Made By A Fabricista: First Fall Sew

First Fall Sew – A great beginner jacket pattern

Happy September to my sewing friends! So are you Team Fall or Team Summer? Do you count the moments until that first crisp Fall day or do you mourn the end of the warm summer nights? I’m definitely the former – especially because I work remotely most of the time and by August I’m ready for the kids to be gone from the house. Ok, maybe even by July!

And while we are on the topic of two teams, let me share the internal dialogue that went on last month between Practical Andrea and Creative Andrea. It went something like this….

Practical A – “OK, we need to get a jump on our September blog sew. August is gonna be insane with work, back to school, and still unpacking this house. Let’s plan ahead, check out the newest fabrics, and get started.”

Creative A – “Yes, yes, yes! I LOVE choosing fabric! Let’s do it!”

P.A – “OK, here we go. Let’s check out the knits, maybe choose something for a basic dress we can plan as a transitional piece from summer to Fall. A fast sew, we can wear it now, it’ll be great.”

C.A – “Oooooooo, LOOK at that rust denim twill! It’s gorgeous! We should make a jacket! Come on, we can find the time. We’ll just get started as soon as the fabric arrives.”

P.A – “No, that’s insane. We do not have time to make a jacket right now. Let’s look at the knits.”

C.A – “But that denim twill…..”

OK, I think you can guess who won this debate. 😊

So let’s talk about jackets! I made my first jacket two years ago and it felt like a huge accomplishment. There are lots of pieces and many techniques to apply, and maybe you’re learning them for the first time too. Unless your days are free and clear, it’s not a do in one sitting project, or even two, or three. But – I have a lot of tops. And dresses. And I’ve been working on my pants sewing skills the last 12 months...so I’m well stocked in that area too. A new jacket was a good investment of my time and energy, so I let Create Andrea win. And I squeezed in an 11th hour sew of some crazy coordinating Fall pants too. Here’s the whole outfit!

I decided to sew another version of Friday Pattern Company Ilford jacket. It’s a fan favorite in the sewing community for good reason – I’ll get to that shortly.  And you can buy the paper pattern at Fabric Mart!  I love this pattern for beginners and sewists of all levels for these features:

- GREAT step by step instructions

- Looser unisex fit for straight and curvy bodies – and very inclusive sizing

- Two options for length

- Two sleeve options – a boxy basic sleeve and a more complex version with a cuff

- Simple one-piece collar

- And TONS of pocket options; you get a slew of templates you can mix and match for your version

And as if Create Andrea hadn’t already taken me down the longer path with this sew, I also decided to do the cuffs sleeve version….more on that shortly….

All in all, this project did come together fairly quickly, given how many pieces there are to cut and sew. The methods in the instructions used to assemble the collar and the button placket are straight forward and clearly described for beginners. The button placket is just folding over the front versus a separate placket piece to attach and that’s definitely my preferred method for jackets and button-down tops. I had two small hiccups that were totally “user error” but I got creative and got myself back on track. Here were my challenges:

First, I was rushing a LOT when I did the cuffs and sleeve plackets and made careless errors TWICE, resulting in having to cut out a third version of one of the sleeves. Thank goodness I had an extra yard. By the third time, I decided to do a quick and dirty sleeve placket which is essentially just doing bias binding at the opening. But somewhere along the way I must have mismeasured something because my sleeve opening was too narrow for the cuffs. I got around that by letting the cuffs extend past the opening and then did a little fabric loop to fasten the button, like so:

And second, I was so excited about adding lots of pockets that I forgot that once I sewed a pocket on the inside, I couldn’t sew the pockets on the outside in the same location or else I would sew the inside pockets shut! I got around this by offsetting the tops of the pockets and sacrificing an inch of pocket depth on the inside. I still have a huge pocket for my phone (very important feature for me) – check it out!

And I couldn’t resist the temptation to sew up a quick pair of pants to match my new jacket. I used an ITY from my stash and sewed the Not So Basic Pants from Ellie & Mac, which are so quick because there are three pieces – one for each leg and a waistband. I wore a knit velvet top that I sewed up last year in another blog post. I was going for a fab Fall 70’s vibe. Did I go a little overboard? Perhaps. 😊

I am soooo happy with how this jacket turned out! The denim twill was a dream to sew. The rust color is sold out but as of late August, there were a few colors left. If you see any on the site, grab it! It’s wonderful.

Have you sewn a jacket? Did you enjoy the process or did you find it exhausting? It’s a decent size project but if you go slow, I bet you’ll end up with a piece you will love for years to come.

Happy Fall!

Andrea  |  @happy.things.here

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Unfortunately Fabric Mart Fabrics sell out quickly!
You can find similar fabrics by shopping the following categories: DENIM & TWILL.