Threads - for people who love to sew

Making a Jacket: Part I

Dry-iron the pieces of tissue to remove creases. This makes every subsequent step more accurate.

Cut em out and line em up: This is the mise-en-place for your sewing project.

A single-layer layout ensures perfect alignment on the fabric grain.

Dry-iron the pieces of tissue to remove creases. This makes every subsequent step more accurate.

Photo: Ann Steeves

As you know from reading this blog, I enjoy quick projects. But now that the holidays are over, I can take my time and make something bigger. After reading Amber Eden's letter about Slow Sewing in No. 135 of our sister publication, Threads, I was inspired. I decided to slow down and make something whose instructions don't begin with, "Start with a rectangle X inches by Y inches." I decided to make a jacket.

I love jackets. For me, they are one of the most fulfilling garments to make. They look good with everything from skirts to jeans, and they can instantly transform a look. I decided to use Vogue Basic Design pattern number 7975, View C. This is a semi-fitted, cropped, princess-line jacket in the Chanel style. Come along with me and I'll show you how I make this jacket from start to finish.

Even Sewing has a Mise en Place
"Mise en place" is a cooking term that means to "set in place," or to prepare your station and all the ingredients you'll need. Sewing is very similar. Often, you can spend more time prepping your pattern than sewing it. But once all your elements are in place, you can zip right through construction.

Prep the Pattern and Fabric
The first step to using any pattern is cutting the individual pattern pieces from the sheet. Once I've done this, I use a dry iron to press the creases out of the tissue. This ensures that I have no distortion when I'm cutting my fabric. It also allows me to readily do any pattern alterations or manipulations. (For the purposes of this article, I'm not going to talk about fitting alterations. We'll get to that another time.)

Dry-iron the pieces of tissue to remove creases.

Cut out individual pattern pieces from the sheet.

Pretreat your fabric, if necessary, then press your yardage (in a single layer) to get out any wrinkles and straighten the grain, if needed. (For a great video on straightening grain, check out Straighten Your Grain.)

Get Best Results with a Single Layer
When laying my pattern on fabric, I prefer to use a single-layer layout. This means that I spread my fabric out in one layer and cut each piece twice. Make sure you flip your pattern piece over when you cut it the second time, otherwise you may end up with two left sleeves! Before anyone starts groaning, there are several good reasons to do this. First, using a single-layer cutting layout can reduce the amount of fabric I need to make the garment. According to the pattern envelope, a size 14 requires 2 yards of fashion fabric. In fact, by cutting one piece at a time, I used less than 1 1/2 yards. Second, I can control the exact placement of the pattern and make sure it's aligned with the grain. I do this by folding my pattern piece along the printed grainline. Then I line that up with the grain of the fabric.