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?