McCall 3769: The 'Lantern Army' Jacket

Today is the Sew Grateful Week Projects Day and I'm delighted to share my most recent make with all of you.  It's a 1940 McCall pattern (surprise!) but I felt that was the most appropriate for this week because I am so incredibly grateful for everyone's support and wonderful comments on the 1940 McCall project to date!  Several readers have sent me McCall patterns or links to patterns for sale and I am always incredibly moved by this!!  

For this week, I tackled McCall 3769, a beautiful jacket pattern that features really nice princess seamed lines that turns into pockets.

The second part of my Sew Grateful Project is to say thank you to my darling husband, David.  He chose the fabric and often helps me plan out projects.  He has an incredible eye for what fabrics will work with what patterns.  He also takes all the photos--and has been incredibly patient over the years for my desire to run all over Edinburgh (and elsewhere in Scotland) for the perfect locations :-)

The pattern was fantastic to follow.  I am especially chuffed about my jacket lapels!  Usually my corners look, ahem, suspect.  This time, they look like jacket lapels! yay!!

Thirdly, I want to say thank you to the wonderful sewists here in Scotland.  We recently met up in Glasgow and it was fantastic to meet everyone!  I heard about the Chinese lantern army that was set up in Old College, Edinburgh through Franca who blogs over at Oranges and Apples.  So we decided to head over there for the photos and what a lovely backdrop it was!  Check out more about this outdoor exhibition and her amazing photos over at her blog.

The fabric is a medium-weight wool that I got at Armstrong's Vintage store for super cheap (I think it was £10 for 3 metres).  I even have enough left over to make a matching skirt.

The front princess seam is attached using a lapped seam which almost gives it the appearance of being piped.  The bottom of the seam opens up into pockets.  I adore the sleeves on this and the sleeve caps are pleated.

These pictures were taken in Old College which is the University of Edinburgh's Law School.  So pretty….

You can sort of see it in this picture but the jacket is lined in a light brown lining fabric.  I really hate inserting lining--I don't know why.  I think in the future I will just use different techniques to neaten my inside seams.  With this weight of fabric, I don't really need lining and I don't mind the feeling of wool (I actually prefer it to the feeling of lining fabric).

The only drawback from the pattern is that I must have added too much width when grading up the pattern in the back.  You can see that it's just ever so slightly too wide.  I'm not too bothered about it but it's a good lesson that  I need to remember that I have a narrow back when grading up patterns!

Very happy with my new jacket and it goes perfectly with my Birthday dress.  You might have noticed that I also made a matching belt for my dress with a neat art deco belt buckle.  It's just peaking out but I'll need to get some belt close-up photos to show you the buckle.

I hope you've had a lovely Sew Grateful Week!  Definitely add your giveaways, reflection posts, resources posts and projects to the link parties before the end of the week.  And check out the amazing posts from others. I've been blown away by everyone's participation.  It's been so much fun to read everyone's contributions!