Vintage Jacket finished..... The reveal.

So a while back I started a vintage jacket make from the late 50's from a pattern I picked up on eBay. Vogue 9445, size 40.

Read part 1 here and part 2. Today I finished it and am very happy. I chose a nice black pin corduroy, silver lining for the body and red lining for the sleeves. Silver plain metal buttons (with a gold one for the left sleeve, as per my normal trademark). I went for the 3 button version with welted, flap pockets and followed the pattern word-for-word.

I won't bore you with all the details as you can read them from the last posts but it certainly was a different make. The pattern had no markings printed and was already cut to size (no multi-size patterns like now). The 'markings' needed where holes punched in the pattern pieces (circles, triangle and squares in various sizes).

It went together well and the instructions were really clear. I found lots of old techniques mentioned that we just don't see on patterns today. I have never done so much hand-stitching on any jacket I have made before but it has been really enjoyable. I feel that we take so many shortcuts nowadays. I appreciate that we like to get things done with the minimal amount of fuss but the finish just isn't the same.

Pad-stitching the collar, lapel and facings really did take time but resulted in a beautiful finish . I shall certainly take some of the 'old' techniques forward into future makes. Little details were everywhere: Normally you make the jacket, make the lining and bag attach but here all the lining pieces were individually hand stitched in place, the rear vent has a lovely facing to the inside and this is the first time I have made internal pockets!

I estimate that this jacket took at least 50% longer to make because of the small differences to todays patterns but would I make another vintage pattern? YES! Most definitely. It was lovely seeing it come together and I will be scouring the Internet for more vintage patterns.

So here it is...

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