A lady can change her mind can’t she? Well, I certainly can, and have. In this post I made a point of saying that my so called ‘mystery’ Burda M104 jacket  wasn’t meant to have a lining. I put one in and took it out again. It didn’t seem quite finished to me though and even although I wore it a couple of times and it seemed fine I wasn’t quite satisfied with the finish.Well, this time I put it back in again and it was fine. I even played around with the embroidery stitches on my new machine. A long way to go there, I think.

It took me a while to figure out what was wrong in the first place and it was the first principle of dress making – making sure that the grain of the fabric runs perpendicular to the hem/floor. It was the front facing and front of the jacket which weren’t on the true together. This made the front of the jacket swing to the side. Then when I went to put in the lining, trying to force it straight it bagged and looked most peculiar. This didn’t show up so badly without the lining but nevertheless was there.  Such a basic, elementary thing, but so important as we all know it makes all the difference between success and disaster. Fortunately I managed to put it right.

So this time I am taking no chances. I am sewing Simplicity 1609.

I was drawn to it  by pure nostalgia after watching the Children in Need edition of Great British Sewing Bee and one of the Hairy Biker Dave Myers’ make in his  episode’s final makes.[There are lots of clips on YouTube]. It was so reminiscent of the shift dresses I used to make that I just had to give it another go. Sometime ago I managed to get 2yds of quite a loose woven woollen material in a lovely warm red. I think it cost me about £7 and has been in my stash for quite a while. I had a  shift dress in this colour when I was making shift dresses  so I deemed it just right for this. So back to basics;

I tacked both the vertical grain line and the horizontal. All the pattern markings were tacked as well. I considered that as the design is so simple the balance just had to be right to hang well. I also have a matching lining to go in. Whether fitted or a slip type underdress I haven’t decided. We’ll see how it goes. I have to change my overlocker thread to crimson so that I can clean up the seams, not quite looking forward to that, although why I don’t know it is never as bad as feared, why do we hate it so? I also have to source a 22″ red zip, a trip into town I think.

And finally, the almost final stage of the pistachio ensemble. The lining is in, not without a bit of fiddling. I wanted to attach the hem of the lining to the jacket. It just didn’t work. In the end I just hemmed the lining and let it hang free. The material is so temperamental it shows every bruise. I still haven’t decided how to close it. Top-stitching around the edge of the jacket made it ‘frill’, and that little episode took a lot of unpicking, so I am a bit wary of trying a buttonhole. The jury is still out on that.

Jacket; Burda 01/2003/M104; Skirt Burda  8849 ;Top self drafted. Dress; Simplicity 1609