Cookie Blouson Jacket

 

Hi! I am back today with more details on my Waffle Patterns Cookie Blouson. I made this jacket as part of my Momiform MAKEover post but I didn’t want to get too deep into details on that post or it would have been extremely long. I think it’s pretty safe to say that I spent more time on this jacket than any garment I’ve made recently! I’d been wanting to make this jacket for quite a while. I bought this wool/rayon plaid fabric at the end of last year with the intention of making it into this jacket. I was pregnant with Caroline at the time so I knew it would be a while until I actually did anything with the fabric. This pattern was the first thing I snapped up to sew for my Momiform MAKEover. Of course, it was the last thing I started sewing, which was a bit stressful because I’d never made a lined jacket before.

I got the ponte that I used for the collar, cuffs, and hem band from Imagine Gnats shop. I was so happy that it turned out to be the perfect color match for the wine color in the plaid. I really got hung up on finding the right zippers for the jacket. I knew I wanted zips with metal teeth and I thought a brass colored metal would look best with the color of the fabric. The pattern calls for really specific zipper sizes. Sizes that don’t seem to exist anywhere in the USA. I was on the hunt for a 25.9″ separating zipper in sort of an oatmeal color with brass teeth. And I needed two smaller zippers that matched to use on the pockets. I don’t even want to think about how many hours of my life I lost on the quest for these zippers. Somehow I ended up finding a 26″ separating zipper that matched my criteria on Cleaner’s Supply. They also had the small zippers that I needed! Hooray!

Once I got all of my supplies, including the rayon bemberg lining, I got to work. The jacket is unlined, but there is a tutorial on Yuki’s blog for how to line it. The actual construction of the coat went really smoothly. I got the outer coat made without any problems, but when I started in on the lining I realized the light bone colored lining fabric was so sheer that I could see all of the guts of the jacket right through it. I used the bemberg for the sleeves and made a last minute substitution of this awesome Lizzy House cat fabric that I had in my stash for the lining of the body. I think the lining is my favorite feature of the jacket!

I really had a few head-scratcher moments when I was attaching the lining to the jacket, expecially at the cuffs. Thankfully it all came together perfectly! The only real problem I had with the jacket came when I got to the point of installing the zipper. My zipper turned out to be too long. I know it’s possible to remove teeth from zippers so I tried that but wasn’t able to get any of the teeth to budge. I was up against a deadline and sort of started to panic. In a last ditch effort I ordered the next smaller size zipper from Cleaner’s Supply, which was 24″. Thank goodness they have super fast shipping! I got my new zipper within two days and was able to get the jacket finished. The zipper is a little bit short on either end, but I don’t think it’s something anyone would notice.

Now that I’ve gotten to wear this jacket out in the wild a bit there are a few things I would change if I make it again (which I would love to do for the spring if I could find a good floral fabric!) The pockets are really tiny and I can only get my whole hand in them if I ball my hands into fists. I can’t fit my cellphone all the way into the pocket so I would recommend making them bigger.  (By the way, I referenced April’s post about her Cookie Blouson a bunch of times as I was making mine and she recommended the same thing. But somehow I didn’t notice that part until it was too late!) Also, the back of the jacket seems to be a little bit shorter than the front. I wish I would have noticed this in the muslin stage! Next time I would lengthen the center back by 1.5″-2″ and taper it around to nothing at the center front.  I think I could also stand to go down a size through the bust and possibly raise the armholes a bit.

I am really proud of how my jacket turned out and I’m glad I tackled my first jacket lining. Thanks again to Yuki from Waffle Patterns and Andrea from Go To Patterns for the generous donation of this pattern!

~Teri