Sew Over It Coco Jacket (Work-in-Progress)

I attended a three part evening workshop at Sew Over It in Clapham to make the Coco Jacket. I initially selected a black and white dogtooth fabric but felt like it would be too similar to the Prince of Wales checked wool fabric I used for my SOI Francine jacket and instead selected a blue wool-mix material with a black lining.

Overall, I really enjoyed the course but didn't quite have enough free-time between classes to complete the homework required for the last workshop (which ultimately meant I have a part-finished jacket) which I hope to finish in early January 2017! It was also great to meet some new sewing buddies, Steph, Susan and Sue. Kate who taught the course was totally lovely and I would be great to attend another class ran be her.

Enjoy some photos of the construction. I improved my skills with a number of techniques including:

• Traced the whole pattern including marking grainlines, notches, darts and hem lengths
• Drafting new sleeves (I added an extra 4cm to the length)
• Sewing two-part sleeves
• Inserting neck facing
• Clipping curved seams to improve the finish
• Using a tailors ham / sleeve ham to iron the seams
• Using a clapper to fix seams into position
• Iron on facings

My original choice of fabric which I then rejected for the blue wool-mix fabric

I still have to finish the jacket which shouldn't take too long (but I am really enjoying some sofa time with loved ones right now). Jobs left to do are:

• Hand baste the right sleeve into position
• Machine stitch left and right sleeve into position
• Hand stitch the lining onto the bottom of the jacket
• Machine stitch the sleeve lining onto outer fabric
• Hand stitch the sleeve lining around the sleeve arm sythe