Sewn: Vogue 9275 - Jacket

Back in September, I made a list of 4 items that I wanted to make before December. On the list - Closet Case Patterns Kalle shirt, and shirtdress; a black silk noile Named Helmi tunic dress, and the Named Lexi dress. December came and went, with three out of four projects completed. Nowhere on this list was this jacket, but here we have it anyway! An unanticipated queue jumper.

The pattern is Vogue 9275, which I picked up thinking I would make the drawstring neck top. Fabric is a dark green soft-shell from Fabricland, with ribbing from the deep stash. The fabric has a water resistant face, with a black poly fleece backing. This was definitely a case of the fabric dictating the pattern choice!

There's been a fair bit written about the sizing of this pattern, that I wish I had known before making my size decision. My measurements land right in the Large, but if the pattern split for sizes had included the Medium, I would have gone with the smaller size. The ease in this "oversized" jacket is very generous, and the shoulders are quite boxy. Because this fabric has so much body, I felt it was ok to proceed, but I toyed with ordering the smaller size range pattern. When I'm using numbered size Vogue patterns, the smaller range is definitely too small, so this was a bit frustrating. There are some great versions of this pattern , and I think they all sized down! When there are only 6 sizes, in this case XS -XXL, I really wish they were all included in one envelope.

Roomy!

Back view - definitely too big. 

I did deviate from the instructions - I chose not to line this jacket, as that would have defeated the purpose of the fleece backing of the fabric. Instead I bound all of the seams in black bias tape, and drafted a facing for the centre fronts and back neck. The sleeves are lined, though, to make them easier to slide on. I also added a shoulder pad made of two layers of the fashion fabric, as the shoulders were really collapsing on me - I'm quite narrow in the shoulder anyway, but they looked terrible! The biggie, of course, is that I swapped out the side seam pockets for welt pockets.

The insides - look at all those bound seams! I think there are at least 12 yards of bias tape inside this jacket.

The pockets were quite the trial, as I didn't think things through all the way, and made the welt first, as in this tutorial. I struggled with them for a while before my partner pointed out that they would look much nicer if the short ends were contained in the pocket openings, similar to this method. I actually didn't follow either of these, but they give you some idea of the different types of welt pockets you can choose from.

Since I hadn't bothered making a test pocket, even though I had loads of fabric left to play with, this meant ripping out the first pocket and re-sewing every step. An hour of my life I will not see again! Pocket number 2 went in in about 20 minutes. The good news is, they look great. I'm so happy with my pocket placement and the style, the agony is almost forgotten. I really doubt I would want to wear this jacket with the intended side seam pockets, they would be ridiculously far back.

Pockets in action!

The pockets weren't the only part to give me grief, my many misadventures were documented on Instagram, including putting the zip in backwards!

Needless to say, I was very happy to have this project finished. I'm not one to put things aside and sew something else, so it needed to be done so that I could move on. Still undecided whether I really like the end result, maybe it will be worn more come the spring.

Feel free to share your sewing mishaps - I'd love to commiserate!