First project for 2016!

I started this on December 31 with pin fitting the pattern, making adjustments to it and then I cut out the fabric.  Yesterday I made considerable progress with this and worked on it some this morning.  I ended up with a small but fixable issue with attaching the front band.  I stopped there for a small break and will finish it hopefully today.

The issue is more of my doing than the pattern.  This pattern has lots of ease, the length is very long for my height and the width would be overwhelming also if I used a straight 14.  I used a 14 for the collar, changed to 12 for the shoulders, back to a 14 under the arm to right above the waist line and then tapered to a 12 then to 10 to hemline.  I cut the length off at the size 8 cutting line.  Thus when I cut the front band piece I cut that at the size 10 length not thinking about the collar at size 14.

Instead of stitching both ends of the band at 5/8 I stitched at 3/8 and will have to turn the collar down a tad more than the current fold line.  I think this will work okay as there is a lot of collar length and being short this will I hope also eliminate too much fullness at the back neckline.  Will see.

I am using fabric I acquired from Gorgeous Fabrics-September 2015.  It is a nice textured fabric that originally I was going to make a dress with it but it is beefy and best used for a coat/jacket.

Here is a glimpse of yesterday's progress

Even though I used a 12 for the shoulder width, I ended up shaving off about 3/8 of inch from the shoulder to right above the front and back notches of the bodice.  That was a good fix for me.  Before cutting out the pattern, I reduced the length by 2 inches even though I had cut it to its shortest length. I adjusted the sleeve length as usual by one inch.  There is a fairly deep hem for the sleeves which will allow for other adjustments if needed.

More updates to follow.