In Which I Take Something Super Easy and Make It Slightly Less So

I suppose it could be worse. And the thing in question is the Harper Jacket pattern, so I'm likely to relate a couple of sewing stories over the next few days. (Those of you who can't bear to hear another thing about my knitting - score!)

OK, here's the pattern:

Style Arc Harper Jacket

It's one of those jackets-meets-sweater things that are incredibly useful in Canada. There's not a lot written about it, I have to say. I've only found one post (a very helpful one), but its writer is a woman who couldn't be more differently shaped than me. She seems quite tall and long in her proportions.

One of the fundamental differences between our efforts is that she actually lengthened the jacket. I, on the other hand (and being incapable of sewing anything out of the envelope, apparently), had to shorten each piece by 2 inches.

I made the size 10, which I was worried might be to small, but seriously, I think going up a size would have made the shoulder-width and arm circumference too large. This is not fitted below the high bust, so I qualify as a true "small" for the purposes of this pattern. I mean, I had to shorten everything even given it's a size 10?!

Note that I have no idea if I shortened the front piece (that weird looking one on the left) appropriately. Mind you, the shape of the finished piece is the same as the original was and I lined up the armsyces in order to ensure I made the same adjustment on the front as on the back piece. Here's hoping my "special sewing sense" is working. In order to true the front piece, once I messed with the length, I actually added 5/8" below the shorten line. You can see it on the right lower half. I had the option to true by removing fabric at the upper part of the piece, but given my full bust measurement, I felt I needed to add width below the shorten line rather than subtract width above it. A tape measure seems to corroborate this.

I could have taken more off the length of all of these pieces (like another inch) but I was afraid to go overboard. And besides, it's not like every first garment isn't a muslin. Don't kid yourself. It is. Hopefully, however, this one will be wearable in the end.

One of the ways in which I hope this pattern will work on my behalf - in the way it might NOT for a tall person who doesn't want to add bust volume - is that the length of the front piece dictates the amount of volume in the ruffles at the centre front. Wow, awkward sentence. Sorry.

What I mean is, when I shortened the piece, given the construction of the centre front, I removed some of the ruffleability (I believe) by removing inches of length. It remains to be seen if the result would be more pronounced (while still fitting my frame) if I'd removed width above the shorten line (see 2 paragraphs up). I guess this is where the muslin premise comes in.

Those armscyes look kind of long to me, but I measured them against another, well-fitting, similarly constructed RTW sweater and it seems its armsyces are almost the exact same depth. Hopefully I'm mistaken in my concern.

I really like the one-size pattern, gotta say. It's very clean. I don't love cutting around a zillion lines and I usually end up making similar adjustments to all of my patterns - none of which are facilitated by zillions of extra lines denoting other sizes. What I mean is, I don't get a lot of value from the multi-sized patterns because I don't really straight-grade from one size to another. Moreover, if I need to do so, I just make it up. I mean, those are linear adjustments that really are pretty straight forward.

Anyway, here's the fabric I'll use for the Harper Jacket:

It's a 2-way stretch double knit from Gorgeous Fabrics and it's got a nice drape and hand. I will say that the colour is in no way what my computer monitor led me to expect. It's lighter and less jewel-toned than I hoped it would be. But, since I'm not head-over-heels (and yet its properties align well with those required for this pattern - dense, firm knit with some heft but not so much that the drape will be inhibited), I feel free to use it and enjoy it for whatever result it yields. Don't misunderstand, it's a very nice fabric and I'm sure many sewists would find many uses for it. It's one of those knits, I suspect, that looks at its best in a finished garment. It would be really great as pants, I imagine.

So, there you go. What do you think? Have you made this jacket? Do my alterations seem like they'll work (those of you who can turn pics of paper into 3D objects in your mind)? Do you like it? Let's talk!