Jacket Inspiration
Do you ever see something on Pinterest the internet and you just fall absolutely in love and you know you have to have it? I came across this blazer the other day:
I. LOVE. IT! Those ruffles!!!
The cost? $75. Not horrific...but certainly more than I normally spend on a blazer.
However, even if I was willing to pay $75 plus shipping, it's sold out. I can provide my emailso they can spam me until doomsday and they'll let me know if it comes back in stock. But who knows if that will happen or when. Plus, the warm winter white isn't actually my best color. Something to do with it being too close to my natural skin tone and looking even more pasty than normal...
So like any person who actually likes to sew, I immediately started looking for a pattern to copy this.
And I didn't find one. Not a single blazer from one of the Big Four or an Indy pattern had this type of sleeve. Let's be real - what is special about this blazer is the sleeve!
I'm not someone who typically gives up easily, so I started looking at blazers in this style and shirts with this type of sleeve so that I can marry the two together. Here's what I think might work
McCalls 5668
First off, I really like this blazer too. Princess seams are almost always flattering on my body type. The collar is different but that's not a deal breaker for me. The front edges are squared off instead of rounded, but that isn't a difficult change to make. This particular blazer doesn't have a closure. I can't remember the last time I buttoned a blazer that I wore to work. Certainly not one I'm going to pair with jeans for a more casual look, so no issues there.
The sleeves. That's my concern.
I suspect the armscye on the inspiration jacket is bigger to accommodate how that ruffle is attached. And, how do I draft that sleeve?
So the obvious answer that is, I don't. I choose another pattern with a similar sleeve.
Enter McCall 8083. Or very specifically, the sleeve on View C. It's got that lovely drapey sort of look that I might be able to modify for my jacket inspiration. I see only twomajor minor flaws to this:
1. This is a raglan sleeve bodice. Nowhere close to the jacket pattern or the inspiration photo
2. I have no idea how long that sleeve really is. The new artistic line drawings that McCalls is now producing, while stylistically pretty, are not at all helpful in figuring out how things are drafted.
McCalls has a $3.99 pattern sale going on so I did go ahead and pick up these two. I'll trace out the original pattern so that I can do some tissue paper hacking. Worst case, the combination won't work and I'll have only wasted time. I really like both patterns as they are. View A on that dress would make great lightweight summer dresses, which I live in here in Texas.
However, while I wait for McCalls to mail these to me (COVID-19 is slowing down mail too!) I also came across this pattern this morning while searching for patterns closer to me design inspiration:
So, how close is this to the design inspiration?! The collar, the curved front, princess seams, one button, and a peplum. Even the armscye looks bigger.
It's from a PDF pattern company I've never heard of, Lekala I checked the patternreview.com and if you order from their Russian site (which I didn't even see in my pattern search), the reviews were very mixed. However, if you order from their English site, the reviews were much better. I liked that you could enter standard US pattern sizes, but then adjust them to your measurements. So I was able to customize my height (the standard block is 5'6" so I adjusted for my 5'9" height), my bust, waist, and hip size, which were all off just a little from the standard sizes. I also had seam allowances added because I know I'll forget to add them when I trace out the pattern. So I got a semi customized PDF pattern for $3.19. I figured for this price, it certainly couldn't hurt to muslin this! Now I'm just waiting for the pattern drafting adjustments so they can email me my PDF pattern.
I'm pretty excited about creating this inspiration jacket!
The cost? $75. Not horrific...but certainly more than I normally spend on a blazer.
However, even if I was willing to pay $75 plus shipping, it's sold out. I can provide my email
So like any person who actually likes to sew, I immediately started looking for a pattern to copy this.
And I didn't find one. Not a single blazer from one of the Big Four or an Indy pattern had this type of sleeve. Let's be real - what is special about this blazer is the sleeve!
I'm not someone who typically gives up easily, so I started looking at blazers in this style and shirts with this type of sleeve so that I can marry the two together. Here's what I think might work
McCalls 5668
First off, I really like this blazer too. Princess seams are almost always flattering on my body type. The collar is different but that's not a deal breaker for me. The front edges are squared off instead of rounded, but that isn't a difficult change to make. This particular blazer doesn't have a closure. I can't remember the last time I buttoned a blazer that I wore to work. Certainly not one I'm going to pair with jeans for a more casual look, so no issues there.
The sleeves. That's my concern.
I suspect the armscye on the inspiration jacket is bigger to accommodate how that ruffle is attached. And, how do I draft that sleeve?
So the obvious answer that is, I don't. I choose another pattern with a similar sleeve.
Enter McCall 8083. Or very specifically, the sleeve on View C. It's got that lovely drapey sort of look that I might be able to modify for my jacket inspiration. I see only two
1. This is a raglan sleeve bodice. Nowhere close to the jacket pattern or the inspiration photo
2. I have no idea how long that sleeve really is. The new artistic line drawings that McCalls is now producing, while stylistically pretty, are not at all helpful in figuring out how things are drafted.
McCalls has a $3.99 pattern sale going on so I did go ahead and pick up these two. I'll trace out the original pattern so that I can do some tissue paper hacking. Worst case, the combination won't work and I'll have only wasted time. I really like both patterns as they are. View A on that dress would make great lightweight summer dresses, which I live in here in Texas.
However, while I wait for McCalls to mail these to me (COVID-19 is slowing down mail too!) I also came across this pattern this morning while searching for patterns closer to me design inspiration:
It's from a PDF pattern company I've never heard of, Lekala I checked the patternreview.com and if you order from their Russian site (which I didn't even see in my pattern search), the reviews were very mixed. However, if you order from their English site, the reviews were much better. I liked that you could enter standard US pattern sizes, but then adjust them to your measurements. So I was able to customize my height (the standard block is 5'6" so I adjusted for my 5'9" height), my bust, waist, and hip size, which were all off just a little from the standard sizes. I also had seam allowances added because I know I'll forget to add them when I trace out the pattern. So I got a semi customized PDF pattern for $3.19. I figured for this price, it certainly couldn't hurt to muslin this! Now I'm just waiting for the pattern drafting adjustments so they can email me my PDF pattern.
I'm pretty excited about creating this inspiration jacket!
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