The 'C'moooooooon Poil!' Swing Jacket

I am super excited to show you my latest creation! You may have guessed from the sewing inspiration board from this week that it was going to be a swing jacket. I'm a HUGE fan of 1940's musical films and one of my absolute favourites is 'Cover Girl' with Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly. In that musical, Rita wears a very stylish swing type jacket that is very reminiscient of the mid-1940's (photos of Rita's jacket on my inspiration board).

McCall 3619 fit the bill perfectly for a swing jacket! I actually think this is a rare pattern as it's the first time I've seen a swing jacket so early in the 1940's (this pattern is from the year 1940). They didn't really come into full fashion until 1943/44 and later in the decade (1946/47) and again throughout the 1950's.

When I was in NYC for the fabulous blogger meet-up, I bought some amazing bright teal/blue wool twill from Paron Fabrics (it's actually much brighter than in the photos which were taken at dusk). It's absolutely buttery and fabulous to sew! You might think it's odd that I would buy wool in the States when Scotland has such fantastic wool (which it does!) but I've found it hard to get 'unusual' colours of wool in Scotland. We've got the best quality (and prices--even compared to the States) on high-quality wool in traditional colourways but we don't really have many of the brighter or funkier colours! I've never sewn with wool twill and I must say that I LOVE it!

The pattern was very easy to put together and is fully lined. I opted for view C with the box sleeves. It's funny because whoever had used this pattern before me had shorted it by about 1 inch. I had originally thought of leaving their alterations and doing mine shorter too but decided that I wanted the longer length. Now in retrospect I think I would have liked it a bit shorter!

I really love the rounded front lapel and the neat pleat in the front shoulder areas. I am also a huge fan of pleated sleevecaps! I'm glad I went for the boxy sleeves as that will make this a perfect layering jacket for winter!

The back of the jacket does take that 'swing' jacket shape but not as much as I had hoped. I think I may have to coax it into more of a soft pleated shape with some very gentle ironing!

Overall I am quite pleased with my new 1940's jacket--it certainly gives a proper look for the time period! I love how it matches my other me-made items (my 1943 DuBarry blouse and my 'Mrs Peacock' skirt). Can you tell I'm trying to make a wardrobe of matching items :)



I want to get your advice, I have approximately 1.5 metres left of this fabrics. Should I make:

a) a 1950's godet skirt (I got this through the pattern swap as part of the NYC meet-up)

 

or b) the new Colette 'Clover' long capri trousers (this fabric does have a bit of stretch to it):

 

So far when I polled the readers at the Sew Weekly--they are leaning towards the godet skirt--though many more clover votes are coming in!  What do you think?