Isn’t it great that everything old is new again?  I’m now at that age where I see the way that fashion cycles throughout the years.  Much of what Clare wears is reminiscent of what I wore in the 80s; much of what Stella wears reminds me of the early 90s.  This pattern dates back to the 70s – my childhood.

This jacket is Simplicity 6620, without any style or fit changes. It’s in the size that was already cut out, and once again it’s from a Junior Petite size range. I really need to set up some alerts on eBay/Etsy etc for Junior Petite patterns; they work so well for Clare!

Isn’t that jacquard fabulous! It has all the colours that Clare loves to wear. But – it’s a remnant (from The Cloth Shop). I had SO many attempts at playing pattern tetris to not only fit all the pattern pieces on the remnant, but to keep the directionality the same way for paired elements. It was a struggle – and it’s one that I lost. In the end I used a contrast scrap of cashmere for the lower back piece.

I am going to deluge you with photos of this jacket because I love it so much! It’s unlined, and the jacquard was fray prone. I overlocked edges very smartly after each seam was sewn, and took advantage of the double rows of topstitching to keep things secure.

This took a little while to sew. Lots of pieces, lots of cutting out, a few darts, lots of seams, lots of topstitching. All so worth it!

We chose to sew the topstitching and buttonholes in pink, and found some minty blue-green buttons in stash that worked nicely with the variety of pastels in the jacquard.

These 70s patterns have lots of shaping through darts and incorporation in the seamlines. Darts at places like the back neck (and you often see them at the elbow in vintage patterns) really do make a difference in fit, yet they’re so rarely used in current patterns. When I see darts in patterns I often inwardly groan, but I don’t know why! They’re not actually hard to sew, and don’t even take long! I wonder what’s happening in the recesses of my mind that makes me resist darts?

There’s enough ease in this jacket to go over Clare’s crochet jumpers. It definitely works in well with the rest of her wardrobe.

Now I should get on with sewing Clare the pink cashmere coat that has been cut out for months (the urgency vanished when lockdown started…)