Twisted Thread!

Off to spend the day in lovely Harrogate at the Twisted Thread show tomorrow, which promises to be a fantastic sewing, knitting and all things crafting heaven!

Frustrations and lucky finds...

Hello,

I could quite get used to not having to work Fridays! I played truant again today (flexi-time, honest!) to catch up on a bit of housework (excuse) and cut out a toile for my planned jacket - frustration! Here's a couple of pictures so far:

Can you see the massive gaping armholes? The front seems to pull across the bust, but there is a ton of spare fabric across the back!  After much mulling, fiddling and plain old head scratching, I finally decided I actually don't like the pattern - I was looking for something with more shape, princess seams etc and I came round to thinking that no matter how many alterations I made, this wasn't going to be the jacket for me - and I like my fabric too much to risk that!

So, only thing for it was to go shopping and acquire the Built by Wendy Coats and Jackets - I've seen Handmade Jane start a jacket from this book so hopefully I may even be able to pick some tips up!  Whilst out shopping I had to pass our local Barnardo's (charity shop - or thrift shop!) and snapped up this little bargain!

This looks and feels like pure wool - 60 inches wide and there is 3.5 metres of it! I've never heard of Semler of London, but it feels lovely quality wool houndstooth with tones of green grey and taupe! Not sure what it will make yet - any ideas?

See you soon :)

Thank you

Thanks Rosy, you have been more than helpful.  I will omit the front facing and take the lining to the band edge and just interface the band edge.  I'll post progress soon :)

Help!

After a bit of a break where hockey matches and other things have occupied the weekends, I've finally got a day off from work and immediately set to starting a jacket out of a lovely boucle wool with purple satin lining that I have wanted to make for ages.  However, I've not found a pattern I really like, so finally settled for trying to use this basic Prima pattern and try and modify it (hence the Help!):

Having consulted Betty Foster's book "Creating Fashion" page 98 shows how to add a strap front band as so:

The instructions say to cut a band 8cm wide and as long as the centre front (done!), then fold in half and stitch to centre front edge - my question is the jacket pattern has a front facing, do I still need this or does it need any alteration? Do I interface the strap front band?

And I've not started the collar yet!

Any help would be very gratefully received!