You would not know it too look at my shimmery purple beauty named Romy, but she totally kicked my butt! I tried to give up swearing for Lent, but this project broke down all resolve. A sailor would have blushed!
Look at Style Arc’s Romy. She doesn’t look that difficult, now does she? A few seams, a front placket, a collar, and a couple of bellows pockets. Easy-peasy.
Welllll, things are not always as they appear. First off, I was using Seattle Fabric’s Silkara, which is a beautiful, iridescent, highly water-resistant nylon/poly fabric. Perfect for raincoats in rainy Seattle. It also does not press worth a damn. Which is kind of significant when you are constructing an unlined jacket using flat-felled seaming and the fabric ravels if you look at it sideways. I worked on this coat at my ASG sewing retreat, and the actual assembly of the jacket pieces (center front, side front, back and sleeves) was not hard. Just took a l-o-o-o-o-o-o-n-g time because of aforementioned pressing/double stitching on every seam.
Hmmm, but that front placket. Put one side in 4 &%^@#^%$ times before it was “right”,and the other side twice. Where were you when I needed you, peeps? I could have used some expert counsel because as we all know, Style Arc does not overdo in the instruction department. Thank goodness my sewing sister Helen kept me sane, because I was seriously considering murder more than once.
Despite all my rage and hysteria during the process, I LOVE the completed jacket. Yes, I will be emailing Style Arc with a few “suggestions” on how to improve the placket pattern pieces and the instructions. I may even write up a little tute on how others might go about constructing it with less ripping and cursing. Beg me, it will definitely help.
Happy sewing!
Maris