The Watson jacket in funky plaid

This is my first Papercut pattern, the Watson jacket. I’ve bought some of their other patterns but this is the first one I’ve got around to making up and I’m ecstatic about how well it turned out. It’s a very well drafted pattern and was a dream to work with.

Here are the details:

I made a size small with no alterations, I didn’t even bother with a muslin. This was a fabric-a-brac bargain wool fabric so I wasn’t too bothered if it failed and had to be thrown out. The jacket was quick and easy to make, there are no fiddly details like pockets to slow the making process down but I cut it out in a single layer to match the pattern which was quite a long slow process.

The instructions were pretty good.  I’m used to working with big 4 patterns and the pattern illustrations are not quite as clear so I think this pattern would be better for a more experienced sewer.  I found the instruction for attaching the cape to the fronts a bit confusing but after a bit of trial and error pinning the cape in different positions and then looking at the result I figured it out.

The thread, lining and interfacing were all from my stash but I had to go shopping for my amazing buttons, they’re from Made on Marion in Wellington.

This is what I did that differed from the pattern instructions:

• I used a fusible interfacing on both the centre and side front panels, rather than just the centre as recommended in the pattern.
• I understitched the entire jacket edge after sewing the lining and facings to the outer. This is quite fiddly to do but it gives such a nice clean finished edge that it’s worth putting in the time and effort.
• I’ve got eight buttons instead of six, because why use only six when you have buttons this cool? I totally ignored the button placement on the pattern and put them where I thought they looked best.
• My front is pulled in a little more that the pattern specifies, I lined up my front edges with the princess seams because I wanted to avoid breaks in the continuity of the plaid pattern lines of the fabric.
• I cut the under collar on the bias and interfaced it with horsehair canvas. I normally do that for coat or jacket collars, it probably wasn’t necessary with this collar because it’s cut to sit very flat.

All of my changes wouldn’t be necessary to get a great result with this pattern, it’s just my personal preference to do things my way no matter what the pattern says to do.

For more photos and details check out my blog