Pattern Review: Hot Patterns Biker Babe Jacket HP 1037

Its done, its done, its done! I could scream it from the rooftops! I have never been so proud of something that I've made in my life. That's about 20 sewing years, countless culottes (hey, I started when I was 7), and more seams ripped than stars in the sky.

Zipped!

My new jacket. The main fabric is made out of the softest camelhair ever (from Gorgeous Fabrics, no longer available) and the lining is a pretty medallion print poly (also from Gorgeous Fabrics, also no longer available but there are other colors, this one is so pretty!). One thing to note about the lining though, in really really tiny letters is the name of the designer Elie Tahari, but its only noticeable if you are about 1" from the fabric.

Now this pattern. Oh boy, this pattern. I had a lot of issues with it. Noted in these posts:
Update #1
Update #2
Update #3 Warning Hot Patterns rant in this post

To paraphrase these, the changes/problems I had/made were:
Jacket way too short, lengthened by 2" all over, would probably add 1.5" on to that in the future for a total of 3.5".
Sleeves way too short, also lengthened 2".
Armhole too low and raised by 3/4" (I think).
Ease in arm (even after adjusting for the raised armhole) way too much.
Back too tight, broadened by about 3/4".
Waist way too big, added a 1.5" seam taking about 6 total inches of fabric out of the waist. This seam allowance was gradually reduced to the pattern seam allowance just below the arm.
Comically huge collar decreased by about 1.5".
Lined.
Added a back pleat to the lining.
Added a simple inner patch pocket.
Did not add the belt or boob pockets.


Some details added to the lining are visible in these pictures, as well as which lining pieces I chose to make in the lining fabric and which I chose to make in the camelhair. Ignore the puckering please.

Unzipped!

Lining was easy. I bagged it, then handstitched the sleeves and a small part of the bottom band (through which I bagged it). I also didn't interface anything except the upper collar, really took a risk there, but the lower collars have the perfect 'stiffness' with the two layers of camelhair. Whew.

Checkout the fit in the back!

I'm going to make this again, twice more in fact. One in olive green twill with a poly sherpa lining and the other in a tweed with no upper collar. I'm not sure that I would recommend this pattern as a LOT went into making this workable, moreso than I think should be expected using a pattern. If you really want this style jacket, well, it was all worth it for me.

Project Update #3: HotPatterns Biker Babe Jacket

I've cut out the outer fabric and starting putting everything together, hooray! All the changes I've made are coming together smoothly and I'm pretty happy.

That's my angry biker babe face (and also how I feel about the collar).

The one thing that I'm really really unhappy about is the collar. I didn't make a muslin of the collar because I though, hey, its a collar, what can do wrong. Giant neck wings that extend past my shoulders is what can go wrong!!!!! Let me remind you of the picture is that is presented to the consumer of what this pattern will look like.

You see the size of that collar (easier to see in the line drawings)? It doesn't even go out past the princess seam. The real collar is 3, III, THREE times the size of that. This is why I hate Hot Patterns. I have 5 of them, I'm made three others plus this one so I think that I've had a feeling for them. While they styles are generally good and intriguing, if they aren't going to put in the time to actually make patterns that represent their visualizations or images that represent their patterns, I don't care to buy them. I don't appreciate being lied to. Also, 'close fitting' my ass. The only reason I thought that this fit earlier was because my chest is bigger than the average bear so it fit there just fine, but the waist is huge according to the measurements for anything that wants to pretend to be close fitting. Liars!

Otherwise.....
The fabric is fantastic and its going to look really really good. Just with minimal help from the pattern.

Confidential to the people who are googling "hot biker babe" and coming here: I know its happening because google tracks these things and I'm sorry, you must be very confused right now :)

Project Update #2: Hot Patterns Biker Babe Jacket

The Biker Babe Jacket is fitted and ready to be cut out! I call it Franken-pattern now.

Check out that sleeve!

I've never ever ever done this much preparatory work for a pattern, but I really want a good fit on this thing. I foresee wearing it nearly everyday and I want to be happy about it nearly everyday.

I ran into a problem yesterday while doing the final fitting. When is the garment fitted 'enough'? When does the armsycle look exactly right? Does the back and length look right? I hope that in the future, doing more of this, I'll have experience. Despite everything that my aunt taught me about sewing, I didn't learn how to fit (mainly because I didn't want to be in various stages of undress for some fitting processes), so its pretty much all self taught from the internet and all the other totally awesome bloggers out there. I gotta saw though, my Amazing Boyfriend really helps out, he wants to me to be happy and he knows a jacket that fits will make me happy.

Making the hard decisions.

Changes made to this pattern:
1. Raise the armhole by 1". Still not sure if it should go up higher or if there is too much fabric in the sleeve opening.

2. Broadened the back by 3/4" on both sides. This fits AMAZING through the back now, why have I never done this?

Tush shot.

To fit the back, first I sliced a gash about 1.5" from the armhole and then measured how wide the gash spread when I put my arms forward. All widening was done below the yoke (I think that's the correct vocab word) because the upper back fit well.

3. Lengthened the sleeves and body by 2" (damn its a short jacket!) through the waist. Or I'm long-waisted. (above pics do not show this)
4. Decreased the flair at the bottom of the body. Cause it looked stupid.

I'm going to cut this jacket out the softest, most amazing (and expensive) baby camel hair ever shaved from a baby camel. I'm assuming it was summer and the baby camel was sweltering. I got it from Gorgeous Fabrics a looooong time ago so they are expectantly out of the fabric. As a side note, can I just say was fricking amazing selection, sales, and customer service that GF has? I think if I ever met Ann I'd go fangirl on her.

Main garment fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics. The lining is also from GF and still available here.