Striped Caraco Jacket

I ended up with about 1.5 yards of a beautiful silk striped taffeta from searching for fabrics for a client.  I pondered it for a while, not knowing what I could possibly make out of such a small amount.  Then I came across this jacket.  I had to try.  Turns out, it was practically made for it.  The first thing I did was figure the width based on the stripes.  I used the measurements from my own stripes rather than trying to figure out the originals, since I would optimally like the stripes to line up in a similar way.  I used some old shapes from other garments to work out length measures.  I threw together a mock-up on Saturday night, which fit almost perfectly!  I worked all of Sunday and most of Monday, and got to the point of trimming and inserting the sleeves.  It was a very quick and easy garment to make, thankfully.

The stomacher is a separate piece, pinned in for wear.  There are tucks which run the entire length of the front, only tacked down from the bottom of the armscye to the waist.  The front trim tapers as it goes up.

The fronts and backs are actually one piece connected through the skirt, the only full length seam being center back.  I treated the construction similar to the Polonaise gown, with backstitched side seams.

The lining is only to the waist, attached to the pleats so it doesn't show on the waistline.  You can also see where I did a short cut by cutting the fronts on the selvedge, so I only had to fold it back once and stitch the trim over it rather than roll it.

For the trim, I folded back the edges to finish.  The bodice trim was gathered using a whip stitch a varying distance from the edge to create a little ruffle.  The inside edge was tacked down with small tucks sticking up.  The cuff was done similarly, but with an extra gathering line near the top.

The front tuck is left loose over the shoulder.