Sew Over It | Coco Jacket — The Notions Tin

Oh me oh my, how excited am I about this lovely project?! (Answer: very.)

Introduction

This is the Sew Over It Coco Jacket, sewn up in Jimmy (a British wool twill from Merchant and Mills) and Lili (woven modal from Atelier Brunette). Both were purchased from Miss Maude in New Zealand.

Fabric

Part of this excitement comes from the utterly delightful lining I've picked because, frankly, I feel a jacket or coat without beautiful lining is a missed opportunity. The constellations of blooming flowers give me so much pleasure, and I'm very happy with the way the lining combines with the structured wool twill. Both behaved really nicely during sewing, a pleasure to work with, and also behave nicely in the wearing. I took Coco to Italy and, after being compressed into my suitcase multiple times and coming out looking awful, a small amount of time hanging up largely got rid of the wrinkles (win!).

Process and Progress

I largely enjoyed working with the Sew Over It pattern. The directions were generally very clear good to follow. I have, however, a minor gripe with it. I bought the digital pattern and also used it digitally. But I found the quality of the photos sometimes let things down; when I wanted to zoom in to get a good look at aspects of construction I found they weren't high res enough. This might just be me but the 2mb is a little modest: maybe a larger file size could be offered.

This mostly came up for instruction number 20. I couldn't quite get a handle on what the instructions meant so turned to the photos, but couldn't really see what was going on. End result, I have a small tuck that I couldn't get rid of at the neckline (see picture below). Gnah, this is so minor and I sound damned whiny—you can't even see it from the outside!—but there you go.

Finish and Fit

All that being said, though, I'm delighted with the end result! SOI warn their patterns are for a close fit so I was very careful to avoid any vanity measuring on my part (a trap I can fall into, hehe) and am so pleased I did. I made a straight size 14, even though my bust measurement fits a size 12, and I think the extra size has helped to accommodate my slightly broader shoulders. There's not a lot of room in the sleeves for extra layers, so keeping an eye on sleeve width might be a good piece of vigilance.