In the time since my last post we have been away for a weeks break on the north east coast of England. In between I have been desperately trying to push on with the house renovation project that I am currently overseeing. So in short, it has taken me some time to finish this project. It is probably the most time consuming project I have done to date, even though the pattern is relatively simple. All that Hong Kong finishing did take quite a bit of effort. But I have to say that I think it was worth it, and this is probably the best finished garment I have produced in the 13 months or so that I have been dress making.

The outer material was a wool/ silk mix tweed I bought from ebay for a very good price. It was quite forgiving I would say! I guess perhaps you could even call this a wearable muslin, as I would really love to sew this jacket again in a good quality tweed with a silk lining.

I mentioned the fact I used the Hong Kong finish on all the seams….well, with hindsight (and if I was making this jacket again) I would use organza or chiffon as all the couture sewing technique books suggest you do. The cotton binding I used was a tad too bulky, but hey, I am learning as I go!

I added a hanging chain. I found a great tutorial via Sewaholics blog http://sewaholic.net/how-to-make-a-chain-hanging-loop/, which references a tutorial on Sophia sews, but when I went to Sophia sews blog, the blog has disappeared! Which I am gutted about because I didn’t print it or anything. I could perhaps consider posting the tutorial myself if I can remember all the steps (it wasn’t that hard!) in the future.

On another note, I am totally self taught and blindly finding my way around the world of dress making as I go, so I am excited to say I have enrolled on a beginners dress making course starting in about 4 weeks time! Yeah! Looking forward to learning how to do things properly and hopefully making some beautiful things. I will keep you posted….