Vogue V8812 bolero, more work wardrobe

Not so long ago, an astute blogger wrote that although it is mostly pretty dresses that draw her to vintage patterns, often there are other garments included with a dress pattern, and that we should not ignore the boleros/capes/little jackets I wish I could remember where I read this, because I would like to thank her for reminding me to look twice at my patterns.

 

 You may remember that I recently used this pattern, Vogue V8812, as a base for a dress for my older daughter.

Due to my recent use pattern storage system (lying at the back of my sewing table), this pattern was in view whilst I was trying to:

 A)Work out a "key piece" so that my daughter's work wardrobe would fit in the pattern review mini wardrobe requirements, - my late start to this work wardrobe has the silver lining of making my time frame eligible for the contest.

B)Use the quite inadequate- for-a -garment remnants of my lovely grey Viyella. This was a gift to me from  Marji at Stichers Guild (now off sailing with a broken blog link), and I wanted to use every bit.

 The pieces were of the horrid size where there is too much to call it a scrap, but too little for an adult garment. I did not quite have enough fabric to make the bolero according to the pattern. With piecing, and a slightly shorter sleeve, I had the outer sections, but with no stretch of the imagination nor fabric could I manage the facing in the Viyella.

 I decided to fully line the bolero instead, and used one of the blouse fabrics, as in a traditional woman's suit jacket. 

 

To make things more difficult interesting, I made the bolero reversible.  

There were no fitting changes from a straight size 8, other than not including the shoulder pads, which is effectively a square shoulder adjustment. The bolero did not require a FBA, it is loose at the front.

  

The bolero has shaping darts at the back, and sits very nicely, without slipping off the neck and shoulders during wear.

  

 My daughter told me that she feels like an air hostess in this suit outfit, so I was a bit worried, that she wouldn't wear the bolero, but then she said "It is very 60's, cool" and the next day wore the black blouse and the bolero with her jeans to go to an after school lecture, where her friends admired her outfit, so the garments are a sucess outside of work too.