Following on from my plans mentioned at the end of my last blog, I have realised my idea of an Autumn jacket with this beautiful coloured rust linen I've had in my stash for about a year. I actually finished this jacket before I published my last blog, but things have been a little busy...
This jacket is a retro pattern from my mum's collection, called "New Look Maudella 6502", and I cannot find ANY trace of it online, even in archives! I may just have a one of a kind jacket. I had originally bought a Burdastyle 6463 a while ago for plans of oversized outerwear, having forgotten what was in my mum's stash. Since 80s jackets are coming back, I decided to try the real deal and see how it turned out for fun.
It was cool taking the pattern out, judging from what was cut out, my mum had made the cropped jacket and and a pair of shorts back in the 80s! I cut out a straight size 12, two sizes bigger than my usual, I wanted it to be oversized but it was hard to tell how oversized it was drafted to be. I was worried it might be too long and thought about cropping it but decided after some Pinterest research that oversized jackets do hit a high thigh, and this looked on track for that length.
I fit the pieces out of 1.7m of my 133cm wide My Fabrics linen. Not too many pattern pieces, and interestingly shaped patch pockets- they aren't a square, one side is longer than the other creating a sloping bottom. They also sew into the side seams, rather than totally patch.
The pattern instructions were adequate, I wouldn't suggest retro patterns for your first go at a jacket, but if you've made one before you won't have any issues. The construction is very straightforward. I decided to bias bound the seams rather than bothering with french seaming, I feel less confident french seaming something if I haven't made before. I used some of this lovely flowery bias from France, but didn't have quite enough for all of it. I prioritised the visible areas and bias bound the sleeve seams with a different colour, I had a burnt orange in my stash that did the job.
Luckily, the shape of the underarm seam, where the side and sleeve seams meet, is fairly straight so I didn't need to clip into the corner and mess up my binding.
The pattern calls for an extra button hole and a hidden button, but I decided to just keep the two fake buttons (sewn on to front right) and the two buttons sewn onto left front that can go through the two button holes.
I had a bit of a nightmare sewing on the two buttons that actually go through the button holes. I think I sewed them.. ten times. Every time, when I tested it and did the jacket up, it hung weirdly and there was either excess fabric in-between the buttons or too little, they were either too low or too high. In the end I think it's okay, but it's not perfect, at least it's the best out of all my tries, but I don't really wear it closed anyway so it's fine. I've realised that my pockets are not on the same "latitude", I'm not sure how that happened as I adhered to the notches! I'm frustrated, but only just noticed it so that means it can't be that obvious.
I wasn't so impressed with the finishing in the pattern instructions, the hem was supposed to be slip stitched closed, and that would be so visible. I was going to just machine stitch it, until I saw that the hem goes through the front pockets because they are so low down (you can see the pin line in the photo below). Instead, I machine sewed the back piece, but invisible stitched by hand the hem closed over each front so that I could sew it without going through the pocket.
I ironed the lapels and eyeballed where they should start to fold over, then made sure the other front folded at the same point. After much ironing, I hand stitched the lapel down along the front from the bottom of the fold to the first 'corner' so that it always stays open like that. This also helps the fold stay crisp at the bottom because it's quite a slither of a fold over that doesn't like to stay flat. I also hand stitched the facing down along the shoulder seams and around its raw edge because it was all over the place before.
When I had got the jacket constructed enough to try it on, I was initially disappointed. It was smaller than I thought it would be, the low pockets looked odd and the shoulder seams felt like they were too far back, making the back bag outwards, so the fit felt pretty bad and I was worried this had turned into a fail. But, after finishing the collar properly it is much better. I don't think it's quite as well fitted as the kind of block I'm used to with modern jacket patterns, becuase the back definitely does bag out, but it's comfortable enough. I have worn it out and about and to two job interviews and its now my new favourite jacket.
Pattern: Vintage New Look 6502 Maudella
Fabric: 2.5m Rust linen Linen Medium 43 from My Fabrics.
Notions: 4 buttons, bias binding