate would be more appropriate, since, y'know...numbers.  (I only just realized I could have used pi, too.)

I drew the shape directly on the back of the vinyl, using the oatmeal lid I keep to cut the center openings of berets plus a see-through ruler.  I cut the infinity symbol out with scissors then zigzagged it to felt with a layer of embroidery stabilizer at the back.  Then I zigzagged again the width of the narrow prong of the straight stitch foot (because of course I used the straight stitch foot for satin stitching) outside the vinyl and then cut away everything outside that line of stitching.

 

 And then I grumbled internally and whip stitched it to the back of the jacket.  Even Husband laughed at commented on how unusual it was to see me hand stitching so much.

I was happy to find that it was possible to pin the appliqué (through the felt) to the back of the jacket while not catching the lining in the pins, then proceed to hold it in such a way that the lining hung down away from the back so that there was no risk of accidentally stitching through the lining.

Not saying I'm OK with the idea of hand stitching now, but I'm maybe not as opposed to doing it. If I absolutely have to.

And I know there are connotations to rainbow infinity symbols, and possibly gold infinity symbols as well.  I'm much more comfortable being associated with those ideas than with what I was covering up.

Also: the inclusion of the appliqué places this firmly in the realm of an Unwise Sewing Adventure