BurdaStyle 8516 Ellinor Remix

I completed this jacket before my February travel, but wasn't entirely happy with the little finishing details. Come to think of it, I still have to hem the bottom. Maybe I just need to get over it. So here's the scoop:

BurdaStyle has been on my radar for a long time. I am in love with their concept of open-source sewing! But it has taken me months to work up the commitment to print 30+ pages of patterns on my little laser printer, tape them all together, and cut them out just for a few patterns pieces. After I spent the 20 minutes or so to do this, I traced the pattern pieces on pattern paper so they'd be easier to handle.

Comparing the pattern pieces to my sloper proved that, even in its smallest size (Burda 36), this pattern would be way too big. I also had a hankering to use a separating zipper I'd had in my zipper stash for a year, and to make a peter pan collar (very inspired by the peter pan-collared Wiksten garments and the generous and useful peter pan collar tutorial Jenny provided). So I went to work on a number of pattern alterations for both size and style, and the end result was this little jacket. The full review is on PatternReview.com.

It's alright. I'm not in love with it but I think I have learned some great lessons from it, such as the need for facing when using a separating zipper, why under collars are a tiny bit shorter than upper collars (to avoid the wavy peter pan effect I so effortlessly achieved), and to make dart modifications after all the other alterations are done. But I will wear it next time we have some cool weather in Austin (which would be in December, probably).