Midnight blue velvet jacket: done!

I truly enjoyed constructing this item from the start: pattern planning and adjusting, to its finish: planning the wardrobe pieces to go with it. I'm happy to have added another pattern to my go-to pile, and a bit of experience on that particular type of collar.

NL6013 with silk twill that could be a perfectly matching dress. Instead of a fashion fabric belt loop, I made a concealed thread loop to button up the fronts, on the rare occasions I'll wish to do so.   

Since I have more time right now than normally, I had some fun adding details not in the NL6013 pattern. On the front, I added angled double welt flap pockets and a single welt breast pocket.  Does it reflect my inspiration? Reasonably well, I believe.

To the back I added a double half-belt and buttoned sleeve vents.  Nice?  I think so.

I also took the time to give the invisible portions a little oomph.  Not only did I interface the under collar with fusible tailoring, but I also added a softer knit-based fusible to the fronts and side fronts, facings and upper collar.

Jacket body, inside out.  All fronts are fused with knit fusible, under collar with tailoring fusible.  The pockets and their pocket bags are already completed.

I also fused the sleeve and jacket hem.  Because I didn't want the velvet to rumple like a bathrobe, I added cotton half-underlining aka backstay to the upper parts of the back and side backs.   

Jacket, complete and ready for lining.  I used quilting batting for sleeve heads. Sleeve and hem are tentatively turned up. 

The lining and facing, ready to be combined with the outer jacket.  

As you can no doubt deduce, I constructed the lining (plus self-drafted back neck facing) and upper collar as a whole, and then combined this with the jacket by (almost) bagging the lining: actually I sewed the collars and front facings in one go, then the back hem to back lining as a separate seam.  Because the sleeve hems were already turned up, attaching the lining by machine at the sleeve hems wasn't really feasible, so I did that by hand.  I also pick-stitched around all the edges:  fronts, collar, hem, and sleeve hems.

So, that's my first project of 2014! When the temps crawl out of the  -27C deep-freeze we're having right now, I'll try to get an outdoor live-body pic to add here.  :)