Yesterday was the third class for the Jean Jacket. During the week I’d worked on my jacket getting the outside and lining set up, attached the collar, sewn the front seams (top stitched one front seam – I left the other so I could show some constructiton elements to the gals), installled sleeve headers and shoulder pads. Once I was finished I wrote the gals:

Homework:
Here’s what I’d like us to have accomplished before Thursday:

• The outside constructed (with sleeves completed and basted in – sewn in if you think they work)
• The lining constructed (with hidden pockets) and sleeves inserted (basted or sewing – depends on whether you’re happy with the fit)
• Collar constructed
• Lower band constructed – sides seams on both outer band and band facing (don’t sew the bands together – this will all happen when we use the band to finish the bottom of the jacket!)

It seems like a lot but all of it will go quite quickly. With that prep work done, in Class #3 we’ll work on:

• whatever of the above construction work you weren’t able to get to
• put body of jacket and lining together at the collar
• practice a Hong Kong Seam Finish for the sleeve cuff

That will leave us:

• stitching front edges (front panel with front facing)
• adding bottom band
• attaching sleeve cuffs (on inside of sleeves)
• making button holes and attaching buttons (or putting on snaps if that’s what you’re planning on using)

Yesterday, we pretty much accomplished what I’d hoped we would. The gals will carry on – they may even come to our next class (in two weeks) with the jacket done. It’ll be fun to see how their jackets turn out – I know they’re all going to fit quite nicely because we’ve been adjusting the fit as we’ve gone along.

While we were working, a woman visiting the shop watched while we worked – she culdn’t take the class this year, she said, but she plans on doing it next fall! Who knows, we might do this again if there’s enouogh interest.

I finished my jacket this morning:

  What you can’t see are the inner zippered pockets which turned out well.

I’m happy with the final product. It’s comfortable (although a slightly different fit than the other two jackets – go know how that happens since I carefully cut and stitched the elements in exactly the same way!)
This jacket has gone into my closet – my old denim jacket has come out and now resides in the goodwill pile.