Disappointing.
I'm pretty sure that Burda made an error on this one. It's the first I remember encountering in many, many years of happy sewing from Burda magazines. More on the problem further on down in this post.
The current wider and barrel leg pants look best to me with shorter tops and jackets. A black lightweight denim jacket made sense for my wardrobe, especially with air conditioning season coming up, and a bomber-type would be a little change from the usual denim jacket style. Burda has had many adaptable patterns in the past six months or so, but none of them were styles that suited me straight from the pattern. I wanted raglan shoulders, so the model from last year's August issue was the one I decided on.
The line drawing shows the raglan sleeves and typical varsity jacket style collar, zipper, darts, and plain hems on the body and sleeves. The pattern also calls for lining and provides separate pattern pieces for it.
I decided to convert the darts to princess seams and have elasticized bands on the body and hem, and clean finish for the insides rather than lining. None of those changes should have caused the problem I ran into.
Did I make a muslin? No, I did not. I could have saved myself a lot of work and disappointment if I had, but Burda is so, so reliable when it comes to drafting that I just jumped in. When I tried the jacket on, after the body was assembled and the collar was on, it was evident that something wasn't right. It just didn't sit or hang properly in back.
To fix, I released the collar from the body in the back and let the back pieces drop and relax into position. Then I cut a piece to insert into the void, finishing the seams on the inside and topstitching to make it look at least somewhat intentional. If I had long hair the fix wouldn't be visible, but it would still bother me. 😄 Then I had to go back and re-draft and re-cut the facings, too, so that they would fit.
Here's the thing. The patch is exactly the width of the facing piece that would be used with the lining. That made me think that maybe I had traced the wrong cutting line (in the old days, Burda would sometimes use the same pattern piece with different cutting lines for linings), and that's when I discovered that there actually were separate pattern pieces for the lining. I double checked that I had traced accurately. There's still a possibility that there was some user error on my part, but I really do believe that there was a glitch on Burda's end.
I was really looking forward to having this jacket. The denim is extra, extra nice (I ordered another 6 yards because the weight and drape were just right!) and I do need a shorter black jacket.
I'll wear this and give it a chance. There have been times when I felt really let down after a project and it still ended up being a favorite. Maybe all will be forgiven with this one, too, after a few weeks and a few wearings. The tracing, however, is already in the trash and this pattern will never be sewn again!
