Moto Chic Jacket from SBCC Patterns

I'm writing this post from the sofa of a near and dear friend (I've been sleeping on it), halfway through a busy and beautiful tour of Canada's west coast. There have been hikes, wine giggles, sushi, a little rain, meetings with sewing friends, and so so so much coffee (I've been spamming instagram with pictures of mountains and oceans if you're curious). There has also been near constant heartburn which I always and only seem to get the minute I go on vacation. I think it's a Type A allergic reaction to leisure.

I had an overly ambitious plan to sew a travel capsule wardrobe before I left, but I only managed to make two of the dozen or so projects I had jotted down in a sewing fever dream. This linen baby was one of them. I was in need of a sleek little coat to feel put together while living out of a suitcase, and for the approximately one and a half weeks of appropriately cool weather I can expect upon my return to Montreal at the end of the month. Thankfully, it's Sewing Indie Month and I had an excuse to finally tackle the "bucket list" Moto Chic Jacket from SBCC patterns. Betsy sent me the pattern and I experimented with adding some rock n' roll zippers at the wrist; the tutorial is live on her blog now.

There are a few motorcycle jacket patterns out there but I love the soft ruffle on this one - it nips in the waist and gives you a very va-va-voom shape, especially from the back. That combination of hard and soft will always be alluring. I made her with a lovely herringbone linen I bought in a huge Craigslist haul a few years back. It's the same stuff I used for the zipper tab on my Cascade coat and it's lovely stuff; medium weight with a crisp hand and basically in lust with the iron. Rather than a silk or bemberg lining, I went for fun with a bright cotton wax print voile from Vlisco. All the various zips came from my zipper box.

The zipper at the sleeve is a fun detail, and I love how it looks against the bright pop of the lining.

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The drafting for this pattern is pretty much impeccable. Betsy is a master draftswoman and it shows - the sleeve is a thing of beauty. Since she drafts for petites, I did have to make a few tweaks to the pattern. I lengthened the body by 1" and the sleeves by 1/2"; I think the overall fit is pretty good considering I forwent a muslin.

As far as jackets go, I found this project pretty speedy since there is no real tailoring, per se. The sleeves had barely any ease built in (LOVE) so setting those babies in was a snap. The trickiest part was probably installing the zipper and bagging the lining since the hip ruffle stymied my usual method. I had to do quite a bit of hand stitching at all the weird little corners my machine couldn't reach. The instructions lean towards the sparse side, so I would recommend this pattern for more intermediate stitchers; if you've had experience making jackets before, you shouldn't have a problem figuring it out.

I've been wearing it A LOT on this trip and feel super chic even when I'm sleeping on couches and air drying my hair because apparently you west coast granola types (I'm speaking directly to my best friends right now) DON'T HAVE HAIRDRYERS. *east coast shuddering*. I also failed to bring any kind of rain coat on this trip, so hopefully Portland and Seattle won't be too cold when I'm there next week (if only I could have zipped up the new Cypress Cape from Sewaholic for my trip!) Are you working on any transitional outerwear at the moment?