Experiments In Casual Contemporary Style

[Bugbear]

I trimmed the back section of the jacket to the seam allowance, folded up the hem, and it seems to work. I need to get inside of that flap section and trimm down some of the overlapping allowances and put interfacing in the hem across the flap, but it is pinned up and looks good to me.

The fit of the jacket across the small of my back feels good with the pleating back there, and the hang of the front of the jacket is a lot more like a single button jacket designed to not close now.

I have been marking the points of where I want to put the curve and tapered front hem on either side. The curve is starting a little ways below the button and buttonhole that are staying on the jacket.. and I am deciding where to end the taper from the bottom of the curve; possibly at the front-side seam, or close to it.

This jacket has slit pockets with flaps. They are about where I want the bottom of the pockets to be, so I will make patch pockets that end slightly passed the slit pocket. However, I will leave the slit open and let it be an extention of the patch pocket. The flap will come off, and I might put the pocket flap on the patch pockets. The lining of the pocket was actually serving as an interfacing in the hem, so it will be trimmed and sewn to fit the taper in the front.

I do not use bias tape to form the curv of the jacket, rather I sew the curve into a patch of the fabric from the jacket placed right side to right side, then turned. This is somewhat like the jacket is constructed in the first place and it seems to work fine. I could also try to unstitch the seam joining the front and back of the lapel face fabric in the area of the curve, then use that in the same way as the patch. This is exactly how the original curve of the front of the jacket was formed. After the curve is turned, the hem of the taper is then shaped from the bottom of the curve back.

One thing that I will not do to a jacket is try to reshape the roll and length of the lapel, so everything is positioned in relation to that.