McCalls 7288 & altered Style Arc Barb pants

Black never photographs that well, but it's pretty useful otherwise.  I need to wear the jacket a few more times, but at the moment, it clearly needs a narrow shoulder adjustment, and that will also bring the armscye upwards.  It's a little too big from the waist down as well.  So the cuddly jacket is working for this one, but I might make the shorter version.  I had been thinking of the pleated back again, but maybe I will go classic, after seeing some beautiful online versions.  I didn't get the button placement right for the collar to sit flat, and now that I've lost my jacket-sewing virginity, I decided I was ready for Jackets for Real People to teach me how.  Book Depository really is like a late night addiction for nerds, and just to make things efficient, I ordered Elsa Morante's History as well.

The trousers are my first foray into sewing pleather.  The walking foot handled it beautifully.  I started with Style Arc Barb pants and kept on trying them on and narrowing the seams until at the point below, where the wrinkles are coming from other fit issues (and fabric challenges) that can't be fixed by narrowing seams.  I can't decide just yet whether pleather is work-appropriate.  The stripey top underneath is just what I was wearing while sewing, but revamping a disastrous laundry day tee that is in red fabric to go with the black pants and jacket is my next sewing project.

 The collar, yoke and hem are all from a skirt I loved and will never fit again.  

I really liked this article on dressmakers and 3-D vision.

How good is this poem called Embarrassed?

I'd never heard of Hollie McNish before, and it would seem that everyone else has, but that's what the Guardian is for - catching me up on the awesome stuff I'm not hip enough to pick up first, third or 17th time round.