New Year, New Outlook, New Jacket

I know. I know. I've been gone so long it's heinous.  I have a terrible history as poor blogger but I'm taking steps to improve that.  I sew, but often don't blog it because of the photo issue.  I can take photos on Zelda, but they're meh because it's not a real person.  Getting one of the men in the house to take a photo is like hunting down a rare, wild animal--they're just not to be found when the time is right.  So I've tried a friend's tripod with remote.  I liked it and I ordered one up for myself.  This is going to be so much easier than the 10 second delay on my phone!  Now that I can take photos of my projects I should be able to blog about those projects as they come off the machine.

To keep me productive and focused, I've joined the 50 Yard Dash sew-a-long on Pattern Review.  The purpose of this sew-a-long is to sew 50 yards of fabric this year from our stash.  I think that this is a very attainable goal.  It comes out to roughly a yard a week.  That doesn't sound so bad.  It's a very busy thread with a very large group of participants.   So far this year, I've finished Michael's shirt-jacket = 3 yards.  This will be blogged about as soon as I can capture photos of him and the jacket.  I've also just finished today's jacket for 2½ yards.  That makes me with 5½ yards sewn and 44.5 yards to go.  Woohoo!  I've also joined the 2018 Fabric Fast thread and so far, I've not bought fabric since mid-November.  Another big Woohoo!

Now on to the jacket.

This is Simplicity 8172 view C one of their kimono jackets.  View C is supposed to be done in contrast fabric for the top and bottom, but I have this lovely knit velvet that is embroidered with flowers and swirls and has little sequins scattered over it that I wanted to use for a kimono  and I loved the flair in back on this one.  I used the Large size for my size 42 bust. As  you can see, the fit is still very forgiving.

In the pattern photo, the underbust seam comes just below the bust.  Mine is riding on my very short waist.  I like it on my waist ok, but I think next time I'd really like to shorten it but I'm not sure how.  If anyone has ideas, please let me know in the comments.

I didn't realize until I got to that part in the instructions, but the neckline and front edges are finished with single-fold bias tape.

I thought this gave a neater finish than folding over and stitching.  It also gave some structure to the neckline and front edge without being stiff.  Luckily, I happened to have some in stock in just the right color.

You can see the little flair in the back skirt area.  The sleeves end with a self-fabric cuff. (Pattern calls for contrast color here.)   It's warm and cozy with my pale yellow t-shirt.  I have plans for a lime green charmeuse tank for it for this spring.  There's a yard or so of it left over from another project.

Hope your New Year's resolutions and plans are all off to a good start.  And I hope it includes some  sewing!