Jacket crisis!

I thought it might be warm for our trip to Paris next month but it looks like it may not be. When I planned my PWAP I only thought about a light jacket and planned to make it in black cotton eyelet. I've since changed my mind and now plan to make the Hot Patterns Geisha jacket in a black thermal knit (and change from 3/4 sleeves to full length), which might be warm enough, but will be very casual in this fabric. I still feel like I need a better jacket and my wardrobe is lacking in that area. I have a fleece jacket, which I like and wear a lot, but while fleece is fine for casual California I'd rather have something nicer for Paris. I have a beautiful (fake) shearling coat but I think it would be too warm for September. I have a white jacket I made a few years ago, but it's white...not a good choice for Paris after Labor Day. I do have a rain coat but it's thin (I will be bringing it though). I have a leather jacket but I've had it for a while now and to me it's looking worn out, not "weathered" because I don't think it was very good quality leather. The rest of my coats won't work either: long black wool coat, hooded parka from my Colorado days, and a ski jacket. If my next (crazy) plan doesn't work out, the leather jacket might be an option.

I've had it in my mind for quite a few years now to make a wool jacket. I finally started one last fall but put it aside when the weather turned warm. Of course I could finish it, but it may take too long. Click here to see its current state. So it needs sleeves, lining and a zipper. Shouldn't take that long, right? Well, I've never done a lining before and the zipper and cuffed sleeves will take a while. I am a very slow sewer because I am so obsessively compulsive about every seam. My perfectionism paralyzes me so much that often I sit at the sewing machine for minutes at a time doing nothing before I can get up the guts to move on to the next step. I've repeatedly said that "simple is not in my vocabulary"!

Last night I stopped by Joann's for more black thread and a zipper for the Burda skirt I'm making out of black cotton twill. Well, what sewer can just go to Joanns, pick up the thread and zipper, pay, and leave? Not me. There was a sale on patterns! So I bought this:

I know, crazy. But this jacket isn't lined! And there's no zipper or buttons! It also doesn't look too fitted. Since it's not lined, I didn't want to make it out of wool, but I wasn't sure what I had in my stash that would work. Oh, there's lots of suitable fabrics in my stash I'm sure; however, this pattern needs 3 yards of 60 inch or 4 yards of 45 inch fabric. I was pretty sure that most of my fabrics are in 2 yard cuts or less. So what did I do? Yes...bought fabric. Miraculously I found a 58 inch wide medium weight cotton I liked (plaid - noooooo!) among the sale fabrics for $5/yard. The bolt looked rather thin but there were 3 yards 5 inches - and of course the clerk charged me for the 5 inches (70 cents!). When I got home I checked my swatch cards and sure enough, I was right. Most everything was 2 or 2 1/2 yards. I was surprised how much knit I have in my stash too. I did find one polyester fabric that could also work. It's a herringbone pattern so that might be easier than matching plaid (uh, that would be a yes). So now I need to re-evaluate my PWAP and see if I should sacrifice one (or two or three) things to try to make this jacket.

Current status of PWAP:

• Jalie 2449 crossover top - done!


• BWOF 7/07 #126 skirt - done !


• BWOF 9/06 #108 skirt - pocket, one side seam, waistband and hem left to do


• HP Geisha jacket - fabric washed


• BWOF 11/06 #116 top - still plan to do this in the brown bamboo knit


• Simplicity 3893 top - still plan to do this, made this pattern before so it should go fast (famous last words)

So not quite 50% done. Not that great, considering that the things I have finished were really easy. So that leather jacket is still a possibility. At least it's black and not bright orange! Another option I just remembered (and boy I do have a lot of coats and jackets!) is a yellow-gold colored suede jacket. One day I was wearing it in SF and a stranger complimented me on it. That doesn't happen too often so it must look good on me. Remembering that I have this suede jacket does take some pressure off of sewing a jacket. I do like the Butterick pattern though. Very stylish!