I have a Blue RTW denim jacket in my wardrobe but would really like another in a different colour. Enter Sorrento by Sew Over It. The jacket is part of the Summer Dreaming e-book released last year and is described thus;

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The quintessential denim jacket, Sorrento is a classic piece in anyone’s wardrobe. Designed to pair beautifully with the other styles in this summer sewing pattern collection, the Sorrento Jacket is the perfect throw-on when the evenings turn chilly. Sorrento features everything you’d expect from a denim jacket including a front and back yoke, chest pockets, collar, cuffs, and waistband tabs – all finished with double lines of immaculate topstitching. With tonnes of classic details and a clever construction, Sorrento is an enjoyable, hugely rewarding project that you’ll love for years to come.

As I am currently losing weight I was not sure which size to make so would definitely need to make a ‘practice’ garment to check not only the sizing but also the various techniques involved in this type of garment. I elected to make a 22 across the bust and grade to a 24 at the hips. The only modification was to shorten the sleeves by 1½ inches as I know that I have short arms!

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For fabric I raided my stash and came up with this charming heavyweight furnishing linen named Cockerel by Vanessa Arbuthnot. The fabric is gash roll ends from the printing factory and was originally intended to be landfill, but by a circuitous route it found its way to my bag-making stash. I added some Red printed cotton offcuts from my scrap bag for undercollar, lining the yoke, lining the pocket flaps, the pocket bags and placket bias strip bindings.

Although it was late at night I was determined to cut out the jacket so it was only in the hard light of day that I discovered I had cut some pieces on the straight grain and some on the cross grain. Still I powered ahead as I thought ”this is only a practice garment”.

The pattern instructions are excellent as they order the work in such a way as to minimise the number of times you have to change the needle and thread(s) from Jeans (for construction) to Topstitching. I also found that every single notch marking married up with its counterpart and that helped to make the sewing very speedy.

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Conclusion: I enjoyed the whole process with a possible exception of installing the metal ‘jeans’ buttons. I had not used this type before and although they are OK, I am not convinced that I will use them on my ‘proper’ jacket. This jacket is oversized on me which will be useful for wearing over chunky knits in the colder months. However, I will be sizing down by at least one size so the next iteration will be a 20 at the shoulders and bust, grading to 22 at the hips. I will keep the sleeves at their reduced length as they turned out ‘just right’. I think that I will shorten the length of the jacket as this one comes to the high hip and I would prefer it to be on or only just below my natural waist.

Project # 74 completed 11^th November 2021