I thought, now that I have my pants muslin sorted out, that I better finish off my one and only UFO (Un Finished Object) before it was full steam ahead with my pants. A while back I made a skirt for my sister, another garment in my “Sister’s Sewing Projects“.
The fabrics used were both 97% cotton and 3% spandex and were originally planned out to make a dress, so we had lots of fabric left over, after making the skirt, for a matching shirt/jacket. When I look at the flower print I see “newsprint” in the background, don’t you?
I pulled a pattern from my stash, Simplicity 5455, dated 2003. My sister did like to have some changes: shorten the sleeves, add cuffs, shorten the shirt/jacket, add topstitching. We had some of the white print left so we decided to do the collar and cuffs in that. I would have to be careful with pattern placement though as the flowers definitely ran up the fabric.
The shirt/jacket was easy to put together, but since I prefer the neater look of a yoke done with the burrito technique, I chose to do that here and not follow the pattern instructions. As you can see, the fronts, yoke and back are sewn together as usual, with the yoke lining sewn on too at the bottom seam.
The yokes were then placed together and the shirt/jacket fronts and back were rolled up, like burrito stuffing.
Then the yokes were folded over the stuffing and pinned together at the shoulder seams to hold the stuffing inside.
The shoulder seams were sewn together…
and seriously I don’t know how it happens – it’s like a Rubic’s Cube to me – but when you pull the stuffing out of the end of the burrito (sewn together yokes) you have a neat and tidy yoke!
I added topstitching!
I am determined to cover all exposed seams on this shirt/jacket with bias tape so I started with the front facings. Remember I said that the flowers had to run up? Well the piece of fabric that I had wasn’t long enough for the front facings to be cut in one piece so I made them two pieces and covered the join with bias tape. Yes I know this is the wrong side of the facing, no one else will notice it, but I just had to do it. I also had to cover the edge of the front facings with bias tape.
Here’s the right side of the front facing. If it wasn’t for the mismatched flowers you wouldn’t even see the seam … at least the flowers are all running up the shirt/jacket and this will all be on the inside!
Contrast collar and front facings have been sewn on. I have a bit of hand stitching to do to attach the front facings to the shoulder seams yet. I love the bias tape around the edge of the front facings.
Next the cuffs. It was easy enough to cut out the white contrasting fabric 4 1/2″ wide and the length of the sleeve edge. I sewed the one seam in the cuff, folded the cuff in half (2 1/4″) and zig zagged the edge.
I sewed the cuff edge on to the bottom of the sleeve. The right side of the sleeve was facing out at the time.
Then I just folded the cuff up and topstitched the bottom edge. I will hand stitch a few stitches by the seam to make sure that the cuff always stays up. I love this flowered print!
Next? Nothing too difficult, sew the sleeves in, topstitching (I love topstitching!), hemming, buttonholes and buttons, and a bit of hand sewing.
Have you got any UFO’s hiding in your house? It’s time to confess! Come on, how many?
Happy Sewing!