Band Together

 I grabbed Simplicity 3628 from the craft thrift store

with all eyes on view D and its mock military-style band jacket look.

I decided on a gray velveteen from the friend's relative's destash. I did not let the fact that there was not as much fabric as the pattern envelope wanted stop me.

I did hesitate over the discolorations on the fabric, and hesitated to wash it, because, beyond the "will it survive the washing/drying process or not" nature of velveteen, I really did not relish the idea of pressing it.  I went ahead, with the thought that if it didn't survive being washed and dried, then that would make the decision about whether to use it or not, even if the discoloration did wash out.

It did not.

It did, however, come out of the dryer completely wrinkle-free, so I decided to go ahead and use it.

I'm going to start by saying that a lot of the reviews I read of this pattern indicated there were issues with the clarity of the pattern instructions.  I never even glanced at the pattern instructions.

View D is supposed to have gathered sleeve caps, but I didn't want that so I borrowed the sleeve caps from view A/B.  View D is also supposed to close with a smattering of hooks and eyes, but I inserted  separating coil zipper from my stash.  View D is also supposed to have four strips of ribbon on each side, going from the center opening over into the princess seams

  and one strip of ribbon on each cuff.

...so...yeah.  I didn't do that, either.

 I delved into my various stashes to see what I had the most of, in terms of suitable trim and metal shank buttons.  I bought three packages of this velvet ribbon from Walmart ages ago, when they had hidden gems of discontinued/mill end trims in these $1 packages, tucked into inconspicuous boxes in the fabric department.  I had an open package of it, plus two still unopened, so I figured that would be enough for me to apply more lines of trim, and more generously, than the pattern called for.

 Unfortunately, my button supply couldn't match the promise of the ribbon, so I settled on five rows of ribbon on each side of the zipper and four on each sleeve, to go with the limits of the largest quantity of matching metal shank buttons I had.

 I clipped into the edges of the fabric where the pattern pieces had the placement lines for the ribbon, then connected those clips with chalk lines.  I made another mark on each line at just over 5/8" from the edge where the princess seam would be, and laid out the velvet ribbon with one edge along the horizontal line, then folded over to a point at the second marks, and returning back to the center front opening.

I stitched from the center to the edge, then back up the other center, then jumped over to the outside and stitched all around.  I left the points un-stitched, so I could fold them out of the way while stitching the princess seams.  Turned out none of the points were close enough to the seam line to have been any risk of accidentally stitching into the seam.  But! If they had been, it would have been fine.

After stitching all the velvet ribbon on the first side, I used the locations of those to align the ribbons on the other side.

I had originally made the mark on the sleeves to reflect the single strip of ribbon the pattern called for, then changed the plan to sew ribbon on the cuffs in horizontal bands, but I couldn't figure out a way to do that that would be doubled and work with the four buttons allotted for each sleeve.  I decided to apply the ribbon, folded to a point like on the front, in four vertical bands.  I used the expanding seam gauge to mark where those would go.  I probably could have spaced them wider, so the bands near the seams would be closer to them, but...enh.

I got all the velvet bands sewn on and thought it still looked a bit...under-decorated.  I would have been happy to add more velvet ribbon, but that lack of buttons meant I would be better off with a contrast that it would make sense had no buttons.  Back into the trim stash to get this fancy metallic textured rick rack...ish trim, bought on clearance when one of the local Walmarts got rid of its fabric department years ago.  (The fabric department has since returned there, albeit smaller.)

I measured and marked between the velvet bands, then made marks on those lines at two inches from the edge of the piece.

I lined everything up on the first side the same way I did the velvet trim (making sure there was a tuft of green at each point,) and attached it in the same order of stitching directions, with the difference being that I stitched everything down this time.

Once the first side was stitched, I pinned both front pieces to my cutting surface (a benefit of it being cardboard), making sure everything was as aligned as possible, then laying out where the rest of the metallic trim should be.

This was, as you may know, an uncharacteristic amount of attempted precision for me. 

I also uncharacteristically decided to use metallic thread for the top of these stitches.  It's not a perfect match, and the machine wasn't exactly happy to deal with it, but I think it was a good decision.

After getting the trim all sorted, I sewed the front pieces to the zipper...which needed a re-do on one side, because, even though I knew the sides would only stay aligned if I sewed them to the zipper in the same direction, I thought I'd try sewing them in different directions anyway (entirely because I didn't want to adjust my zipper foot.)  Guess how that went.

I picked out the basting between the back stitching on each end, pinned it all carefully in place from the other side (zipper down) and stitched top to bottom on that side.  That went well and things lined up...well, they lined up well enough.

Then I assembled the shell (minus the collar) and took a picture to show online friends the progress

...and that's when I noticed the crooked band of gold trim.

Looking close even showed how far from the guideline it was.

I picked out about half the stitching, reloaded the gold thread in the sewing machine, and stitched out beyond the zipper.

It's not perfectly aligned, but it's acceptable.

Then on to assembling the lining and attaching that to the shell along the front opening, then assembling the collar in my usual "press the lower edge of one band up before sewing things together" order, and attaching that so it enclosed the edges of the shell and lining.

I did press a lot of this project, using a washcloth to protect the nap of the velveteen.

Oh, and this is as good a time as any to mention that the limited fabric yardage meant that I ended up cutting the collar pieces 90° off-grain.  I know you have to be very careful of grain direction on napped fabrics like this velveteen, but I figured that "light reflecting differently" on the collar wouldn't be too obvious, since the collar is a distinct unit.  Or something like that.  I think it worked.

I even decided not to top stitch along construction seams.  Not anywhere.

The discoloration is most prominent on the sleeves, although it exists throughout the garment.

I consider this a test of the pattern, and of my ability to apply trim with anything approaching precision, so I actually don't mind the discoloration

or the sporadic abrasions

we'll just pretend that makes it look more vintage.

I used the 'glowworm' green lining just because I hadn't for a while, and I didn't want to use up the purple (or any of the colors of lining I have even less of) for this experiment.

I always judge a pattern by its sleeve caps, and these went into the armscyes pretty easily, so that was appreciated.  As usual, I did not press the sleeve shoulder seams.

I'm sure the pattern instructions asked for hand stitching of the inside of the collar, but I stitched in the ditch from the outside, pinning the inner pressed edge so it was caught in the stitching.

There was some unavoidable hand stitching at the lower edges of where the lining meets the facings--again, no idea if this was what the pattern wanted, but it's what I learned from some of the moto jackets, so that's what I did. 

And of course the 22 shanked buttons had to be hand sewn.  It wasn't that bad.

I quickly tried this on once finished, and the fit seems pretty good.  If I ever decide to try this again--or any other view in the pattern, because whoever had owned it originally cut out every piece for every view, and in size 14, which is what I should wear--it should go smoothly.