Gram's Sewaholic Cordova jacket

I really loved the Sewaholic Cordova pattern, and have plans to make one for myself.  I liked the peplum options and princess seams, and think it could be done in a variety of different ways.

My work is really casual, a dress is kind of too much (but sometimes I wear them anyway) but I can wear a cute jacket with jeans and not be overdressed but not be wearing sweatpants (I'm looking at you, old dude who works down the hall).  So I bought the Cordova, and then decided to make a version for my Grandma's 80th birthday in December. She used to sew, mainly clothing for herself and her 4 daughters, and she is the one who taught my Mom.  She gets a kick out of the fact that I use her meatball recipe, have a pizzelle iron (also her recipes), and was happy to hear I'd taken up sewing.  Also, she loves a blazer. The woman wears a blazer to vacuum her garage (yes, she vacuums the garage).

  I used a pretty novelty tweed from Gorgeous Fabrics and a marine blue bemberg lining from Mood.

This is so pretty up close. Doesn't quite photograph well.

My Grandma likes bright colors, and I thought this was versatile in terms of seasons and transitions. I cut a size 12 of the single-peplum version, based on the fact that I wear a Sewaholic size 6 and some helpful guess measurements from my Mom (seeing as how they all live in Jersey). I made a muslin to sort of guestimate the fit on myself, then followed the suggestion of Ann from Gorgeous fabric and sewed the lining first, also to fit check.  The pattern was very straightforward, excellent instructions as usual.  It was time-consuming, lots of interfacing and the princess seams mean more pieces, but it was easy.  Until......the zipper.

What I did was attach the zipper and then the front facing, but when I did this, I apparently stitched too closely to my zipper. So it wouldn't zip. And I cried for 3 seconds then slapped myself and decided I had to make it work. I decided to cut out the zipper (you just can't rip stitches out of this tweed, you'll destroy it.) I turned the facing back to the outside and basically sewed the zipper in the seam allowance, then cut it off (so I didn't have to literally cut into the front of the jacket.)  It actually worked - it was really not noticeable that I screwed up in such a major way. I debated putting on another type of closure, but decided just to leave it open. The finished product (modeled on me):

 

princess seams and peplum

the back is straight, I'm the one that's standing crooked, I swear

And finally a shot of the birthday Grandma!

 Zipper disaster and all - she loved it! She wears it all the time. I think maybe she sleeps in it, I swear. I called her on Christmas and she says "Guess what I'm wearing!"  In fact, her younger sister loved it, so I had to make her a jacket too (a Style Arc Gabby.....post coming soon).  I'm going to make jackets for all the church ladies of South Jersey.  All in all, a great pattern, and I still plan to make the double peplum one for myself!!