Moto Bike Jacket: part three

Well, I fixed the shoulders, but I definitely took a short cut. 

Shoulder fix

To fix the shoulder I took my two front pattern pieces, lined them up on their seam lines making sure the shoulder seam was straight, then taped them in a couple spots so they wouldn't shift. Then I matched the front shoulder seam to the back and marked the front neckline seam on the back shoulder. See my little hash mark? Then I took my neckline curve, drew in the new back neckline, added a 1/2 inch seam allowance, and trimmed my muslin piece. Easy peasy. 

Muslin details

Stitching all the style lines wasn't difficult, but it was a little time consuming. In the end, my chevrons *almost* lined up perfectly. All but two of them came to perfect points along the center seam. I did, however, lose a little length due to turn of cloth. That's the vertical part of the fold as the cloth turns over. So with eight 1/4 inch seams (1/2 inch of fabric from seam line to seam line) each one of those has maybe 1/32 of an inch extra fabric in the turn of the cloth. So, 1/32 eight times means that my lower sleeve pieces were 1/4 inch short. It isn't really a problem because when I do my final construction, I won't be sewing all of those seams on the pattern piece, I'll stitch them onto a rectangle of fabric and then cut the simple pattern piece from that.

Muslin without sleeves

Let's talk fit. I tried to get a picture of the back, but no one was around to help me so you get the bathroom mirror selfie. Sorry. I will be wearing this jacket pretty frequently, but my main purpose in a lot of my design choices is comfort and functionality for bike riding (we do that a lot in Portland). This jacket will have a hood which isn't drafted yet, but even with that the neckline is too wide. In addition to the too-wide neckline, the princess seam line is too far out. This is causing the lapel piece to be way too big when it's worn open, and makes me look very broad in the shoulder when worn closed. Both of these are coming in toward the center front by about 1 1/2 inches. That will narrow the look of the center front panel by 3 inches and make the lapels much smaller.

Muslin

The sleeve is too tight at the bicep/deltoid, and the cross back is too short. In order to ride my bike I will need extra room to reach handlebars without the jacket pulling. To start, 1 1/4 inches will be added into the sleeve at the bicep, and 1/2 inch into the cross back at the yoke seam.

All told, I'm taking about an inch out at each back princess seam, and an inch at each side seam at the waist to make it close fitting and less boxy. Last, I'll be shaping the hem into a high-low curve, bringing it up about 2 inches in the front, and down about 2 inches in the back. This is to prevent it from bunching in front while I ride, and to cover my "assets" in the back.

Next up I'll show you all the changes to the pattern pieces, and then it will be on to a second muslin, tweaks to the pattern (hopefully none), final pattern and a test jacket made of a lighter but still waterproof material. If that goes well, I'll get the final winter weight jacket done! See parts one and two here.