Cordova Enforcer

Hey, It's time you and I had a little talk, see.

It's come to my attention that you ain't been paying your "blog reading rent" money. What you think you get these crazy stories for free? Nah Nah, it don't work that way kid.  You fork over some "bread" cause it would be a darn shame if something accidental like would happen to your sewing machine.

Whaz that? Sure I take fabric as payment, why don't you hand over that silk there and some of that jersey knit.  Ahh that's a good kid.  Ain't she a good kid Vinny?  Here have a cookie, you're alright.

Ummmmmm...please pay no attention to the "Faux Badass" above.  Turns out you put a little faux leather in her Cordova and she starts getting crazy ideas and threatening people with hip curves.  She's been properly medicated now so everything is fine. Here's your fabric back, we're still friends right?

OK enough crazy stuff, on to a proper pattern review. 

Pattern
Sewaholic Cordova Jacket

Fabrics used
Royal Blue wool suiting inherited from grandma's stash.  Black Faux leather purchased from emmaonesock.com a long long time ago.   Flower print lining purchased from Gorgeous fabrics also far in the past. The stashed 24" black "metal"coil zipper was purchased marcytilton.com but you can also purchase them directly from Ghee's.  (It's a plastic coil with a fancy silver color on it)

Pattern changes/alterations
1. As discussed a bit in the muslin post on this garment, I went with the single peplum tier option and drafted my own 1 1/2" wide neru collar.
2. The jacket length was increased by 1 1/2" for my own personal hem preferences.
3. Forward should adjustment of 1/2".
4. Sway back adjustment of 1 1/2".
5. The side seams were taken in 1".  This means I had to make a 1" fold in the middle of the peplum piece which was tapered out to 1/2" at the hem.
6. Filled in the back armhole and princess line seam for a broad upper back adjustment.
7. The garment was oddly caving in on my upper chest and the armhole edge was too far out over my shoulder only on the front.  Too kill two birds with one stone I took in the front princess line seam 1/2" right above the bust and tapered to out to 1/4" at the shoulder.

Confessions/Advice
1. I wish there was someone regularly stocking faux leather with a knit back because it was VERY forgiving.  You do get needle holes but the knit backing keeps the fabric from weakening.  I had to rip out portions of the collar several times and the fabric still looked good in the end.  It's a pain to sew on the right side, even with a tephlon foot, so most of the seams were done on the wrong side.

2. I'm not 100% happy with my self drafted collar, it seems to want to cave in around the zipper.  Sewing together the seam allowance of the facing and leather piece did help but not as much as I'd hoped.  In hindsight I probably should have built up the neck line a little more before drafting the collar.  Also, don't face your collar in wool suiting, it's itchy.

3. I skipped the topstitching around the zipper just because I could not get it even .  Too bad, it would have looked good. (I was using the topstitching foot BTW)

4. Must have made a measuring mistake when lengthening the jacket because the center back hem was not long enough to fold all the way to the facing. I tacked in another piece to make it the right length but that added some extra bulk you can somewhat see while wearing.  A better option might have been to cut the piece down to a 5/8" seam allowance and given it a facing of it's own.

5. I sewed an orphan, peeps.  Going to have to make some black pants to go along with this.  Oh NO! Not Pants!

Husband Comment
"It looks like something a character on Star Trek would wear, except for the fluffy crap on the shoulders."  (Not a fan of shoulder pleats it seems, too bad cause I like'em!)

My Final Thoughts
This project benefited from some closet marination time.  The collar and back facing issues where right at the end of the sewing process and I was beating myself up about not catching them in the muslin.  Now that a couple of weeks have past I can say these issues aren't that noticeable. 

Looking at the photos has made me realize this jacket is pretty awesome!  Love the color/fabric combo and the zip front.  The style changes I made suit me rather well, just need to make some bottoms to go with the jacket. Now excuse me, I have to return these legging that have no butt room. (It never ends)

Sewaholic Cordova with GillianCrafts

Twitter pal Gillian, of Crafting a Rainbow, and I conspired together and decided we needed to sew Sewaholic Cordovas for Spring.  She didn't need to twist my arm much, the pattern was already in my stash and it seemed like a good time to jump back into jacket sewing.

Not gonna lie, going into this I had some concerns about the style.  Peplums do not look good on me.  (Why did you buy it then....because it was cute, shut-up!)  Despite knowing that I just had to make up the first muslin with all the fluffy peplum bits.

Cordova Muslin #1 - The pattern as drafted with both peplum layers.

Yeah, not so great.  The peplum says, "Heeeeeey, check out these giant hips/butt."  (Spared you the profile shot, your welcome.)  Also no collar/crew neck has never been a flattering look for me.  I was ready to give up on this pattern, but all my sewcialist friends pushed me to do some more tinkering.

Cordova Muslin #2

I drafted a collar, removed the upper peplum tier, and added more to the princess seams in the back and reduced them some in the front.  Now this had potential.

Further inspiration came from this review where Diana put contrast panels in her Cordova.  Awesome! I had to do that too and the stash had just the right fabrics to do it.

BAM, cobalt wool suiting and black faux leather.  Ohhhh Yeah I'm gonna be a faux badass!

Still have linings and zipper and other such unexciting things to do so no FO's for a bit, I got an Easter dress to finish.