While I was dithering on my never-started coat project, and I realized my chosen wool was teal, I was on a quest for pink wool. As you recall, I ended up just buying a pink coat from Boden, but before my obsessive search was over, I finally found a candy-pink wool online offered as a single cut piece of eight yards. For like 50-some-odd dollars. (I can't remember from where, and my lack of memory only protects the guilty.) I couldn't pass up such a great deal because you would be surprised how hard it is to find pink wool. Really.
Once I received it in the mail though, I discovered it wasn't thick enough for a winter coat. So I bought the Boden coat, and my back up plan was to use vintage Butterick 4192 and make a pink suit:
Because my Tippi Hedren suit was such a pleasure to sew last year, I decided I would make the short jacket and skirt from the pink wool, which would be a welcome addition to my wardrobe since I have jettisoned everything black because it depresses me. I also thought, in the back of my mind, that a pink wool suit would be lovely for Easter, since I spent way too many Easters being cold in flimsy spring dresses.
There's no copyright date on this pattern, but I think it is mid-sixties - later than Butterick 2178 I used for my Tippi Hedren suit:
You can see that Butterick 2178 still has the pill-hat, Jackie Kennedy influence (I think is 1962 or 1963), while Butterick 4192 has more of the mid-sixties style before skirts got way shorter and hair way longer. I'd put it at 1965 or 1966.
The pink wool arrived with dusty selveges, but I didn't sweat it. Since I had eight yards, last weekend I cut off a few yards and steamed it with my iron in preparation for cutting out. Only then did I notice that there were frequent flaws in the wool, but I decided I could cut around them - the pinkness of this wool was just too good to pass up.
I used my Steam-A-Seam method of underlining the body of the jacket with white muslin:
Then I put together the jacket shell and attached the collar. Of course, only after I had finished for the day did I notice that I missed a flaw and now it is near my front left side seam:
I decided no one would notice and proceeded forward. This Saturday, attaching the sleeves was my mission, and I wanted the three-quarter sleeves with cuffs like I made on my Tippi Hedren suit, rather than the full length the pattern contains. I got them cut out and one attached when a full scale MS attack hit me Saturday afternoon, and all sewing operations (as well as everything else) ceased.
Sunday was no better; I awoke with a migraine. Once the heavy duty medication finally kicked in, I was determined to get the second sleeve set in. So you know what happened: only once both sleeves were sewn in, trimmed, overstitched, and pressed did I notice that I put the sleeves in with the wrong sides facing out.
This was irreversible, of course, so I took a hard look to see if I could live with it. Given that I hadn't noticed while sewing, I doubt if anyone else will notice when I wear it. The sole question is whether I can live with it:
I thought I could. But then I started working on the pockets which I want to add similar to the Tippi Hedren suit, and I pulled out the Tippi Hedren jacket to see how far I placed them from the edges of the jacket, and that's when all my denial fell away: the Tippi Hedren jacket is just so wonderful to touch, to wear, and look at. I had to admit the pink jacket has none of those things.
This wool is cheap, and that's no fun. I love the color but that is about it. It wrinkles horribly. And I'm not really happy with the collar:
There's the possibility that some topstitching around the collar could wrestle it into submission, but I'm not sure. Did I mention the wrinkling? This is a itchy wool that sticks to everything. And everything to it.
And the fit is more boxy than that of Butterick 2178, so the fit isn't as flattering. I hate to abandon it because of the two weekends I spent on it, but on the other hand, it makes no sense to spend even more time on a garment I won't wear.
I've decided not to decide. Rather than trash this jacket completely, I'm putting it aside and see if time changes my perspective. I guess it's possible that in two months I might think, "This isn't so bad - I can make it work!" Or I might say, "What was I thinking???" I don't normally do UFOs - I like to finish each project before starting another one - but I think this is one I should punt on and figure it out on down the road. On to the next project!