Okay, this jacket was sewn and photographed last June.  How did it miss being blogged?  It’s a good thing that it’s never too late.

This is a great jacket. It’s Lekala 4114, described only as “Jacket with bell sleeves”. Andrea also has a blog post on it here.

Those fantastic sleeves were what drew me to the pattern. As it is a Lekala pattern, it is ordered to your measurements. The instructions were mostly adequate, but I did have to think quite a lot when I was doing the lining.

I used wool from stash (originally from the Darn Cheap Fabrics $2 table – it’s pretty scratchy, so needed to be used for a lined garment, and I still have loads of it left). The lining was a polyester satin remnant, also from Darn Cheap Fabrics.

I needed to refer to reference books to do the lining. The instructions simply had you use the same pieces as the front and back, but it also included front and back facings and I knew that I’d need to remove fabric from the lining pieces to match up with the facings. Is that as clear as mud? I cut out front and back pieces from the lining, with added length to allow for wearing ease. I then traced the facings onto the wrong side of the front and back lining pieces, then added twice the seam allowance and drew another line closer to the edge of the fabric. You really do need to refer to a good tailoring book to really know what I mean here, I suspect! These sections were then cut off, and the lining sewn to the facings. From memory I constructed the lining with slightly smaller seam allowances than the main jacket – wearing ease once again!

The sleeve lining was treated in a similar way. I used the sleeve pattern pieces to cut out sleeves in lining, shortening them a little to accommodate the sleeve hem but allow for wearing ease in the lining so it would form a little fold when sewn to the sleeve hem. Oh boy, this is hard to explain. I then bagged out the lining, after reading instructions from a variety of reference books and tutorials. Sometimes it’s good to get information in a number of ways to see which one clicks best with you! I particularly referred to this and this and this tutorial to sew that inside corner when the hem, facing and lining come together.

In this next photo you can just see the topstitching that I did either side of the sleeve seamline and above the front and back yoke seamlines. The sleeve hems were also topstitched down. The front and neck edges were under stitched to stop them rolling to the outside, then were topstitched in place and they are sitting crisply. The bottom hem is interfaced and sits well too.

This is certainly a jacket that stands out! The colour is vibrant and the sleeves have added drama. Once again, the cropped sleeves actually work quite well in a Melbourne winter.

Whenever I work with wool wovens I wonder why I don’t do it more often. They respond so beautifully to steam and can be shaped beautifully, and there is that lovely smell whenever they are pressed. Most wool wovens aren’t as scratchy as this one, but that easily be overcome in lined garments. Maybe I need to sew myself a skirt from some of the remaining fabric? Although maybe wearing a suit in this colour would be a bit too vibrant even for me…