Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Simplicity 4789... Done!

I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to finally be done with this jacket. I'm going to start with some cheesy pics I had my hubby take once I was done. In these pictures, I am wearing the new jacket (Simplicity 4789) with the blouse (Simplicity 3789/3990) and skirt (OOP New Look 6159) .












It's an outfit I planned, but the skirt was a letdown because of my fitting issues and the blouse got a little wonky because I decided to skimp and not put in a zipper and also because it was a $1/yd cotton-like poly from Walmart.
Construction-wise, this was very simple. I expected my first jacket to be complicated - especially seeing as I've never done anything with long sleeves before.
It was surprisingly easy to put together. I didn't do so well connecting the collar to the facing or attaching the sleeves though. Inserting set-in sleeves has got to be my pet peeve. I always get puckers. It looks especially bad in the jacket because I have the tab at the shoulder seam, which makes the sleeve seam chunkier for about two inches, then the rest of the shoulder seems to sag. Sigh... I'll get it someday. Practice, practice.

I am sooo excited about the shoulder and arm tabs though! So, so excited! I've ALWAYS loved that design feature, but never been able to buy anything with it because all the cute stuff in stores never has arms that are long enough for me.
I don't own a single jacket with arms that are long enough! The only thing I own with arms that fit is an all-weather trench coat that my hubby has from the army, (and that I adopted into my side of the closet) but it's too long and bulky to justify wearing on a non-rainy/overcast day.

If it seems I'm too ecstatic about a jacket with arms that are long enough... try going through college winters in VT in jackets that are 5 inches shy of your wrist. You'd be happy too! The construction isn't perfect, but for once I finally am covered from shoulder to wrist. Oh, what joy...

I also have a confession to make.
I CAVED IN AND GOT THE 1034D SERGER ABOUT 1 MONTH AGO.
Yes, the frustration of not being able to find the part (stitch finger) I needed got to me. I did what I should have done to begin with - just bought it from Amazon. Didn't hesitate to use it right away either. I finished all my seams for the jacket. No more zig-zag finishes here!
What will I do with the 925D? Well, now that I have the 1034D, I have the detachable part that I needed for it. However, I don't need two very similar sergers, do I? I'm not sure yet. I may give it away to a friend, but I'm not sure how useful it would be to her without the stitch finger. Without it, you can only make rolled hems. I don't know. I'll think about it.

Whaaat?! 11:25 already? I have got to go to bed if I plan to be of any use at work tomorrow. I'll try to post my pattern review sometime tomorrow.

1 comment: