Atop a gilded chariot, the fanfare blaring as confetti drifts slowly to the ground, I wave to the fans, a queenly wave, as my jacket billows around me.

JK. I made the jacket I designed! It’s the greatest jacket in the world. (It’s not, but you know how that goes.)

I used a lovely blue denim linen from Mood. It’s soft and has a nice drape/weight.

The lining is a voile remnant I bought locally. I got 10 yards of it! Wowza! The color reminds me of macaroni and cheese.

I did not put pockets in it. Poopers. If I had moved forward with the in-seam pockets I had planned, the opening would only be about 3″. That is not enough! I considered putting a welt pocket in the lining, however the lining is rather transparent and the pocket bag would be glaringly obvious.

My plan for the next one is to put a welt pocket on the shell, bisecting the princess seam. I have to do some research on that first.

This jacket doesn’t have a notched collar. It fastens with three lil kitty buttons.

The shoulders turned out better than I expected. The Bowie jacket inspiration has exaggerated shoulders. I did not intentionally make mine exaggerated, because Bowie’s jacket clearly has shoulder pads and that is beyond me for now.

However, my shoulders are bigger than average. Between that and the slightly gathered sleeve cap, the shoulder looks big like Bowie’s. Woohoo!

I constructed the lining and shell simultaneously, step by step. The princess seams and inner yoke seam all got top-stitched. I used my pinking shears to finish all the edges.

Combining the shell and the lining was the only step that gave me problems. The necklines matched perfectly but the bottom edge of the shell was about 2″ too big. On paper, the pieces fit but in reality they did not.

I matched up the center backs, center fronts, and neckline pinning in place and laying the jacket as flat as possible. Then I could see it wasn’t the width of the shell, it was the curvature and length causing the fracas. I pinned the lining down and trimmed the excess. It matched!

Connecting the shell and lining sleeves is a hem facing, which I machine stitched to the shell and folded inward. Then I folded and pressed the raw edge at .5″, which I secured to the lining with a herringbone stitch.

Finally, I pressed and top-stitched around the whole thing.

• 

• 

• 

• 

The next 2 jackets I planned will be the same cut but with different collars and pockets. I have to get the pocket dilemma sorted out. I don’t want to compromise the fit or the style, but, like all humans, I want to have pockets.

Cheers!