Some patterns sit in the catalogues for years.  Others vanish fairly quickly.  Simplicity 8058 is a Cynthia Rowley pattern that came out in early 2016 – but I can’t find it in the current online catalogue!  You’ll have to make do with my version.

This is one of those garments that made me smile during pretty much every stage of the making process. I cut and sewed size 12, and shortened the jacket through the body at the shorten/lengthen line around three centimetres, and the sleeves around a centimetre. I always dither about shortening sleeves. Sleeve length really varies between patterns – sometimes I need to shorten them, sometimes I don’t. It paid off with this one though.

I bought the fabric – a jacquard stretch denim – from Darn Cheap Fabrics a year or two ago. It was lovely to work with, and the resulting garment is very comfortable to wear. Actually, these photos were taken after a full day of wear and sitting in meetings – I think that it’s held up pretty well.

As the jacket is unlined, I decided to finish some of the facing edges with bias binding. I had some leftovers in my stash (I rather like making my own bias binding, and often make more than I need for the project at hand. It’s nice to then build up the stash in the drawer – and this is when it comes in handy). I used printed linen bias to finish the centre back seam allowances, and orange silk along the facing edges instead of simply overlocking them.

The pattern is designed for fabrics such as scuba or ponte, but has also worked well in this stretch denim. It also includes a skirt and pants pattern. When I bought the pattern I thought that maybe my daughters would eventually be interested in the skirt or pants – but for me this purchase was always about the jacket.

The collar really does sit beautifully.  The right lapel is larger than the left, and the left has some really nice seaming.  I also topstitched around the outer edge of the jacket.  I hand-sewed the neck seam of the outer to the neck seam of the facing with teensy stab stitches to keep it all nicely in place and to keep the collar standing up well.  I used good quality Freudenberg interfacing on the collar and facing pieces.  Good interfacing is so important!

I actually think that this jacket would benefit from some teensy shoulder pads. After living through the 80s and early 90s – where I would often discover that I was wearing a shoulder pad in my coat on top of a shoulder pad in my jacket on top of a shoulder pad in my blouse – it’s sometimes hard for me to remember the benefits of a shoulder pad. A small one really does provide support and give a nice line to the shoulders of a jacket. I might sew in some loop tape and try it on with some of the shoulder pads (that already have hook tape attached) that I still have in the back of my drawer.

I found the single button in my ‘single button jar’ – don’t you all have one of those? – and it’s just right for this fabric. There is a bound buttonhole on the other jacket front. I didn’t sew the button in the designated place (it wouldn’t have done up on me if I’d put it there) but tried it on and worked out where it would look best. I’m not likely to actually do this jacket up anyway.

Given that the Simplicity website currently only shows ten Cynthia Rowley patterns, I’d say that if you see one you like, buy it, as you never know when it will go out of print! I also wonder what effect the ‘Big Four’ pattern companies all now really being the Big One (in terms of company ownership) will have on the availability and accessibility of printed patterns. There is actually quite a lot going on in the world of home sewing.