Back to sewing again...

Actually I joined the JAM, (jacket a month) thread at Stitchers Guild,, and I must say the ladies over there have put out some really pretty jackets,,,


Ha ha, I was almost ready to post this and forgot that I didn't put the pattern  info on here, Burda 7634
Material used is  a light weight linen,, the lining is voile..

Well here is my 1st, I am a little behind as this is my first one,, but you know,,,

Ok all the good, bad, ugly, and whatever,,, I have leared a few things sewing this jacket,,

First off the alterations,, I am one of the unlucky ones that I have to make alterations to every stinking thing I make,, bleck....

sleves, I had to add 1/2 in to the width,,,

the side bodice, this was a little more tricky for me,, I am not real good at figuring out alterations yet,, but I  had to add over an inch to the width, then I had to bring the top,   down a half and inch,, you can see this better in the pic below,,

 Ok now for one of the lessons learned,, I have been seeing different sewing techniques on blogs for a while, so I decided I wanted to try one,, Hong Kong finish here I come,, it should have been here I go,, as in bye bye,,, first off,, I don't know if there is a way to do a HK finish on a princess seam,, if there is,, I didn't find it,, because it didn't work too well for me,,,see the wave,,, first off I forgot to pull the bias strip just  a little,, hence the ripple,, but second it isn't easy pulling a bias strip on the inside of a princess seam,,, keeping the seam flat,, so it doesn't ripple, sewing and ugh,, you get the idea,,

 So I had to go back re-sew it while it was pinned, well I didn't sew over the pins,, but darn near it,, then I ironed it good,, so now it looks like this,, not bad...

 Ok details on the HK finish,, you cut bias strips, I made mine 1 1/4 in wide,, you do not cut off the seam allowance of the garmet,,, you put the bias tape to what would be the right side of the seam allowance,, and sew a narrow seam, I think mine was just over 1/4 inch,, I just put the material under the edge of my pressure foot,,, and sewed,,

 Then you turn the bias strip to the back around the seam,,  (a HK finish basically finished a seam just like a serger,, but with a serger you are using thread,, ) and pin, above pic,, see where the pin is,, that is the seam for sewing the bias strip on,, then you do something called stitching in the ditch, basically sewing over the seam to sew on the bias stip,,( am i getting a little redundant here,, ok moving on,,,,

Ok on the back of that seam you have the excess, you trim that off as close to the seam as possible,,,

 Pic of finished jacket,, I must say I am still proud of it,, I have a TNT (tried and true) pattern now,, and that is a great thing,,

 More pix of the HK finish,, ok another thing learned,, HK finishes are a pain,, they are fairly easy,, but they take forever to do,, forever,,

Oh another pic of the princess seam,,,,