Plaid Jacket

Well, it's fall in Chicago. And this is not one of those sunny, warm falls we have gotten used to. (A few years ago, the roses started blooming in December because of the weird warm weather.) So, I realized I had been wearing the same jackets and sweaters since I was pregnant with my youngest son. Does this mean that I pick classic styles that last a long time, or that I am in a fashion rut and need an intervention?

I found this in the October Burda, and I decided to make it. It has a hood and 3/4 length sleeves.

The pattern looked easy (famous last words).
I found a great plaid at Vogue and bought it before realizing that it is a stretch fabric, which meant I had to fuse it to other, non-stretchy fabric.




Here's a close up of it and the flannel from my stash that I ended up lining the jacket with:



I lengthened the sleeves and ditched the fake fur collar. This turned out to be the longest I have ever sewed anything except for a wedding dress for a friend of mine. I ended up making up my own directions because I couldn't make the given directions work. They weren't really bad, so much as evil and incomprehensible. I had to rip out almost every seam at least once.
Here is a portrait of the tool that saved my bacon on this project, the lowly seam ripper:



My room was covered with nests of red thread and snippets of fabric. My kids were living on apples and t.v. The extent of my conversation with them was "Be careful, the iron is on!" (My husband was off on a paintball trip, so there was no one to make me see sense. ) After a blur of sewing and cutting and ripping seams out, trying on and re adjusting, I am finished!
Here is the front:









Here is the back:





Now I can toss all of those old jackets and be toasty warm in whatever weather this crazy city decides to send our way. Chicago is not known for playing nice, but I am prepared!

Somewhere in the mayhem, my youngest son managed to lose another tooth. Once I remember his name, I'll make sure the tooth fairy visits him.