All Lined Up - McCall's 7693

A lot of unselfish going on over here, believe it or not, because I have the whole gang home.  My daughter came home to work remotely during the quarantine so I have her here for fittings and inspiratiion.  I've been able to make some pieces for her and also finish a pant muslin (I've yet to find fabric for those so more on that later) but today I get to share a jacket I made for when she goes back to work.

This is McCall's 7693, a pattern I've had in my stash since a former student of mine made it and it turned out so cute!  This is a simple loose fitting lined jacket with a straight peplum. I made it up in this poly/rayon blend suiting with a light pinstripe.  It's the perfect fabric for this pattern because it allowed me to play with the direction of the stripes, has good drape and presses well.

I cut both the collar and peplum on the bias and the rest of the jacket on the straight grain.  I have an entire bolt of this fabric so I had plenty to play with while I decided the layout (you'll be seeing a few other projects in this fabric - wink, wink).

This pattern was fun to make, went together easily and, with the lining, it was really a satisfying make.  The first sewing step in any project for me is staystitching and I knew since I was cutting so much of this on the bias, it was really important. But I missed one side of the peplum facing and I didn't discover it until I went to put the facing on the jacket.  You can see in the first photo how much it stretched!  Because it was the facing, I was comfortable just cutting it even with the front instead of recutting the entire piece.  I'm happy with how it turned out.  Whew!

The pattern instructions call for the majority of the lining to be hand sewn in, but I knew I'd be much happier with it if I machine sewed as much as possible.  I machine stitched the entire lining together including the sleeves and peplum facing, stitched it to the jacket all the way around the neck and bottom (in a modified bagged lining technique) leaving just a small corner to hand sew (the left pic).  I bagged the sleeves and and closed the sides and it was done!

I didn't have enough of one lining for the entire jacket so I cut the sleeves in something different.  This is quarantine sewing so I made it work and honestly, I probably wouldn't notice and it felt really good to be using what I had.  This is a great first lined jacket pattern for those who are ready for a new challenge. I highly recommend this pattern!

Although I'm happy to have my crew home. no one is happier to have everyone here than Miss Hazel.

I have more projects to share soon!

Happy sewing,
Diane