Fall Jacket

I was in a Walmart somewhere, and found this great brushed brown sort of faux suede fabric, and bought 2 yards with sewing a fall jacket in mind.  I had picked up this pattern months earlier, and together they sat and sat over the hot summer months.  A cold snap in the weather made me break out the pattern and figure it out.  It was too confusing, so I put it aside.  Then I took another crack at it.  And realized that I was a yard short on the fabric needed for the design I wanted to make.  Shoot.  No way to get more of this fabric-it was very near the end of the bolt as it was, where ever it was.  So, that’s when I decided to accent certain pieces, the collar, the cuffs and the pocket flaps with some wide corduroy of green.  I really like brown and green together.  I read the reviews that others had posted on this pattern, picked my size and cut out the many, many pieces.  Sewing it up took me the better part of a week or so, working on it when time permitted.  Here is my end product:

Whoops!  Forgot to fix my collar before setting the timer for this shot!

Other changes I made (other than the contrasting color), were taking the back in by about an inch on both sides of the piece, using snaps instead of buttons (my buttons I had bought were black, and that would have made a third color, and given it a clownish look in my mind), and leaving out the welts.  This last one was a mistake, the instructions for putting them in didn’t seem to be in the sections I was following, so I went back and added them at the end, hand tacking them to the sleeves at the seams.

It was my first attempt at lining anything, and not too big of a deal, really, even with the confusing (at times) directions.  Overall, I didn’t think it was easy to sew, nor was it really difficult either.  My machine choked and threw a fit now and then, to add to the drama.  The biggest bummers about this piece is that the sleeves are still short, although I did pin and try, and I’m not pleased with the bottom seam, it’s lumpy.  I guess these two things make me just “like” my jacket, and that is disappointing after putting so much time and work into it.  I hope it grows on me, it had such potential.