Stevie Jeans Jacket Finally Finished

This is a post all about catching up. I’m catching up on blogging this finished article which was catching up on finishing a UFO which was catching up on a project that had been waiting a long time to be done.

Way back, almost at the beginning of this blog’s life, I shared the need for a jeans jacket. (Jump to the end) It was a bit of a shock to realise it took me 5 years to actually make one.

I chose the Stevie Jeans jacket as it looked like it had all the classic jeans jacket elements that I wanted and it was slightly oversized so that it would fit over jumpers/hoodies if necessary.

I’ve had a bit of a thing for denim-style clothes made from textiles other than denim and so here I chose corduroy for my jacket. I found this electric blue fabric and fell for it.

This project fell foul of a lot of procrastination. I cut it out in 2019 and it was on my #makenine list for that year. For some reason, I put it aside. I even made a different version of the same pattern – this Crystal Organza version for #designindecember, before I got around to finishing this one.

Just like jeans, there are a lot of pieces to a jeans jacket, about 30 based on the diagram. Add to that, the fact that is a pattern from Style Arc, who are notorious for their sparse instructions. I don’t think they are intended for novice sewists. These factors can make a project like this quite daunting. However, in reality, it is quite straightforward if you have some experience. The order of operations is logical and there was only one point where I had to improvise; instructions for attaching the cuff were missing.

As always, I had some elements that I wish I’d done differently. I did want the traditional details but kept it quite toned down using the same colour thread for the top stitching. I now wish I had gone for a contrasting thread. I also ended up with buttons that I’m not keen on. I wanted some light horn effect buttons but could only find dark ones. These dark brown faux horn buttons are also too small and are almost invisible against the fabric. There isn’t much I can do about the top stitching but I want to change the buttons at least but so far haven’t found the ones I like and this probably means I may never get around to it. Another thing is that this corduroy it much lighter in weight than I anticipated. I finished this jacket back in November and found it was not that warm. I want to line it with something so I can wear it year-round. I plan to make a removable lining but again, that requires finding the right material and designing the inner layer the way I want it. Watch this space for both of these changes.