The Style and Grace of Jackie (the Coat): Finished Object and Pattern Review

Guess what Y’all?

I made my first coat!

Isn’t she pretty?

This is Lena Merrin‘s Jackie Coat

(Click for source)

And I love her!

Supply Stats:

• 3 yards of wool blend jacket fabric from Fabric.com (no longer available)
• 1 yard of cotton silk blend lining for shell (more info below)
• 1 yard black Ambiance lining for sleeves purchased locally at Jo-Ann’s
• 5 purple coconut shell button and 5 small red buttons purchased locally at Jo-Ann’s

Pattern Stats:

• Cut a straight size 14 (yay for simple!)
• Shortened the coat 1.5″ since I am only 5’1″ and then I could squeeze the shell and pockets out of 1 yd of my slightly pricey cotton silk blend lining fabric

I first caught glimpse of this beautiful coat over on SewHopeful’s Blog. She raved about the style, the drafting, the instructions, everything!

I took a bit of a technique plunge with this pattern as I had never done welt pockets, bound buttonholes, or bagged a lining before.

I feel pretty accomplished now with all of the new sewing skills I picked up with this project.

As a novice at welt pockets, bound buttonholes, and lining bagging I was very pleased that Lena provided extra photo tutorials for these skills on her website. Her bound buttonhole method is pinned as being “the easiest bound buttonholes you’ve ever seen” and I tend to agree. I practiced it before cutting into my coat and I got a perfect and beautiful bound buttonhole on the first try.

For comparison,  I also tried the method on the Coletterie and found that I much preferred the simpler method and the look of the finished result of Lena’s method.

(Coletterie method on left, Merrin method on right)

Her Jacket Bagging: That Tricky Corner tutorial was unbelievably clean and easy, but provided a crisp professional finish with absolutely no hand sewing!

If you are oohing and aahing about my lining, it is from Spoonflower. I got the cotton silk blend. It had vibrant colors and was a dream to sew with, very nice! The only issue is it comes in a 40″ width.

The photo tutorial provided for the welt pocket construction was a little confusing for a newbie like me, but only because the fabrics in the photos don’t have an obvious right and wrong sides, so I didn’t know which way to put things. A quick flurry of tweets to Lena with a few attached pics cleared things right up, but if you’re curious I’ve included here the information I would have liked to have seen in the tutorial:

(Left:  extra lines to draw in the welt go closer to the coat opening; Right: welt is attached to the pocket bag lining on the right side)

(Left: lay welt side down on front of the right side of the coat in middle of welt rectangle; Right: lay fabric pocket bag right side down in middle if welt rectangle right next to the welt and pocket bag lining)

Here’s more photos of me wearing the coat:

Front View, Unbuttoned

Front View, Buttoned

Back View

Side View

Sleeve uncuffed versus cuffed. You can’t tell in this photo, but if my arm is down the sleeve reaches to my wrist, so technically I could wear the coat with full length sleeves. But, bear in mind, I am short (5’1″) so you may not be able to do this.

My original inclination was to cut a size 14 and grade to a size 16 in the hips, but after conferring with Lena she thought there should be enough ease in the coat without grading, so I didn’t and cut a straight 14. In retrospect, maybe I should have graded, a little. When the coat is buttoned it doesn’t fall straight from my shoulders to my hips like a proper swing coat should, but instead curves in a little around the small of my back. Not a deal breaker, for sure, but if I ever want to make this coat again (which I WILL when I need another coat) I would grade the hips up a size.

Just in case you haven’t seen enough photos, here’s a few more:

Outer and inner buttons

Sleeve Lining

Inside the pocket (hello there little Russian doll looking back at me 🙂 )

Progress shot of inside the coat before sewing up seams and attaching the lining.

And if you have made it this far through this post I will treat you with the only photo of the inside of the jacket while I am wearing it, also know as the most hilarious picture of me

EVER

TAKEN

Happy Sewing!