Motorcycle Momma* - Burda 135

*No motorcycles were harmed or even photographed in this blog post. This blogger is only a Faux-Badass and the mere though of climbing onto such a vehicle makes her back away slowly until she reaches her knitting and cooking eating chair. Mmmm chocolate chip.

I don't want to jinx anything, but this might be the first FO of a jacket/coat extravaganza that might rival the "legendary" summer of dresses. Or maybe I just have tons of stashed coating taking enormous amounts of space in the fabric cave.  MOAAAR COATS IN EVERY COLOR OF THE RAINBOW!!!!!  Ok, Ok, let me calm down a bit and talk about Burda 135 first. Then we can get into Jacketrama/Coatpaloza....name pending.

In the spring I was being a good little stash buster and looking for patterns to pair with stashed fabrics.  Burda 135 caught my eye because I'm a sucker for a pattern with interesting design elements. This one has a three piece front, quilted elbows/hip area and fun eppulates   It seemed like the perfect thing for the lightweight wool/cashmere coating I'd bought on a whim/epic sale.  I was going knock this out right away but got stuck in the "the pants fitting cycle of hate" until the weather warmed up.  (spoiler, I ended up not making pants but making a gazillion dresses instead.) Well the weather's back to being cool and this baby finally got sewn up.

Now are you all excited to see photos of a jacket where all the interesting details are obscured by the color?   Yes? To compensate I lurked around one of my neighbor's fences to give you a new background to stare at.  PS. I've always said I don't like 80's fashion yet here I am wearing leggings and tunicy sweater. You win fashion cycle, you win.

I'm sassy cause I got my skull stud booties on. It's just a matter of time until I start putting studs on everything.

Obligatory back shot showing that I once again shirked my sway back adjustment. Seems wishing that I don't have one never works.

Pattern
Burda 3/2013 #135 Here's the technical drawling again since my photos don't do the design justice. Not shown in this drawing is that all the princess line seams are top-stitched which makes them even sharper looking.

Fabrics used
The shell is wool/cashmere herringbone coating from Fabricmart.com.  I bought this last December during one of their giant sales and was displeased to find it was rather thin.  A little stash marination and actually sewing with the fabric improved my opinion of it.  The quality of the blend is great and it worked up perfectly for a transitional weather jacket.

The lining is a roll end I picked up from Hot Patterns while they were doing a bit of fabric selling.  I loved that pattern so much that I conveniently "forgot" that ivory looks hideous next to my skin.  The fabric was labeled as a cotton but thankfully is very slippery and works great as a lining. Ivory problem solved!

Lining in coat cause I like flashing my linings *wink, wink*

Pattern changes/alterations
1. I started with the size 42 and graded up the waist and hip area using the method described here.
2. Normal 1/2" forward shoulder adjustment.
3. Sleeve cap forward shoulder adjustment also of 1/2".  Miss Leila clued me in on this trick for one piece sleeves and it works like a charm on two pieces sleeves as well.  Basically you cut the sleeve cap and move it forward the same amount as you did the shoulder seam.  Then cut down the over hang on the front and add to the gap in the back.  I promise to write a post on this with decent step by step pics, but for now just look at my sleeve post change.

5. After making up the shell in the real fabric I found there to be waaaaaay too much ease for the design aesthetic.  In my opinion, which you may take with a grain of salt, a motorcycle jacket should be rather trim and sit close to the body.  Instead the jacket was baggy like a duffle coat, which is fine if you were making a duffel coat, but so great for this jacket.  I took in both side seams removing 4" of ease. I know 4", that's cray cray!
6. This meant each armhole was 2" smaller so I had to get a little creative with sleeves to get them to fit into the new armhole.  I took in the underarm seam about an 1" and then eased in the rest in my sleeve cap gathers. Go wool, enabling my bad sewing!!!
7. The pattern calls for snaps to hold down the eppulates.  I only had gold and colored snaps on hand so I ransacked the button stash for some black buttons.

Confessions/Advice
1. I didn't do a sway back adjustment because of sheer laziness and I "thought" the muslin looked fine without one.  In retrospect I would put a small 1/2" adjustment in at my lower back area.

2. If I had took in the side seams at the muslin stage then I would have reduced the height of the sleeve cap to compensate for the smaller armhole.  Thankfully the black wool disguises that the sleeve heads are puffier than they should be.

3. I feel that the princess line seam on the front is too far away from the bust apex to give you any good bust shaping.  This makes the front boxier than I though it would be looking at the technical drawing. Not a deal beaker but it's a good thing to be aware of.

4. I was thinking about not quilting the hip area but the fusible batting is very thin and did not add much additional bulk to my already bulky hip areas.

4. I've made a decent number of Burda patterns and am generally fine with their basic directions and minimal notches. But on this pattern you had to trace together two shell pieces for the lining.  If I wanted to draft my own lining I would.  When I'm paying for a pattern that says it has a lining I expect to have the pieces drafted for me. Grrrr

Husband Comment
"It would be perfect if it had pockets."  What can I say, the man loves pockets and I did find myself trying to put my hands in the non-existent pockets during pictures. Hey sewing mice, magic me some pockets on here!

My Final Thoughts
I was a little heart broken when I put this on in the middle of the process and realized it was huge.  Thank god my on fly fitting mods were able to size it down without ruining the whole thing.  Now that it's all finished I think it's super cute and can't wait to wear it out.  Another bonus, other than the fusible batting needed for the quilty parts all other supplies were from the stash!  Ahhh such a good feeling to actually use things you half haphazardly spent money on.  Um I mean I successfully executed a project that I planned and bought supplies for.....yeah that's it.

Hey construction guys, what you looking at?  Haven't you ever seen a women set up a tri-pod and take about 50 pictures of herself before? No?