I have made my first ever item from my first ever Ottobre magazine, the family edition 07/2017, and it’s the rather quaintly named Office Man jacket.

Never mind the office man, this is a perfect jacket for the retired man and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to make it.

I rushed off to Knitwit and found the perfect piece of wool knit in their 2m for $20 pile. Score!

Having taken Mark’s measurements (although they never change) I rather hastily traced off the pattern and made it up, all the while thinking that it wasn’t very big. Of course it wasn’t very big because I had failed to notice that I needed to add seam allowances. Gah! Listen to your inner voice Sue! I just don’t make enough patterns from Burda, otherwise I would have known to add them. Kicking myself still!

The upshot is that the jacket is very snug, but oh so warm. Remember when fleeces were first invented? The deal was that they be very fitted to maximise the warmth. This is how this jacket works for Mark and he’s started wearing it every evening as the temperature cools down and loves it.

However! I do not really love it. I think it looks too small for him, so I found more fabric identical to the first and began again. The jacket has one zipped welt pocket but I felt that it needed hand pockets. He agreed and suggested kangaroo style pockets. Oh, that would have been so easy! I insisted on welt pockets and off I went. I won’t lie, I did regret it but they worked out pretty well in the end.

I took these photos when we were staying by the beach recently during Tom and Bridgette’s wedding festivities. I had to include this one because of the pelican loitering around.

And this one because he looks as though he has a boat sitting on his head. I really must focus more on composition!

The obligatory back view.

You will note that he has his hands in the pockets in every single photo, so this was an excellent decision.

So, a quick review of the pattern. It was pretty quick to make really. There were a couple of techniques which interested me. I was doing my own thing and finally realised that there is a thing called the “Ottobre Lab” which has tutorials for some of the more complex techniques, including the zipped welt pocket. All the shoulder seams and raglan darts are topstitched but the stitches just vanished into this fabric, which is a bit of a shame. The instructions call for a 5-thread coverstitch, which gave me pause. Some googling later and I was none the wiser. Most of the machines I looked at had 4 threads, with the exception of the Singer. Not sure really what difference it would make so I chose to ignore it. One of the things I really liked is that the underarm seam allowances are stitched down so they remain flat and really add to the comfort for the wearer. I shall remember this for other makes. The collar, cuffs and bottom bands are sewn from coordinating or contrasting rib, and the welt pocket has a piece of lightweight denim or similar to provide contrast. I used pieces of an old pair of trousers for the zipped pocket and the hand pocket welts. I also used a piece of cotton which I had dyed with rosemary and iron for the hand pocket linings.

I made the second jacket a little longer to fit the zip I had in my stash and he was pleased with that as well. This edition of the magazine is really good.

There are several patterns that I’m going to make for Mark as I feel they are a little more modern than some of the patterns I’ve been making him. The chinos he’s wearing in these photos were made by me many years ago, but I really like the look of the ones in the magazine so I think there will be new chinos in his wardrobe fairly soon. There’s also a great shirt called “four fellows”, which amused me, and a lovely looking sweatshirt. Oh yes, and a hoodie. I might go mad with making!