You may remember Easter - Hollywood 1025

Hey guys, do you remember Spring time?  When the flowers were blooming and we weren't dying of oppressive heat? No me neither. My current hobbies are switching out ice packs and bitching about being hot. I'm so Delightful to live with in the summer! #summerhater #nordicgenes #whyamIhashtagginghere

We've probably reached the point that blogging about April makes is ridiculous, but I'm doing it anyway. I didn't entertain/confuse the people driving by my picture location for nothing. (I should make a little sign that says, "Can't understand your drive by yelling," for photo shoots. Right now I just assume they're yelling complement about my hats.)

In the tradition of seamstresses everywhere, I used the Easter holiday as an excuse to sew a new piece of clothing.... and to buy a new hat.  Can I blame my mother for buying me pretty dresses and hats when I was a toddler? I'm just trying to recapture that sugar fueled high of matching dresses and sun hats.  If only I could still find chocolate covered animal crackers that come in a pencil box the trifecta would be complete.

After freezing my butt off previous Easter  Sundays I decided to go with a 3/4 sleeve jacket/blouse made out of cotton sateen for Easter 2017. No worrying about finding matching cardigans this year. Ya hear that Mother Nature?! HA!  (Spoiler Alert - Mother Nature took that as a challenge and made it about 87 degrees on Easter Sunday. F'ing Nature. )

But enough about my personal vendetta with weather, let's talk about sewing. You know I like peplum jackets and Hollywood 1025 is the third version to grace the blog.  This design's claim to fame is that the waist shaping is created with inset pieces. I'd eyed this design a couple of times but couldn't get past all the things that could go wrong grading up insets.  Images of too tiny insets going across my bust danced through my head at night. Then BAM, the pattern showed up in my waist size. Huzzah!  Now my insets won't wind up in unsightly locations. There is a bust dart on the front inset seam that needed to be tweeked due to my low bust point.  The angle is a bit funky but that's why we sew things in bold patterns. You can't see a thing!

As you may have expected, sewing the insets is the trickiest part. I like to mark all my seam allowances around the point of the inset with disappearing marker. Then I clip the allowances a bit and do a bit of basting at the point. Then go in and sew the whole seam on a slightly smaller stitch length than usual. There's always one inset that you have to rip a few times but the rest sewed up fine.

Everything else was pretty standard jacket construction minus a lining. :) That might be while I like jacket/blouses so much.

Pattern
Hollywood 1025

Fabrics used
Stretch Cotton Sateen from the stash. (An old Emmaonesock purchase.)

Pattern changes/alterations
No grading on this baby, Hooray!
1. Standard .5" forward shoulder adjustment to shoulder seam and sleeve cap.

Confessions/Advice
This was the first time I've made a peplum style in a heavier weight fabric and hoo boy did that make a difference in the body of the peplum. Duh.  The top is supposed to go with the standard A-line 40's skirt but with the fluffy peplum it didn't look right.  (Because flat butts do not run in my family.) Happily I'd sewn up this dark red circle skirt a couple of years ago and it was the right amount of volume to balance out the peplum.

(I also confess that I made a dirndl skirt to go with this and it was so hideous that it went straight into the the trash. We shall never speak of it again.)

Husband Comment
"Very festive color and I like the slightly puffy shoulders."  - I assume he's talking about the shoulder pads. If so I've successfully brainwashed him into also liking shoulder pads.

My Final Thoughts
If you've been reading my drivel for awhile you may have noticed that I have a fondness for the peplum jacket/blouse combo.  They are more versatile if made in a blouse weight fabric. You can layer them with sweaters and they work with more styles of skirts. It was fun to try a different weight of fabric and it worked well in the outfit.  I probably wouldn't do it again though. Better to save that bottom weight sateen for regular jackets.

Not related to the pattern, but when I walked into the yard at church it was a sea of clothing in blue/white or tasteful pastels. As I was gleefully giggling to myself about my searing red ensemble a lady ran up to me and said, "I was dying to know what you were wearing today because you always look fabulous."  Then I talked her ear off about my hat because I'm bad at social interactions and crazy about hats.

P.S. - There's me on the right at age 3 on Easter Sunday. I'm probably that happy about candy but let's pretend it's about hats.