Finished Vogue 1465, a Donna Karan jacket

Vogue 1465 is an unlined jacket with princess seams, two-piece sleeves and a shaped front hemline with mitered corners. Wait a minute! If it's unlined, why do I need a meter of lining? Well, for this: 12+ meters of bound seams! 

As I wrote in this post I used a high quality ponte for the jacket and a darker tone Bemberg lining to cut the bias strips for the Hong Kong seam finish. The binding took a while, but I thoroughly enjoyed the process. You could discuss the use of binding ponte seams. It won't fray, or curl, so if you want to cut corners you don't need to finish your seams at all. Yet for me it is taking this pattern from a cardigan to a jacket. It's not just a pretty looking inside, the bound seams add a bit of structure. As a follower on Instagram put it: it helps the fabric to stay authentic in its drape.

This pattern comes with excellent instructions. It's all in the details. The front of the jacket extends into the back collar and the continuous hem is finished with four rows of topstitching.

After doing a test run for the topstitching I basted the hemline first. With four rows of topstitching you can't afford being 1 or 2 mm off or it will immediately show in the spacing between your rows.

Here's another design element that is not only pretty, but also functional. The quilting results in a firm hem that keeps its shape. I've read some reviews of other ponte jackets, like Grainline's Morris, where the shaped hem keeps curling, despite working with a facing. This DK method works like a dream. 

Still sharp after a long day and two train journeys! (Why is it so hard to take pictures of red fabric?) Sorry for the crappy phone pics, but with hail storms going on this will have to do!

When my jacket was finished some unexpected shoulder issues occurred. I had made my usual forward shoulder adjustment, checked the slope angle and everything looked fine. After wearing it for a few hours I noticed some bunching that had not been there before. I checked my fitting books, still no clue. I had a light bulb moment when I studied the pictures. Sometimes they tell a different story than the mirror! When you look at the line drawings the collar follows the line of the princess seams.

Now when I'm moving around my collar moves too, adding up to an inch to the shoulder line! On the hanger the shoulder just drops, on me the extra fabric causes wrinkles on top of the shoulder joint.

I'm not sure if it's an inevitable side effect of the front extending into the back collar, or if adding a smidge at the collar would help. But then I looked at the picture of the original and thought: 'Who am I to outsmart Donna Karan' and from now on it's called a design feature ;)

I should mention the pattern is running large. I usually prefer a tighter fit, but once I started wearing this jacket I didn't want to take it off. So comfortable!

I've been wearing my jacket all weekend. First to have gin and tonic with my youngest daughter, pairing it with straight black jeans.

The next day I joined my other daughter to the ballet in Amsterdam. Changed my pencil skirt for dressy trousers after checking the weather forecast. Sigh.

Don't you love that view from the theater over the river Amstel?

Speaking of ballet: here's a public service announcement! Tonight, February 23 starting at 20.15 hrs CET,  a live stream of Dutch National Ballet performing Mata Hari will be available in 44 countries on Mezzo tv.

You can check this page to see details and repeat broadcast schedules. Well worth watching!

Next up: Vogue 1465, a Donna Karan jacket

Just a quick post to share what's going on in my sewing room. I finished a pencil skirt, a lace top, a warm sweater and an A-line skirt, all Knipmode patterns and all unblogged. We've had an usually warm but wet November in The Netherlands. Whenever I was trying to take blog photos it was either raining cats and dogs or gale force winds would blow my outfit over my head. Forecasts changed from bad to unpredictable now, so maybe in the next few days I'll find a dry spell to drag all my new stuff outside!

Sewing room view

For my next project I picked Vogue 1465, a Donna Karan jacket. It's an unlined jacket with front and back princess seams and two-piece sleeves. Mitered corners, a shaped hemline, five rows of top stitching and 12+ meters of bound seams. Just the kind of project I was looking for!

As you can see the wrong side of the fabric shows in the lapels so initially I was looking for a fabric with different textures on both sides, as used in the original. All I could find were fabrics with different colours or prints, resulting in contrasting lapels. The longer I looked at the line drawings, the more I liked the idea of keeping it simple, to highlight the design.

Luckily one of my favourite fabric suppliers had a high quality Punta di Roma in stock in a lovely deep, warm red. I also bought Bemberg lining in a slightly darker colour to make the bias seam binding.

I was surprised to see how few images showed up when I googled V1465 for inspiration. Just two reviews on PR? (both with contrasting lapels) Is anyone else planning to make this jacket?

Happy sewing!