Red and gold evening jacket part 2

I’ve done heaps on my jacket over the weekend, and I have put heaps of thought into the fastening quandry.

First I put the front and back bodice pieces together and the front and back neck facings. I was very happy with the way the fabric patterning matched up across the panels. Using safety pins, I did a test set in of one of the sleeves (with the shoulder pad in place), to see how well or how badly I had managed to match the pattern across to the sleeves.

Very badly it seemed. It looked to be about as far out as I could have managed it. I had no idea why. I couldn’t figure it out at all. I had pinned a line on my toile across from the bodice to the arms, and matched the pattern to that line for both the bodice and the sleeves. I knew it might be a little bit out, but that much?!

Because I had cut the sleeve pieces with lots of extra fabric around the seam line just in case I did need to move the positioning at all, I set in the other sleeve with the pattern slid up the fabric a bit.

I tried the jacket on again, and inspected. The newly set in sleeve was completely wrong, but the first one was almost perfect. I hadn’t moved it! I don’t know what changed, but something did, and where I had positioned the sleeve pattern on the fabric had turned out to be about right.

So both sleeves went in, and the jacket was really coming together. I bound the front edge of the underneath lap with the gold satin that I had, and I was really disappointed. The gold was a pale gold – one that was actually found on the jacket – but it just looked beige. It was awful. I knew I wouldn’t be happy with it, so Saturday afternoon involved a trip to the local fabric shop to purchase one that had more yellow in it.

While there, I showed the lovely shop assistant my jacket, as they actually advertise the CIAM classes on their shop window. She was really impressed, though as it did not yet have any lining, she suggested lining it. I assured her that I would be lining it. She said that would really be a good idea, as the fabric that I’m using tends to fray really easily and seams can split. I’m so glad she said that, as I went straight home and doubled the seams (as in, did an extra seam line right next to the first) on areas of major stress – the side seams and the shoulder seams. My jacket WILL NOT fall apart!

Yesterday afternoon after church I started on the lining, and now I’m to the point where all I need to to is set in the lining sleeves, and finish off attaching the lining hems on the sleeves and at the bottom of the jacket.

And then there is the fastening quandry.

Frog fastenings are not going to happen. They would be too large and too much. Buttons with buttonholes are not going to happen. It would break the line formed by the binding on the edge of the lap too much.

I even considered buttoning it the wrong way – having the buttonholes on the inside lap, and the buttons on the back of the top lap. It could work, but I do think it would just be a bit weird.

Currently I am leaning towards having three closely spaced self-covered buttons with rouleau loops (in either the main fabric or a matching red) at the top corner of the lap, and then three more at the waist. Any gaping between and below would be stabilised by inside buttons/hooks and eyes/snaps etc to hold the underneath lap in place near its edge. What do you think of this idea?

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions the other day. I mentally made my way through them all. They were very thought-provoking and so useful. You thought of ideas and important points that I had not thought of, so I am very grateful for your input.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll be able to show you the finished jacket, apart from the fastenings!