Today I’ve got a little bit of unselfish sewing to show you! I made a jacket for my lovely Mum. Anyone who follows me on Instagram will have already seen a few snapshots of this in the making, but I’ve got the full details here!
I actually planned to make this jacket for my Mum’s birthday last July – I bought 2m of the fabric in advance and told her she could choose what she would like me to make. She chose New Look 6028, a princess seamed jacket. It’s in the easy to sew range, and I have to say it came together very quickly and easily! I made view D with the mid-length sleeves.
I took a bit of a gamble in not making a toile (you know me!), but did take some detailed measurements from my mum, and then did a tissue fit on myself (we have a pretty similar build and measurements, so luckily this worked quite well!). I used a size 8 I think, which is what I would usually use in the Big 4. As it’s a loose fitting jacket, the most important bit was getting the shoulders to fit correctly, and once I had checked that, I knew it would be ok to go ahead with cutting out!
The fabric is a lovely linen/ cotton blend that I bought from Backstitch. It’s got a loose weave but is lovely and soft, and I knew that my Mum would love the colour J As it has such a loose weave, I knew that it would fray badly, so I overlocked all the edges before sewing them.
The jacket is lined in this divine Liberty silk satin. It seems extravagant, I know, but actually it only needed about 70cm, and I got this from Goldhawk Road for £12.50/m, so it’s a lovely bit of luxury. I think it really adds to the quality of the finished jacket, and didn’t end up being much more expensive than normal lining fabric.
Originally, I lined the sleeves in a plain white acetate lining, but actually I decided that for a summer jacket, lined sleeves would be too warm and could get sticky. Plus, as it would usually be worn over bare arms, it wouldn’t need the smooth lining as much as if it were worn over sleeves. So, after beautifully setting those sleeves in, I ripped them back out. To finish the armholes nicely, I just stitched the lining to the jacket outer seam allowance. I would have bound the edges but I didn’t have time (sorry Mum!). Again here, the seam allowances were all overlocked.
I topstitched the princess seams using my fab new 1/4“ foot, and I really like the effect this gives. I always find that this sort of detail really makes a garment stand out a bit more:
The only change I made was to leave out the interfacing on the facing piece at the front of the jacket. The outer centre front is interfaced anyway, and I found a double layer of interfacing to be too bulky and it ruined the drape of the fabric.
All in all, this is a great pattern, which came together pretty quickly (maybe 5 or 6 hours in total). I’m really pleased with how this came out! And so is my Mum! Here’s a picture of her wearing it on holiday:
Have you done any unselfish sewing recently?
Cinderellis Sews 
Your mom looks lovely, the style and colour really suits her. I’ve had that pattern for ages but haven’t used it. Thanks for the tips especially about the interfacing, I’ll keep that in mind when i do mine (soon!). I’ve done a lot of unselfish sewing lately – mending a tent, making curtains etc and next on my list is a couple of shirts for my son. Then it’s all me, me, me!!
Thanks 🙂 It’s definitely a really handy pattern – I’m quite tempted to make another version for myself!
Your mum looks lovely! You can see she enjoys wearing her new jacket. Did you use a ballpoint needle? I read somewhere (Alison Smith’s book?) that very loose weave fabric behaves better if you use a ballpoint. And I am being a bit, ahem, jealous of your overlocker 😉
Thanks! I used a standard needle – I didn’t have any problems with this fabric, but I could imagine that it would be good to use a ballpoint needle with a spongier fabric! And my overlocker was so useful for this project 😀
This is lovely! Great colour and I love the Liberty lining – I agree it’s totally worth adding those special touches to a garment. Ditto Vaire on the overlocker… one day!