Pearl

This is not a new pattern, but one that has languished in stash. Of course, it's from the Sewing Workshop. The envelope includes both the Pearl jacket and the Opal jacket, two very different jackets. I made the Pearl:

The Pearl has a very interesting shape and construction, so it was great fun to make. There is much to like about it. 

The center front piece is really a collar band. It includes a channel for a drawstring that allows you to gather the neckline in a variety of ways. The hem is symmetrical but definitely shaped, as the sides hang much longer than the front and back. There are princess seams in the front and then a back flounce that wraps around to the front. the upper back piece wraps to meet the front princess seams and so there are no side seams. The sleeves are set in and sit right at the shoulder line, something I really like in an otherwise unfitted jacket.

The envelope indicates that you can make this with a knit or a woven. I chose a medium weight linen and size small based on my measurements. I should have perhaps gone up a size given that a knit and a woven fabric (without lycra) are always going to result in a different fit. Sure enough the sleeves were a tad tight when sewn with 5/8" seam allowance. I let them out to 1/4" and adjusted the armscye accordingly. Now they are just right, I think.

Next time I hope to remember to do a forward shoulder adjustment. I see in some of my photos that unless I stand up very straight (and I should anyway!), the front appears to be longer than the back. They should be the same length.

It is not intended to be lined and I like it unlined. I finished the interior seams, mostly with quasi Hong Kong finishing, and a few with a mock flat felled seam. As mentioned above, I reduced the sleeve SA to 1/4 inch. I wanted to protect the seams from fraying and so added a bias strip of cotton batik to the stitching, flipped, folded under and hand-stitched to the jacket with a pick stitch. It's a kind of a hybrid between flat-felled and Hong Kong.

I used a strip of bias silk dupioni for the hems and to cover the seams where the sleeves are set in. My draw string is a bias tube of the linen with little silk bells on the ends.

And then I began to stitch and stitch and stitch. I hand-stitched the hem in place with a running stitch in variegated pearl cotton. I also added some top-stitch in the pearl cotton to the collar area, and sleeve hems. I am totally enamored of the feather stitch, which I've learned is also called the cretin stitch. So I added that to the hem and a bit to the back collar. I also added a tiny basket weave stitch to the upper center back. I think it looks almost a interesting on the back as it does on the front. Such fun!

After finishing it, I decided to add a simple patch pocket, again with hand-stitch and a little feather stitch across the top.

I've been wearing this around the house and thoroughly enjoying it. It is so cozy. I know it would be even more cozy in a beefy knit, so maybe that's next. And how about a vest? Here it is before I set in the sleeves.

Cool pattern. Try it. You'll like it. Or maybe you already have!