Minerva Bloggers Network - Butterick 5298 and the Tartan Challenge

It may be spring, but there are still some chilly days - going jacket less still isn't quite a possibility. That's why I decided to make Butterick 5298 to wear on these in-between days.

As you can see, it's a re-print from Butterick's archives of a swing jacket from 1946, I loved it the moment I saw it - the wide shoulders, the deep cuffs and wide sleeves - what's not to love? And I love anything swingy and swishy. I also wanted to re-create a dressy looking Pendleton-type jacket, with a more feminine look to it.

Source - Vintage Vixen

As for fabric, I loved the working with the fabric I used on a previous Minerva project of mine, my Christmas tartan skirt, and it's the perfect look and weight for what I was trying to achieve. And despite being warm and soft like wool, it's actually a clever mix of polyester, acrylic, and rayon, so there's none of the scratchiness that comes with wool.

I actually had a fair bit left over from the skirt (I'm terrible at estimating fabric quantities...) so I only needed a little bit more to complete the jacket, which luckily was still in stock at Minerva.

And it turned out I had just enough! It took 3 evenings of crawling around on the living room floor to get this monster cut out, and I used pretty much every scrap:

This was all that was left...

More than anything, it was tiring cutting this out because of all the decisions that had to be made regarding what would match and what wouldn't. I wanted to match the obvious, such as the centre front and back:

Centre front and yoke matching at the neckline. I marked the centre front with a yellow tacking stitch to help

I also wanted to match the front and back yoke to it's respective pieces. But when it came to side seams and cuffs - forget it! Side seams were left to do what they wanted, and with the cuffs I was sneaky and cut them on the bias, so no matching needed!

Cuff detail

As is always the way with me, I put more work than was probably necessary into the insides of the jacket. I didn't want to use stiff, glue-y interfacings that would affect the drape of the cloth, so I opted for sew in hair canvas. I cut all the pieces - yoke front and back, front facing, cuffs - with the seam allowances removed so there would be no bulk in the seams. Then it was all attached to the pieces using herringbone stitch:

Back yoke with interfacing stitched in place

I also cut long strips of bias and placed them in the sizable hem to add a nice weight:

Bias strips stitched in place, and then hem attached to it

Enough of the detail - here it is!:

And it has pockets!:

Side seam pockets

The collar grows out of the yoke, then fastens with a single button. This was meant to be a bound buttonhole, but I couldn't be bothered, so I sewed a snap on under a button from my stash. 

Despite being loose and swingy, the shoulders of the jacket are very fitted and sit quite snugly, so the jacket sits firmly in place. This is partly down to the curved seams at the shoulders, which round shoulder pads are stitched to:

Pressing the shoulder seams open 

It's all lined with a bright red polyester, which was sewn in by machine, but then attached at the hem by hand. 

And that's pretty much it! If you like the look of the fabric, head over to Minerva and check it out.

See you soon!