I’m excited. I finished my first lined jacket and learned so much from tackling this challenging project.

I’m also annoyed because it doesn’t fit as nicely as my muslin suggested it would. It’s too snug across the chest. I’m uncertain if this was caused by poor sewing or if the thicker fabric and lining naturally reduced the amount of ease.

All is not lost though. I had my petite sister-in-law try on the jacket and it fits her perfectly…and she seemed to like it, so I gave it to her. It’s one thing for me to like the results of my sewing. It’s a completely different thing to have someone else excited about wearing something I made. In fact, it’s such a wonderful feeling that I’m almost glad it didn’t work out for me!

As if trying to get a woven blouse to fit me wasn’t enough of a challenge, I’ve decided to try a lined jacket. I’m starting with this basic corduroy jacket from the 2/2006 Women’s Ottobre:

I’m determined to work through the fitting challenges in a more orderly fashion than I did with that dratted shirt. So, for starters, I worked up a muslin with the only alteration being one for my sloped shoulders. Here’s how it came out.

I should probably make a narrow shoulder adjustment. Do you think I’ll also need a forward shoulder adjustment?

Swayback alert! Good thing there’s a CB seam. That should be easy to take care of.

I also think I’ll need to make the hip area wider, do a FBA and lengthen the sleeves a tad.

Any other thoughts?

Call me Ahab.

Let me introduce you to my Moby D*ck:

This is New Look 6407, which comes highly recommended by a whole slew of seamstresses on Pattern Review. The pattern has been swimming in the great ocean of my stash for many years now, and, since it’s marked “easy,” I thought I’d be able to whip the thing up in a week or so.

Make that a couple of months. I started out by making the shirt too small. And then I made it too big. (Perhaps I should be tying this to Golidlocks rather than Captain Ahab). To make it “just right,” I thought all I’d have to do is do a simple full bust adjustment. You can see where that got me.

In an Ahab-like manner, i.e. completely obsessed, I worked up muslin after muslin (we’re talking nearly a dozen) until I got the fit as good as I could make it. It’s certainly not perfect. The shirt is a wee bit too snug around the hips and it still falls to my back, but it’s good enough for now, and I’m celebrating!

Here’s a summary of all the changes I made:

* 1″ FBA using the FFRP method

* Forward shoulder adjustment – although the shirt still seems to be falling toward my back. I’ll need to try another method next time…or make the alteration more dramatic.

* Narrow shoulder adjustment.

* Sloping shoulder adjustment.

* Shortened sleeve cap and reduced sleeve cap ease.

* Sway back adjustment. This mostly worked…however, it still bunches there a bit. I’m not sure if I need to make the back narrower altogether or make the Sway Back adjustment deeper or just leave it the heck alone.