McCall's 7729 Jean Jacket

I have a couple of jean jackets,  but I decided I needed a "plain" one.  I saw McCall's 7729 cropped jacket (View A) and fell in love with it.

So how did I end up with NOT a "PLAIN" jean jacket?  I chose to use a dark navy blue thread that would not stand out too much and I chose fabric that I ended up hating.  After I had just about completed it, I looked at it and thought what a boring, ugly jacket.  I needed to add some color so I wouldn't toss it in the trash.

How I Did It

With all the fabric I have in my stash, I bought fabric for this project.  I have some nice quality denim in my stash but it is slated for another project (about 3 years it has been sitting now 😉).  I am proud of myself though - when purchasing the fabric I limited my self to what I needed for this project and I also limited the notions I bought.

I should have really inspected this fabric before buying it because the quality is not so great and after all the hours I put into making this jacket I am not sure it will last that long.

This is an over sized jacket so I was tickled pink when I took pattern measurements and realized I would not have to make my normal adjustments.  I still did have to remove 3" from the sleeve length.

Shorten Sleeve 3"

I was stitching along at a pretty good clip.  I stitched the fronts, backs, collar, and the sleeve pieces.  Then my sewing came to a screeching halt because of the sleeves.

I think I ended up sewing the sleeves in and removing them about 4 times and it was all my fault.

I basted the sleeves in the armhole and tried on the jacket and knew something was not right.  I kept looking and thought the gathering on the sleeve head was off (it was bad).  I took the sleeves off and stepped away for a day.

The next day I re-did the gathering on sleeve head, basted the sleeve in, and tried it on again - something was still off.  Again I thought it was my gathering.  I took the sleeves off and stepped away for another day.

The next day I used my gathering foot to do my gathers (it was bit tough with the denim fabric but it was doable).  I have to admit using the gathering foot made my gathers perfect.  I basted the sleeves in and tried it on again but something was still wrong.  It's amazing I didn't toss the jacket at this point.

I kept looking in the mirror and finally realized the real problem - the shoulder seam dropped below my shoulder.  I figured out how much it was and removed 5/8" from the shoulder area at the center seam and graded it down to nothing on each side.

Remove 5/8" from Shoulder Area

I basted it in and tried it on - finally success!  The next problem I encountered with the sleeve was trying to match the sleeve seam to the front jacket seam.  After about 5 or 6 tries I admitted defeat and got it as close as I could.  After resolving the first sleeve issue, I didn't have enough patience to deal with the second issue.   There were things I could have done to make it easier but I was still frustrated from the first issue and just wanted the jacket completed.

I looked at my jacket and hated it.  It was bland, it was boring, and I hated the fabric.  I had to step away for another day.

I added embroidery to it to try and "spice" it up.  I love love love color, so why I thought a "plain" jean jacket would satisfy me still escapes me.  I had some Japanese drawings that came with my CorelDRAW 2017 software and I saved them as png files and brought them into my Hatch Embroidery Software to digitized them.  I used different fills in Hatch to give the design a little variety.

I had a few stitch out hiccups and had to use my permanent color pens to fix a couple problems but otherwise it turned out pretty good.

I don't if I missed the instructions for finishing the bottom of the jacket or if they were missing for View A.  I knew I would not be happy with a raw edge so I had to step away for another day.  The next day I thought about adding the band to the bottom like the other views but then I would have needed to do a round back adjustment ahead of time.

I finally decided I would use some decorative cotton Madeira thread from the Madeira Overlock Inspiration Decorative Serger Thread Set.

When stitching buttonholes I always put a piece of leftover embroidery stabilizer underneath (it will wash out).  I made my buttonholes vertical instead of horizontal because my buttons were a bit larger and I didn't want to take the chance of running into bulk of the front bands.  Also, instead of 2 buttonholes on the cuffs I used one because I didn't have enough buttons.

The Completed Jacket

Conclusion

The jacket style is really cute but I am still not completely sold on my version.  I was being cheap and did not want to pay a lot for denim - needless to say you get what you pay for.  The quality of the fabric is horrible so I am not sure how long the jacket will last.

This jacket sewed up quickly except for a couple items (my fault) and I may make it again if I get over the trauma of this version (the trauma was my fault). 

What's Next

Since the weather is turning I think it is time for pants.  I bought Closet Case Patterns Jenny overalls and trousers and still have yet to make them.  I believe I will start on the adjustments for this pattern.

Closet Case Patterns Jenny Overalls & Trousers