Finished burda check jacket and good news about serger; daughter's winter street dress

This morning, I photographed my finished burda check jacket to go with the dress I previously reviewed here.

 

I managed to get into the garden and DH took the photographs. I didn't get all the photos taken I wanted as not much later, we had huge hailstones and torrential rain, so I was lucky. It was nearly 7pm when I started to write this and the weather was lovely again.  The forecast for the next few days is rain, though. Yesterday, the golf course was closed due to the rain we've had so we didn't get to play our competition.

 

 

My checks are matched perfectly! The headache was worth it! At the front, the jacket slopes down, which is why the hem isn't straight along a line of checks; it's straight at the back and the side seams are perfect - even the interfacing is perfectly aligned. I thought we had a photo of that - but I confess that I had the dress on back to front in the first photos and had to change!! I'll need a label on the back - though the front has bust darts so it should have been obvious. I was in a bit of a hurry to get it done before the rain started again. That's my excuse!

 

I think the jacket looks a little large. It doesn't have fastenings. When pulled together, the size is okay and the shoulder seams are in the right place, but when left loose, it falls off my shoulders a bit and looks big. What do you think? Should I add a fastening? The sleeves appear to rotate forward. I don't know how to fix this. I didn't overlock the seam edges of the armscye as I couldn't at the time but as I used an additional row of twin needle stitching, it will be difficult to get out - and I trimmed it, too, so I don't know if I can still fix it. Any ideas or suggestions? Although I lengthened the jacket pattern by the same amount as I lengthened the dress - to keep the proportion, I felt that the jacket was too long and took off about an inch. I also had to shorten the sleeves about the same amount. I had previously lengthened the pattern, but obviously overdid it.

 

I posted yesterday about the demise of my overlocker. I was premature in reaching this conclusion! DH fixed it today - or at least it's working again after he had a look at it. Maybe it was going to be okay anyway. In the meantime I had been looking at reviews for overlockers and coverlockers. My serger is 5 thread but those aren't common now, unless they're convertible to coverstitch. I don't know if I need a coverstitch facility as twin needle seems fine for me. So do I need 5 threads on an overlocker, really? I do sew a lot of wovens and the 5 thread is good for those seams, but they're not, after all, necessary. I'm starting to sew with knits and 5 threads are not needed for those. I'm glad I don't have to chose just yet. Any advice would be welcome.

 

I finished the Pattern review winter street dress for my middle daughter. I downloaded and cut out the pattern again. I had modified the previous download for me and had already re-altered and further lengthened the torso on the pattern (L/XL) I had cut out for me so that was no use. This time I  used a trimmer which was great and made the whole process so much faster. And I didn't need to piece together all 25 pages as the pieces are more or less delineated from each other. That helped speed up the process - basically, I knew what I was doing this time!  My daughter need a 2 inch lengthening of front and back bodice. Size medium. Once the fabric was cut out, the rest was speedy. I had finished the seam edges using my sewing machine when I thought my overlocker was dead but they didn't look great. I was able to finish quickly with the overlocker today. Then I folded over the hem and finished with a twin needle. I had to cut off another few inches from the length to make my daughter happy - after it was cut out. So instead of being a 'pegged' skirt, it's more of a slight A-line as I also took in further at the waist. The waist looks better than in my version. The skirt length is about 19 inches. She still hasn't tried it on since I finished it so I don't know if it fits. She has reluctantly promised me a photograph. Once I get one (I'm not holding my breath!) I'll post. I used the maroon fabric for mine as that was what she chose - I wanted to see how it behaved - mine was intended as a hopefully wearable muslin. I also have lovely blue fabric and a floral but she stuck to the maroon. When I get around to re-doing the dress for me, I might choose the floral - not sure yet.