One of the gaps I identified in my wardrobe during Me-Made-May’15 was handmade coats and jackets. I had one, which got a bit overused, so when I saw the Tessuti Sydney Jacket pattern, I knew that I had just the fabric in my stash to make it. I was further enabled by my fellow classmates in the pattern making class I attend at Workspace FADS – we are all terrible 🙂
I love the back of this jacket, although I need to press out those fold lines…
The pattern is designed for non-fraying fabric, such as felted wool or ponte. You can see from the pattern photo below that the sleeves are elbow length
but I extended the sleeves.
This was a subject of some discussion in the pattern making class. Sarah, our teacher, believes that the long sleeves give the coat balance. This is too technical for me, I just wanted warm arms!
The sleeves on the coat are quite interesting. There are two pattern pieces, so I simply cut two extensions and joined them where the original sleeve ended. I could have extended the pattern pieces themselves to eliminate the join, but I used some scraps. Next time I might do this because they do look a bit bulky.
This coat could almost be reversible, except that the pockets prevent this. I love the pockets, they are just cut into the fabric with the pocket bags on the inside. Very simple because of the non-fraying fabric.
I used some felted, foiled wool in brown. My only other hand made jacket is made from the same fabric, but in charcoal. I bought both lots of fabric on sale, but see that it’s back to its original price now, so feeling smug. This fabric is amazing – I threw it in the washing machine on a wool cycle, it didn’t shrink and it dried in about 5 minutes. My sort of fabric!
I’m going to put a leather clasp on the jacket. It’s supposed to be worn open, but I like my jackets closed for some reason.
We’ve had conversations in class about the fabric used for this jacket, and I think I might do another one in a regular wool, but using internal bound seams. The seams on this jacket are lapped, which means that one edge is visible. I really like the look of this as a design feature, but hidden seams will look ok.
In a nutshell: Pattern is the Tessuti Sydney Jacket, made from felted, foiled wool from Knitwit, Nedlands. Tatty jeans are RTW but altered to fit me. I need new jeans! Jumper is hand knitted and yet to be blogged.