Sewing UFO's

In the world of sewing (and maybe other hobbies too) this means "Un-Finished Objects."  In the course of my past career, there were many times when I had to put away an in-progress project and it got forgotten or the seasonal usefulness of it had passed.  In other cases, maybe I was unable to solve an "issue" but was unwilling to throw away the project (I just love the fabric too much).   Then there are the alterations or ideas I had to change the garment to update it.  All in all, I have a space dedicated to "UFO's" now....It's hanging space about the width of a washer (because it's in the former upstairs laundry closet).  I'm a little bit proud that the whole closet is not filled.

Anyway, I retrieved a jacket in progress from the closet last night and started to study it.  I taped and did pad stitching on the hair canvas and a mock welt pocket way back then, but never turned the collar.

It was meant to have had awful rounded peaked lapels (Remember those--what was it, 1969 or something?  What was I thinking?) and the front is slightly cut-away.  The back is gathered into a sort of peplum.  I guess it's supposed to resemble one of Ralph Lauren's hacking jacket-like creations. It's no doubt too small, but my girth alteration is easy--just add onto the sides seams if I have some of the fabric in my stash (or lose weight)..

So I started to finish this thing.  First order of business was correcting "something" that was wrong with the cut of the upper collar and the way it joins the lapel.  Then I whacked away the beagle-ear shape of the lapel peak.  It's still a bit of a peak, but not so wacky.  Looks pretty good.

A remaining problem is that I don't have pattern pieces or envelope anymore and don't even recall how the pattern was supposed to look.  So making a lining is going to be trial and error.

So far, here's what it looks like:

FRONT

BACK

If you love beautiful classic woolens, zoom in on this.  It's a camel's hair and wool blend houndstooth with charcoal gray and camel.  The only way I can wear camel.  :)

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And here's another long-postponed project:  I had the pattern and fabric together and ready to go for ages, then discovered I didn't have enough fabric (I would have had enough for the contrast, must have interpreted the pattern envelope wrong).

This one was made with a rayon and silk woven check, paired with a tropical weight wool gab for the contrasting bands.  It was a very fun pattern to make!  It's a little short on me in the back, despite the fact that I made a muslin and adjusted the pattern.  But, I wore it with jeans the other day (black ones) was pretty happy with it.