Plaid Jacket - Why did I choose this for a first attempt?

It has been some time since I uploaded a blog and there are two major reasons for this. The first one is that we've been on an extended journey through Europe in our Motorhome. We left Dover early one morning at the end of August and travelled across to France by ferry before moving on to Bruges in Belgium for a couple of nights. From there we travelled to Luxembourg then on through Germany and Switzerland and finally northern Italy. We drove down eventually as far as Venice and then made our way home again via Switzerland France and Belgium. We visited many cities en route including Bruges, Verona, Luxembourg City and of course Venice itself and in every one of these plus many smaller towns my main focus was to search out fabric shops. Sadly there were very few to be found as they tend to be situated further out than the main shopping centres and not easily accessible but by far the best was in Luxembourg however, even here the fabrics were far more expensive than in the UK. I did indulge in some though but they're in my stash at the moment and will get blogged about when I decide what to make with them.

The other cause for the absence is that I am at last trying to tackle my bête noire which is a tailored jacket although as a first attempt it is a slightly casual and fully lined style.

I chose this Burda pattern from the August BurdaStyle Magazine [#106] because I loved the simple collar and patch pockets on the front which I thought would be easier to tackle than welt pockets. 

This was probably my first mistake because although the style was exactly what I was looking for, the instructions were less than helpful. I had to contact a friend and together we are trying to make sense of them. I did make a muslin first and tweaked the pattern by lowering the bust apex position and adjusting the waist line to mine. I also changed the top of the sleeve head as I wasn't keen on the gathered sleeve preferring the more classic set in sleeve look.

The second mistake for a first attempt was the fabric I chose. Well let me just say that I got this from a charity shop and it only cost £4.50 for nearly 3 metres so my thoughts were, it wouldn't matter too much if I messed up. It's actually a lovely fabric but the plaid design gave me a ton of pattern matching issues that I could have done without. Having said all that I am overjoyed at how I've managed to make the pockets and front pieces line up - so far so good.

As you see I chose to accent the shoulder, pocket flaps and sleeve detail in a plain fabric to add a little flair.

So this is as far I've got and I thought I'd share this with you now as I'm taking a lot longer to complete this project than I had hoped. I've got to tackle the sleeves next and having read the instructions over and over I'm still not certain what it all means. I do wish Burda would make it clearer as to which pattern piece the are referring. They number each piece for cutting but then refer to them by a description which doesn't help. For instance - On curved section, seam edges of upper sleeve and sleeve bands - why couldn't they use the number of the piece? I think they mean the overlap on the sleeve hem vent but it isn't really a 'band' as such and totally confused me. Instructions should make it simple to understand not leaving you feeling you've had to translate it from a foreign language!!

Do you find pattern instructions confusing sometimes? Does anyone else find Burda patterns particularly unhelpful? I'd love to know I'm not alone here so leave me a comment and let me know.

When this jacket is finally ready to wear I have some plain green fabric that I bought as a remnant from C&H Fabrics in Chichester before we went away and it matches perfectly. I am going to make some trousers with it and I also intend to make a handbag with the left over fabric of both the plain and the plaid. I've been inspired by a Crafsty Class by Brett Bara called Design You Own Handbag.

I'll keep you posted on progress.