Vogue 8301 - Military style jacket

I am such a copycat!  How many times have I wanted to make something I’ve seen on another blog?  Does it happen?  Very, very rarely.  But when I saw Erica’s denim jacket, there must have been a firecracker under my seat.  I have that pattern!  I have denim! (or, at least I think I do)

OOP - borrowed the picture from an Etsy shop, but it's sold out

I must have bought the pattern soon after it came out.  Periodically I would look at it, then put it away.  I was waiting for the perfect piece of wool.  I was waiting for the perfect event for which to sew this jacket.  Didn’t happen.  Now why didn’t I think of using denim??

So, yes, I had the pattern.  The denim that I had on hand was leftovers from a Minoru jacket (did I blog about that?) and leftovers of the exact same denim that I used for a pair of jeans.  Pieces.  As luck would have it, this jacket has a lot of pieces, and with some careful laying out, I managed all the important ones in denim. 

Facings had to be cut from a cotton print.  But that turned out well, too.  I had bought the piece for a summer top – nice neutral print in grey, with the hopes that laundering would soften it up some.  It didn’t soften at all, and I was kicking myself for being stupid enough to think that all that stiffness of the fabric was sizing.  As facing pieces on a denim jacket it worked perfectly.  Win, win.

The buttons came from stash.  One of those “Love those gotta have those” purchases.  I must have been thinking of this particular jacket at the time.  As it turned out, I had more buttons than the pattern called for, and the size was a tad smaller than required.  What the heck – let’s put all of them on the jacket and not leave any leftovers.  Yes, there are buttonholes under all those buttons, and hooks and eyes for closing the front.  I did not put in the shoulder pads as directed.

I LOVE this jacket!  Over the years (decades?) I’ve made a few “regulation” jean jackets.  I hardly ever wore them.  Just not “me”.  I’d try again a few years later with the same results.  (Took me a while to figure out that there was no need to keep trying out slight variations of the same thing.  The result would always be the same.)  A denim jacket, on the other hand, is something that my wardrobe could always use.  It works with so many bottoms, and even some dresses.

Soooooo….  Thank-you Erica for putting me on to such a great jacket!

And just for the heck of it – I made a pair of grey skinny jeans.  I needed (more) jeans.  I had the fabric (stretch brushed cotton).  It always feels better if I make a “full outfit”.  The jeans pattern is my self-drafted one – I just narrowed the legs.   Oh, I keep toying with the idea of buying another jeans pattern, but … why?  I’ve toiled over the fit of these, (still tweaking at times), and I really don’t want to start the whole fitting process again.  I should be able to just change up the leg style, if I wish, and the top remains fitting as I like.  Do I really need more than one (well-fitting) jeans pattern?  (Input please!)

even had enough grey print for the insides of the jeans - now is that a matching set or what!

P.S.  I actually sewed both of these in March/ early April, but pictures only happened yesterday.  Apologies for the wrinkles, but these items have been worn, and I was rushing to get some pictures while rain wasn’t coming down.