ModCloth Knock Off - Part 1

Hello everyone, long time no post.  I've been sidelined by a series of minor head colds, social commitments and some secret pattern testing.  I'm not done with all those things yet, but I didn't want October to end without talking about my lined jacket project.

The Pattern Review Lined Jacket contest fell in the month of October this year and it's one that I always sign up for.  Probably because jackets/blazers have always been my favorite garment to complete. I might not wear them much, at least the blazers, but oh do I like sewing them.  Besides some day my child will take CEO mommy seriously because I'm wearing a kick ass blazer.  Shhhhh a girl can dream.

This year I decided use the PR contest as a kick in the pants to finally knock off this ModCloth jacket.

The sleeves, the peplumish back, the asymmetrical closure! I love it all.  I'd also give my eye teeth for that skull fabric but you can't have it all. Sniff, sniff.....psst modcloth suppliers, call me.

Now if I'd been a good "clean" pattern drafter, I would have finally made myself that blazer block and drafted this from scratch.  Inside I decided to change my name to Frankenstein, stitch a bunch of patterns together and then further hack them to shreds. I'm a monster I tell you, A Monster!!! I had my assistant "Frogore" collect these bodies....I mean patterns...for my crimes again science/fashion.
1. For the main body - Sewaholic Cordova.  Princess line seams, check!
2. For the sleeve - Style Arc Gabby jacket. These are the funky sleeve heads you're looking for.
3. For the collar/lapel area - Random Burda Jacket in one of my old mags. Sorry, Frogore was a little hazy on this one. He just threw a collar at me and said, "Make it work."

So I half haphazardly traced these three patterns together and then made a few changes.
1. Made the lapels bigger and similar to shape to the inspiration jacket. Also make the upper collar band thicker.
2. Turned the front shoulder princess line into a armhole princess line
3. Added a back peplum seam line and a front diagonal seam line.
4. Changed the CF to an asymmetrical overlap.
Then I threw it on a table and waited for some lighting while yelling "It's Alive!!"  Ummmm no really, I sewed it together while Frogore ate Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Here are pics of muslin number one.  I didn't put the sleeves or facings on it cause I knew it would need changes....and cause Frogore didn't get me more muslin.

The first version wasn't too bad considering I was just winging this whole drafting thing.  The front was close to the original other than looking a little long.  In the back the peplum seam line was too high.  I wanted it to lay on the small of my back, but it was a few inches above that.  I also felt it wasn't as curvy as the inspiration garment.

I went back to the drafting board and changed the location and shape of the back peplum seam. Then made muslin number two, this time with sleeves!  Frogore finally came through with the muslin once I hid his candy.

This time the peplum seam was in the right location as far as height, but the shape just made it look like a weird butt cut out.  I was also debating about turning the one piece sleeve into a two piece sleeve.

What did I do next?  Did I end up with a fashionable blazer or one that caused the towns people to chase me with lighted torches?  Tune in next blog post to find out!