Oh hell view one and two

Well.

First off feel to add to the Cool Clothes list, I am going to post a master list in a few days.


Now on to my actual sewing.


My Chanel jacket has hit a brick wall. This particular brick wall is called Poor Fit.


I have had a hell of a time with this pattern. Big all over. I am a 16, cut a 14, which I took in inches on, should have started with a 12. Who was to know?


I usually do OK with fit, having been adjusting patterns for so long. It is not that common for me to really bomb one - I usually know my shape well enough to stay clear from that particular ledge.


I also made a muslin for this jacket and spent a week on it. I used a fairly heavy muslin to replicate a jacket weight. It wasn't flawless but I signed off on it as good enough with some minor tweaking.


OK so here is what the hell view one:

This is my what the hell face, this is me in a well coordinated bathing suit - you know the one I sew in here.

It actually does pull together at centre front and I did quilt it, but the fabric is obviously more a textured wool than a boucle (I ordered it from Fabricmart where it was advertised as a boucle since the local stuff at home seemed to be the kind of polyester stuff you would use to cover foot stools for the rec room in the basement).

So there is a fabric issue, although Angela Wolf did say in my online class that any fabric that could hide the quilting stitches would work.

It looks pretty limpo to me. The silk lining isn't giving this enough body.

That's issue number one.

Next issue is the excess under the armpit. This is the Real Issue.

Now this is interesting as I have my own excess under the armpit. In fact after you get to a certain stage in life one of the places you really collect fat is under your arms. 

This is quite weird. It's as if the body says "We need to put away something for the winter, now where are we going to hide it? The belly is packed, the inner thighs are done. Hey I know under her arms, we can get a lot in there and no one will notice."

All I am trying to say here is that I am not skinny under the armpits and I do know  did know how to fit. So what's with this excess?

Now the pressing has yet to be done well. The local iron produces about as much steam as having a tired mouse stand on the ironing board and spit at it.

Of course the whole body is all stitched up and quilted etc. so the fitting fixes are minimal ( I am not undoing that).

What are my options:

1. Give up sewing after decades of doing nothing but and become an outlet shopper and free up vast amounts of time for whatever people who don't sew do with their time.
2. Throw the whole thing in the garbage and email Stylearc and see how fast they can get their pattern to me. Also go online to Gorgeous Fabrics and get real boucle.
3. Decide I am not as smart as I always thought I was.
4. Implore you folks to help me out and give me some fitting advice.
5. Plow ahead and try to make something with nothing.

Situation critical.