Friday Pattern Company Ilford jacket
I've been wanting a chore jacket for the longest time, and have had the Ilford printed out for at least 18 months, but something always seemed to take priority (also I was scared of doing button holes and thought it would take much longer than it did). But I eventually did it and I am delighted with it!
Pattern: Friday Pattern Company Ilford Jacket
Size: L. My hip measurements are actually in the XL range, and the jacket is completely straight up and down, so I thought about grading out, but I didn't and that was the right decision. There is a lot of ease in this, I can wear it over a big jumper even. I am actually wondering if a size M might work if I wanted more of a shirt than a jacket style.
Fabric: This is a textured linen cotton from the Minerva Core Range. It's a heavier medium weight but the weave is pretty loose so it's quite drapey and not structured. As with all the Minerva Core Range things, it comes in a million colours, this one is called New Rust.
Buttons: The buttons are from stash/inherited button jar. They are the same size/design but don’t properly match coulourwise but I like that.
Pattern variations: The pattern comes in a long and short length, with two sleeve options and six pocket designs (plus pocket flaps), so you can mix and match. I made the short length, boxy sleeve, with the 'handwarmer' pockets at the bottom and the rounded top pocket without a flap at the top. The other sleeve option has a placket, and I think I would like to try that at some point.
Instructions: They are detailed and great, although I do think that the drawing for attaching the collar doesn't quite match the written instructions and could be easily misunderstood. I didn't 100% confirm this though, and just did it the way I thought it should be done. So it's possible I just misread it rather than it being wrong.
Buttonholes: Oh the bloody buttonholes! I'd never done automatic buttonholes before (I did do non-automatic ones a long time ago when I just had a basic machine) and tbh it was not a good experience. On practice goes I achieved a success rate of 50%. Since I couldn't work out what I've done wrong (99.9% sure nothing!) I went ahead and did them on the real thing. It managed 1 of 5, and another two it did all of one side and half of the other. For the remaining two it randomly decided that the hole should be a third of the length actually needed. And it's extremely difficult/impossible to unpick all of that, at least on this fabric, without ripping holes. So there are still the remains of the automatic attempts next to the manual ones I eventually sewed, which are not equally spaced now.
It's pretty annoying, this is not otherwise a difficult fabric - it presses great and doesn't slip - and it's not that heavy. So probably if I make it again in a proper heavy fabric I'd just go ahead and do the buttonholes manual from the start. Anyway! That's really a moan about my machine rather than the pattern. Thankfully you can't tell the unequal spacing - at least I don't think so!
