Enough shirts for now, it’s time to step it up a level with my 1st attempt at a jacket.

I bought this pattern in my first wave of purchases, shirt, jeans, jacket… But one look at the amount of pieces involved had me put it to the bottom of my (small) pattern pile. Every time I’ve been wondering what to sew next, this jacket pattern ends up in my hands, one time I even started tracing out the pieces… But there are SO MANY of them!! Well, more than I’ve ever had to deal with before any way.

Kwik Sew K3485. View A. Double welt pockets with flaps. I said it was time to step it up a level.

I went for size M as that seemed closest to my chest size. I’m using bargain fabric (£3pm from Cloth House, London). It looked like it would make a nice summer evening weight jacket. I used a mixture of light and medium woven and non woven fusible interfacing (using up what I had left over). Even the thread from making my wedding waistcoat (more on that after June 27th!) matched perfectly, so I had everything I needed to get cracking.

Tracing and cutting the pattern took longer than I thought, so did cutting the fabric. Simply because there are so many more pieces than the shirts and trousers I’ve been making. The main fabric is more loosely woven than anything I’ve worked with before. The fused pieces were safe from fraying, but I was careful to not over-handle the other pieces so they kept their shape. In the future I’d consider finishing the edges of each piece (or at least, key pieces) before constructing. (I don’t have an over locker, but my machine has edge finishing stitches.)

Front darts, attach side panels, then warming up with the top left welt pocket. Straight away I could feel that the fabric was not going to be as summery as I’d first imagined. The fusing added more heft than I thought it would. It’s the one I use for collars, cuffs, waistbands, everything! I decided there and then that I would never wear this jacket! Suddenly, the pressure was off and I could relax into trying out the new processes.

I’ve done some welts before, on trousers and waistcoats. Some for real, some mock. But never a double! I found it hard to fold the thick fabric, I’d consider using another fabric for welts, facings, under collar etc in the future, or pick a more suitable fabric to start with…

Still, I loved putting the pockets together. And they didn’t finish up too shabby. I am confident that my next ones will turn out better. In fact, I’m really looking forward to doing them again.

  
At some point the steam function on my iron packed up, so pressing got tricky. On the flip side, I have the excitement of buying a new iron to look forward to (tragic, I know!) 

So, welts and flaps done (for better or worse), shoulder seams, half back lining, and then, this incredible collar… I was nervous of putting the collar in, as my shirt collars can be … erm… variable. But I followed each step carefully and really enjoyed the process. 

However, I’m still not convinced by the back flap. I think I followed all the steps, it just seems a bit rum. I think the contrast bit ended up in the wrong place, but I don’t know how… We’ll see.

  

So, there it is so far. Once I’d finished for the day (about 6hrs, unwashed, barely dressed, still with bed-hair) and tidied everything away (the curse of living in a 1 bedroom flat) I read through the last steps, 19-26. Sleeves, linings, hems, buttons. I read it a few times until it made sense. It probably would have helped to have done this for steps 1-18. Let that be the lesson I have learned today…

Read the pattern instructions until it makes sense.

Thanks for reading. Until next time…