Tweed Jacket

This cropped jacket is the second part of my tweed ensemble. I used the Princess Coat pattern by Charm patterns, opting for the cropped version with the notched shawl collar and the lantern sleeves.

During this project I explored some of the ways a tailor gives structure to jackets. I used hair canvas in the front of the jacket, which allowed me to finally experiment with pad-stitching the collar into shape. After years of watching historical fashion makers, I finally had the opportunity to try out this beautiful technique! For a smooth shoulder area, I also added some shoulder canvas on top of the hair canvas. I also fell-stitched tailor’s tape on the break line to define it and keep it from stretching and also around the edges of the canvas to help crispen the notched collar and center edges of the jacket. Whenever I look at the collar, I remember the work I put into it and I just love the resulting shape!

I also tried my hand at keyhole buttonholes by using gimp over which I stitched with silk thread using the buttonhole stitch.

The cropped length works really well with the high-waisted pencil skirt.

The keyhole buttonholes were hand-sewn over gimp with silk thread using the buttonhole stitch.

Adding the Harris Tweed label at the end felt very rewarding and it looks cute!

Before cutting the tweed, I took great care trying to pattern match. I think that it really paid off!

To get the collar to roll nicely, I pad-stitched hair canvas to the front bodice panels.

This picture shows how the pad-stitching changed a flat piece of fabric and causes the collar to roll.