Sewing in Denial: Dancing Circa 1990

In the early 1990s, I had so many scarves made out of this kind of polyester chiffon with lamé brocade sections, so I couldn't resist buying this fabric when I found it in a thrift store

But what would I make from it?  ...uhhh...

You can possibly guess that the fact that I'm posting about it now means I decided to use New Look 6120 for another bomber.

 Honestly, I probably would have considered myself somehow above wearing something like this when I was a teen in 1990--it would have seemed way too casual.  'course, in the world we're enduring right now, it's probably way too formal, so that works out.

I decided to at least attempt keeping the fabric design elements aligned horizontally, so I used up a lot more of the fabric than I would have if I'd been doing it completely slapdash.  I even re-cut one of the front pieces, because it wasn't at all aligned with the other side...which...I didn't realize (because I had tried to cut it out right!) until after the shoulders were sewn.

Now is when I mention that I had decided to do french seams for the shoulders and side seams

with top stitching

So.

I removed those lines of stitching on one shoulder and re-cut the appropriate front, winging the pattern matching spacing and ending up with this

Close enough, especially since it probably won't be worn zipped (if I ever figure out what to wear it with.)

 

I paid attention to the tops of the zipper tapes from the start, and got the zipper installed fairly evenly on the first try.  The neck band isn't finished, just trimmed close to the outer line of top stitching.  I expect may loose threads to work their way out.

I will now state the obvious: I love the look of two rows of top stitching.

Cuffs went in with no problem, thanks to using a lightweight ribbing with enough stretch.  (It's the same ribbing I used for the kiddo's jacket a few posts ago.)

I did finish the cuff and band ribbing with serging, although I did not bother to change the tread in my serger, so it's black on the side that faces the shell and white on the inside.  The white isn't too visible from the outside, and, at a glance, it could be taken for another bit of shine.  Maybe.

As much as I generally dislike sewing synthetics, I think a big part of that may be due to sewing a lot of cheap synthetics.  This fabric sewed beautifully--illustrated here by some more rows of lovely lovely top stitching.

Obligatory back view.

No pockets to view, because I omitted pockets, entirely due to the quandary of the visibility of finishing the edges of this fabric.

So, french seams.  Not something I do much, and it shows if you look even a little closely, but! they're on the inside and obscured by the shiny.  I did the sleeves following the method shared by Male Pattern Boldness a few years ago, which means that, yes, actually, I did use the iron for at least a little bit of this project.

Inside, where side seam meets sleeve:

Looking up to the shoulder seam:

And so we come to the end of the write up of another completely ridiculous sewing project.