This is the Lupin jacket, and I adore it. It's one of my new favourite things.
I went about making this in rather an ill-advised way. As in, I cut it out the week before I had to move out and started sewing it up the night before I moved out. Despite the fact that my outerwear-making experience is minimal, I had never sewn welt pockets before in my life, and I still had quite a lot of packing to do. I was an enormous stressbucket while making this jacket.
Here, have an extremely attractive face-full-of-hair shot. It wasn't even windy out but EVERY attempt at this photo looks like this. Confusing breezes!
The fabric is a dark green crepe I bought months ago, intending to make a pair of high-waisted 1940s trousers. I kept putting off buying the pattern because I have a lot of patterns and I knew it would be a fairly intensive project, and about a month before the move I acknowledged that I didn't have the time, the inclination, or the resources to buy a vintage pattern, make a toile, make adjustments, probably make another toile, and make the final pair of trousers. I considered using the fabric for a 1940s wrap dress but decided this colour wouldn't be great on me as a solid dress, and hit on the idea of making the jacket a few days before I cut it out. I knew it would work but was also a bit annoyed that I'd thought of it, because jacket making is a lot more intense than just bashing out eighteen more tulip skirts.
You may have spotted, however, that I did have enough left over to make a tulip skirt. I had absolutely no intention of wearing them together when I made the skirt and only really put them both on for a laugh, but looking at it now I think there is a worrying chance that I actually might go out like this. I made the skirt knee-length originally thinking it would be a good work skirt, but when I tried it on before hemming I realised I wouldn't wear it. It's slightly the wrong colour green to look good with many other colours, and I suspected that wearing a knee-length skirt in this colour with a black top would just feel drab and a bit frumpy. That's why I cut it shorter; the reason it's quite this short is that I asked my boyfriend for advice on the length. I don't know how wise that is as a strategy.
My welt pocket making didn't go quite as it should. The instructions assumed you basically knew the mechanics of a welt pocket and were just reminding you of the steps, but I did not know the mechanics of a welt pocket and was too stressed to remember to look up an in-depth tutorial. I will be doing so at the nearest opportunity and practising before I make anything else which requires them, but these look basically OK. They don't look like double welt pockets, but they look like pockets.
I used the remaining fabric from my Patrick dress for the lining. It's Liberty tana lawn so it feels lovely. I also had just about enough left over to make pockets for the tulip skirt, making this the hardest-working piece of fabric in recent memory. I like the surprise pretty lining and I like that if I wear this jacket with that dress it secretly matches. At some point I want to get some bright silk and make a top and a jacket/cape lining with it because I saw Phryne Fisher do that once and I thought it was amazing. (Inspiration post forthcoming.)
[Marge Simpson voice] Your lifelong dream was to be a 1980s catalogue model, and you did it in September this year, remember?
In terms of differing from the instructions, I didn't do all the recommended topstitching because I didn't have any appropriately-coloured thread, and I stitched down the cuffs by hand (I couldn't get them to fit under my presser foot). I also haven't sewn buttons on the tabs. I was planning to, but I'm weird about buttons and hate 99.9% of them. I had a vision of basically the only buttons I would accept and I couldn't find them. If I do happen upon them at some point, I will go back and put them on this jacket because I think a little bit of silver at the shoulders would be nice.
In conclusion, YES. This pattern is exactly what I was looking for. It's not going to become tulip skirt common around here or anything, but as a default light jacket pattern it's perfect. I have plans for one more in a light neutral, probably pale grey or blush, and I'm debating whether my wardrobe would be better for the inclusion of a jacket that's bright turquoise or bright red or bright fuchsia. I suspect that it might be.
Styling!
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