Simplicity 2446 - Amazing Fit Jacket Pattern

Progress pic

I've had this pattern in my stash for a few years but never made it until now.  Crunch time came last weekend when I found out on Saturday that I would be having a job interview on Monday.  Now you may wonder why I don't have a jacket in my wardrobe to wear for a job interview.  Well as it turns out I am retired and wasn't expecting this opportunity that fell into my lap more or less out of the blue.  I wear a 14 in big 4 patterns, but my pattern is the larger grouping starting at 16.  Most of my Saturday was spend tracing and grading down the pattern, then making my usual length adjustment of 1" in the bodice.  I wasn't sure what to do with the sleeve, because after doing the math including 1/2" for shoulder pads it looked like they would be ok.  However, experience is that sleeves are often short on me.  I decided to add 1/2" to the sleeves to be safe.  Long story short, even after sewing until 1am on Sunday night I ended up shopping for a jacket first thing Monday morning for the interview because I didn't want to rush the finish and ruin the jacket (especially buttonholes - I already had to redo one on the cuff!).  Overall I am quite happy with the pattern, but I feel that for an "Amazing Fit" pattern it missed the mark on a few things.  I was working strictly with the pattern instructions, and they do give some good instructions on correcting some fitting issues, but I feel that more direction is needed on tailoring a jacket.  I have now got my Singer "Tailoring" book out (yes I know I should have done this ahead of time, did I mention the time crunch?) and I will read this through before finishing the jacket.  I'll post an update once the jacket is finished.

As with many of the Amazing Fit patterns they have 1" side seams to allow for adjustments.  In this case they have you baste the bodice pieces WRONG sides together with the seams facing out and then fine tune the fit.  I am not clear on the advantage to this, when you could baste it right sides together and try it on inside out for fitting.  This would certainly save time by just needing to reinforce the basted sewing lines once you have made your adjustments rather than having to deconstruct and then reconstruct the entire garment.  You mark your adjustments, take out your basting, sew it correctly (right sides together and seams on the inside) and trim your seam allowances to a standard 5/8".  This sounds good in theory, and I did everything as the instructions stated (including the whole deconstruction thing).  However, once I had the sleeves on and the lining sewn in I couldn't move my arms in front of me.  What had felt like a comfortable fit without sleeves didn't have enough ease to allow for movement with sleeves in place.  I was able to let out the two back seams 1/4" each but now am left with 3/8" seam allowances.  Let's hope they stand up to wear.

I had the opposite problem on the front.  I usually make a full bust allowance so I used the "C" bust pattern piece.  It fits fine across the bust and laid flat across the upper bust when fitting.  Once the sleeves and facings were in place, though, I had too much fabric pooling across the upper bust area.  I had to take it in 1/4" on the top part of the princess seams.  LESSONS LEARNED: All in all I think I would have gotten a much better fit from the beginning if I had basted in the sleeves before fitting.  Also, unless someone corrects me here, there is no need to trim the seam allowances in a lined garment.  The full seam allowances would have allowed for more fine tuning.

There is a fair bit of interfacing used in a jacket, and I used my interfacing without pre-treating it in any way.  Mom asked if I had pre-shrunk it, and I had never heard of this.  There is no mention of this in the pattern.  Well, my Singer "Tailoring" book talks about it and I will need to do this next time.  Also I didn't pre-shrink my fabric (I always do but this time I was in a big hurry).  This is important to do, Singer says, because the steam used in fusing the interfacing can shrink my fabric.  My lining was preshrunk because it was in my stash, and everything in my stash has been pre-shrunk.

I LOVE this lining!

The same fitting problems are there for the lining, but even moreso.  Store-bought jackets have a pleat in the middle of the back to give wearing ease.  I have gone back through the instructions and nowhere can I find anything about this in the pattern.  The cutting diagram shows the back piece on the fold of the lining just the same as it is for the fashion fabric.  As this is the first lined jacket I have made I wasn't aware of this ahead of time, so I ended up having to try and let out the back of the sleeve allowances 1/4" on top of letting out the 1/4" in the back seams as I did for the fashion fabric.  I am even more concerned about the lining seams standing up to wear.  LESSON LEARNED (from Singer "Tailoring"): Cut the lining back piece 1" from the seam line or fold; add 1/2" to front and back side seam allowances at underarm area of lining, tapering to waistline (or 1/4" each to side panels, front and back); add 5/8" at underarm of sleeve, tapering to notches.

I will give Simplicity credit that they talk about putting in sleeve heads, but don't really give much of an explanation.  They tell you how long to cut them but not how wide, and don't give adequate instructions IMHO for how to put them in properly.  I will do some research on this before moving ahead (hello again, Singer!).

I eliminated the side seam pockets as I was in a hurry and thought that I wouldn't use them as they look bulky when you put something in a blazer pocket.  After topstitching and ripping out the topstitching 3x on the faux pocket flaps, I left off the topstitching altogether and sewed the flaps down invisibly by hand from the back side.  LESSON LEARNED: Don't try topstitching when you are rushing.

Update:  Here is the blogpost for finishing the jacket.