Muslining Piece Three

For the third item in my swap, I wanted to make an unstructured jacket of black boiled wool knit. I initially wanted to make the Hot Patterns Riviera Boulevard Cardigan Jacket, as I had a length of boiled wool with minimal stretch. Hot Patterns describes the jacket as "designed for heavy knits with just a little stretch, so make it in stable sweatshirting, firm sweater or double knits or even fleece (yes, fleece!) Unlined, cropped single breast Jacket has a gentle A-line shape and a classic collar & rever."


I like everything about this except....the issue is the "gentle A-line shape." With my hips, an A-line skirt is a good idea, but an A-line jacket would be a definite no-no. And while it is one thing to fit a pattern, to completely alter the shape of a pattern can be more problematic, so I decided to go a different direction.

Therefore, what to use for my boiled wool knit?

I decided to use McCalls 6041, a "Make it Crafty" lined jacket.


Look past the crafty nonsense sewn onto it and wacky fabrics you will see a jacket with some nice details, including:

1. A full lining
2. Shoulder princess seams
3. A two-piece sleeve
4. Front pattern options for A/B, C, and D cup sizes

Since I paid a bit for the boiled wool, I decided that a muslin would be in order. To make the muslin I purchased some gray sweatshirting from the bargain table at my local Hancock's. For $2.95 a yard, the fabric was more than worth it to make sure that I did not ruin my boiled wool. Here is the finished product:


My main goal with any muslin is to come away with a garment that can actually be worn. I rarely do muslins JUST for fit, unless it is a pattern line I have never used before or a vintage pattern. If it is Burda, the Big 4, or Hot Patterns (the lines I typically make and know how they usually fit) I usually try to make a wearable muslin. The main reason for this is that in the past I have found that a garment that fits in the sewing room, standing in front of the mirror, often does not make the cut after a day of wear. It is only wearing a garment for the day that can reveal issues like a collar riding up on a shirt, or pants that are not comfortable to sit in.

Given this, I went ahead and finished the muslin to wear. Since I was using a fabric that would not need a lining, I stitched the front facing to the front princess seam:


I also drafted a back facing, and added a row of ruffles to the front:


The ruffles I made playing with my ruffler foot for one of my old singers. I just cut some strips of the knit and fed it through the ruffler. To stitch the ruffles down to the front of the jacket, I just sewed right on top of the seam from the ruffler.

Two things that I did find out about the jacket from this muslin is that the sleeves were incredibly long...I had to hem them by 2 1/2 inches. They are also incredibly wide at the wrist, so I needed to shorten them, as well as taper them towards the wrist.


Second, I would prefer the jacket itself to be slightly longer, so I lengthened the pattern for the next version by 1 1/2 inches. Does that mean that I won't wear the muslin? Nope! It's already hanging on the back of my office door.

So, after lengthening the jacket, shortening the sleeves, and tapering the sleeves at the hem...then the question remained, to draft the lapels/revers onto the jacket, so that it would look more like the Hot Patterns inspiration piece? I am currently obsessing over this, so more later!