Details

 Thank you all for such encouraging and lovely comments on the completed hacking jacket. You've no idea how much they mean to me and I appreciate every one. Thanks again for taking the time to read, review and comment.





As a final instalment to the hacking jacket I thought I'd show some little details in construction.

The pink lining was chosen to tie in with the single pink stripe and to lift the muted colours of the wool shell. This was sewn in by hand as you have better control of the fabrics and the way it gathers and pleats as you sew. There is a pleat along the centre back for ease of wearing. I believe there are machines that try to replicate this hand sewn-in look for high end RTW. That's ironic - a machine invented to copy the idiosyncrasies of a human! To the trained eye however, a machine made 'hand stitch' is even, regular and straight - a real hand sewn row of stitches is slightly wonky, uneven length and v. expensive .








The jacket has two back vents. This is one with the lining hand stitched in place.













The lining body is loosely sewn to the arm scythes with a fairly large running stitch and the sleeves are then sewn to this without catching the fabrics underneath.

The sleeve linings are made separately, sewn to the cuffs and then into the arm. It looks messy but I've seen the inside of a Christian Dior jacket and it looks like this too, so I feel that I'm in good company.

 When you cut through button holes you often find the white of the interfacing or canvas behind showing through. One way around this is to get out the colouring pens and with a matching colour, or colours, simply colour in the offending interfacing. Obviously you may have to 'touch up' with wear and cleaning but it does make for a less obtrusive button hole.

 The Jean Hardy 875 pattern that I used has excellent instructions for the welt pockets, including the inside one. I added the tab in an attempt to keep the debit card harder to get at - LOL. My measurements were out when making this pocket that's why there is a big gap between the welts. But it's on the inside so I let it stand. Otherwise the pattern instructions are fairly weak and you definitely need additional sources for the collar, facing and lapels. The style is a good basic jacket though and I'm glad to have it in my stash.


The buttons are antique brass shanks. Larger size for the front with three smaller ones sewn to each back seam of the sleeves as a mock sleeve vent.















After this epic sewing project I'm in a little bit of a lull at the moment even though the new Vogues have arrived and there's fabric screaming at me from the stash box. I think I need a day or too to gather my thoughts and I'm really looking forward to sewing without checks, stripes, plaids or any pattern whatsoever!

Has anyone ever tried to insert a fly zip without pinning or tacking/basting?

The good thing is - I bought a Teflon foot and I'M USING IT!!!!!