When it comes to sewing, I'm pretty fearless. I'll tackle any project even if I know think it's above and beyond my skills. After all, if you break it down and take each individual step as it comes, it doesn't seem quite so complicated.
So when my oldest daughter wanted a moto jacket, I threw caution to the wind and dove right in to my hardest sewing project yet!
pattern: Ottobre Design Woman 02/2013 #11 'Biker Style' Linen Jacket
size: 34
fabric: Black Pleather from Jo-Ann Fabrics and heavy black lining fabric (originally from my mother-in-law)
There were several times during the construction of the jacket that I began to wonder what the heck I'd gotten myself into. The sleeve gussets and zippers were not fun to construct. I didn't really understand the directions at the start but went ahead and followed them. I limped my way through the first one and did an okay job of it. Midway through the second one, I googled "sleeve gusset tutorial" and came across this tutorial. Even though the jacket in the tutorial has a seam down the front of the sleeve and the steps are in a different order than the Ottobre Design instructions, the pictures helped to clarify the process for me. The second sleeve gusset and zipper went in much nicer!
The sleeves are set in which was a bit challenging. There again, the first sleeve gave me fits but the second one went in smooth as silk. Too bad I didn't have a practice sleeve to work the kinks out before sewing them to the jacket.;)
It was when the jacket was almost completely done that I had my biggest issue....the hem band. I followed the instructions but the pleather kept stretching and getting wrinkled when I tried to sew the outer hem band to the jacket. I had to rip out my stitching several times and the pleather in that section was starting to look rough. Pins would have really come in handy here! I ended up putting my walking foot on the sewing machine which helped some and topstitched the bottom edge of the hem band. The topstitching really did the trick as it stabilized the band.
So there you have it...my most challenging sewing project(yet)!
