Matching Hair Colour
When I first looked at this photo I realized how right Ethel is when she says one of your best colours to wear is your hair colour.
This is a fabulous and very chic looking jacket. It is a short jacket, so when tissue-fitting, make sure you like the length.
In cutting, I did not make the under collar smaller like we show in Jackets For Real People, since you will be wearing it both up and down.
Be sure to look through the sewing order in the guidesheet before cutting, as it is unusual. Now is the time to decide if that is the way you want to sew it. McCall’s decided to pleat the lining and fashion fabric together for a more “couture” look. However, I think the average sewer may find this sequence challenging. If that is you, use the following sequence instead, pleating the lining and jacket separately:
Pleat the back and sew to under collar. Pleat the lining and sew to upper collar.Set sleeves into jacket and lining. Add shoulder pads to jacket. Sew jacket to lining unit right sides together. Trim, press seams open, turn, press edges, and topstitch. Press up hems.
Heels give a longer leg length with the wide pant legs on the left, but flats work well with the narrower leg trouser from another suit I made a few years ago on the right. The collar can be worn four ways—the three ways shown here and the way I’m wearing it above.
Topstitching
I used to topstitch everything. I didn't realize it was a skill I could lose. I topstitched the two front seams on this jacket five times before I was happy. Here are some tips:
Use a stitch length of 3-4mm. Since you have three layers to go through above and below the pocket, and only two under the pocket flap, go very slowly at the transition points or the stitch length will get shorter.
I found that a larger needle seemed to give me more control so I figured then why not use topstitching thread with a size 16 needle.
I learned how to change the tension on my machine. The upper tension needed to be tighter. I knew this because there were loops in the bobbin thread. Make a test sample using the same number of layers you will be topstitching. Practice until you get tension and stitch length you like. This would have saved me three of those rippings!
By the way, test BEFORE you begin sewing the jacket. Why? I now have regular thread on the pocket flaps and topstitching thread on the seam. I will just say it was intentional. I decided to get a life and not rip out the entire seam and pocket and start over---again.