Ah, the little French jacket. There are so many wonderful versions that have been beautifully sewn over the years. Many fellow seamstresses have used Vogue 7975 as the basis of their creations, and have very graciously shared their insights, tips and process. Inspired, I spent an hour or so this morning, tracing out View E of V7975. I will be making this with a lovely navy and white boucle that I purchased last summer at Mood Fabrics, during a trip to NYC.
Unfortunately, the fabric is all I have for this project, so I am full stop for the next day or two. I do need to buy lining and interfacing – the latter being most important before I can move forward. The boucle is bound to fray and unravel as soon as I cut into it. After reading many reviews for V7975 from Sewing Pattern Review, I am resolved to follow the wisdom of those who have already made this jacket and block interface the fabric.
What is block interfacing or block fusing? That is where you take a large piece/block of interfacing and fuse to the fabric before you lay out the pattern pieces and begin cutting. I have never needed to go this route with past projects, but do think that this will be a great time to do so. I’m hoping as well that this will eliminate some headaches, and perhaps mitigate stretching or misshapen pieces. I’ll post pictures of my progress as I go…
In the meantime, here is the fabric for my jacket. It looks almost black in these photos, but it is indeed a navy blue.
As you can see, the selvedge has a lovely frayed edge that I am hoping I can incorporate into my cuff, neck and front edge trims.
If I have enough, I will try to squeak out a pencil skirt to match, although that may be wishful thinking. I was only considering the requirements for the jacket when I bought the fabric. Argh…hindsight. They may have it still in stock. I’ll have a look online.
And there are the pattern pieces, traced out and ready on the kid’s old ping pong table my cutting table.
More to come…
Andrea
