Today I’m sharing a me-made jacket! I am not much of a jacket or coat maker but I’m happy to sew that I’ve been wearing this one a lot since I finished it a couple of weeks ago. Living in Southern California, I can get away with wearing just a sweater most of the year so I usually don’t have a lot of interest in sewing jackets and coats. But, last summer, I saw this jacket on Instagram and decided that I just had to copy it. I was drawn in by the unique shape and especially the dramatic lantern sleeves.
The pattern is the Falda Jacket by Pattern Fantastique. The IG post in question was on their feed and featured this pattern made up in a dark denim. I quickly bought the pattern, printed it out and then set it aside for months. I was looking for the right fabric and distracted by other projects.
Around the end of September, I found a non-stretch denim in the LA fashion district. This pattern calls for a fairly stiff fabric (alternately they advise that you can block fuse your fabric with interfacing to stiffen it). This denim was very stiff when I bought it but softened a lot when I washed it. I was really surprised how much it softened up. But, I didn’t want to bother with block fusing so I just went ahead as is.
The new year came around and I still hadn’t sewn this jacket. So, to encourage myself to get it done, I put the pattern on my Make Nine list. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been slowly working on it. I assembled the pattern, pondered the sizing, made pattern adjustments, cut out the fabric and finally sewed it together.
The pattern pieces are some of the most unusual that I’ve ever used. This was not an easy pattern by any means. It didn’t help that the instructions are exclusively in metric. I would recommend this for an intermediate to advanced sewist or someone who is very adventurous. I definitely felt challenged.
I made a size 10 and added 2.75” to the length of the body and .5” to the length of the sleeves. I think I probably could have added another .5” to the sleeves. For reference, I’m 5’11” and my bust is about 38.5”. Also, my arms are not super long, considering my height. The thing with these sleeves is they're fine when my arms are hanging down but when I lift up my forearms (for example, when driving) the sleeves ride up on my arms and get stuck. It’s annoying and my wrists get cold. That’s really my biggest gripe about the jacket.
If you look at other photos of this jacket, you’ll notice that the zipper goes all the way to the hem. I had a 20” zipper in my stash that was navy and metal so I used it. I like the added detail that the little open slit at the hem adds.
For the lining of the jacket, I used a variety of red flannel scraps from my stash. I love how soft they feel as a lining. I also really love that I was able to use fabric from my stash and I don’t mind at all that it’s a mix of plaids. I actually kind of prefer it that way. It’s like my own little secret.
In this pattern, View B is lined with welt pockets and View A is unlined with patch pockets. I wanted to have a lining with patch pockets but the instructions weren’t very helpful in figuring that out. In the instructions, the patch pockets are attached after a lot of other steps and you sew through a bunch of layers but I didn’t want to topstitch the pockets on through the lining. By the time, I attached the pockets it was a little awkward but I managed to do it through just one layer. After the jacket was all assembled, I added bar tacks to the pockets through all layers. The bar tacks stabilize the pockets but they are mostly decorative. If I had one thing to change about this jacket, I’d line the pockets with flannel too. It would be so soft!!
This jacket is such a cool design and I’m very happy that I made it. The whole process took me a lot longer than I would have liked. It’s unlikely that I will make this jacket again although I’m sure that the second time around would be much quicker. By the way, I’m wearing a Lou Box Top and unblogged Ginger Jeans with the jacket. More jeans may be in my future because I have probably at least two yards of this denim fabric leftover. But first, a few easier projects will be in order. It’s all about balance for me!
