HI Everyone!
Did you miss me? Boy have I been working on this jacket! It is really starting to take shape and I can finally see the light at the end of this fleecy tunnel! Yippee!!!
I’m almost nearing the final steps so hang with me. The final final step will probably be the sleeve hems as, after a trial fitting, we noticed the sleeves were way way too long and just really big so I’m going to leave those to fix and fit last. And that leaves me to the only thing left on the fronts… the Collar, the Zipper and the Bottom Band.
I have to do all three of these at once as they are all interconnected to each other. It is going to seem a little disjointed here but you all will just have to stay with me. It will all make sense in the end, and it will turn out beautifully!
The first thing is to get the collar sewn onto the neck edge. One of the collar pieces is cut from the fleece and another collar is cut from the contrast fabric. The pattern leaves you with just that, which is fine, but I want to add a finishing technique to the inside collar that uses a gross-grain ribbon. A piece of twill tape could also be used here, as well as a bias piece of fabric but I’m using gross-grain ribbon. So here goes…
I cut out the collar pieces and a strip of the ribbon…
I sew the two pieces together right sides together, then on the unfinished fleece edge stitch the gross-grain ribbon right on top of the fleece, matching the edge of the fleece to the edge of the ribbon. I’m using my #10 Edgestitch foot to help me with this…
Then I pin and stitch the collar to the neckline edge right sides together. The contrast fabric will be on the outside of the jacket and the fleece will be on the inside next to the neck! Nice and cozy like!
Now, here’s where I have to involve another section before I can finish the collar, I need to install the zipper. The collar will get folded back upon the zipper, sewn and then finished but I can’t do that until I get the zipper inserted…
Now here’s tricky part number 1. The zipper is longer than the pattern. I suppose I could have found one online that would be the exact length of this pattern but I compared the length of the zipper to some jackets Jim already has and it’s actually a perfect length. So my decision here was to just shorten the length of the jacket to match the length of the zipper.
So I start at the top and make sure the top most tooth of the zipper sits right at the top of the seam between those two collar pieces (the zipper extends into the collar). Then I stitch the zipper down to about 4-5 inches above the bottom (I have to trim this and allow for the bottom band).
I just chalk mark the location of the zipper end.
Then I sew the bottom band to the new marked end length on the front and back…all the way around, making sure I move that zipper out of the way so I can sew right up to the front edges…
Then check how everything looks on the mannequin…
That’s about it for today. Tomorrow I’ll finish up the bottom band with that elastic cord and those cord stops! Once the bottom band is finished up then the zipper can get finished and then back to the collar to get that area finished! Yay!!!
~Till then
~Cathy
Sewing.for.Life! 
Wow! It’s really coming together now!
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