Wool Tweed Molly Jacket

If you’ve been around Skirt Fixation for a while, you know that I love sewing coats.  Well, much to my delight, Annie outgrew her coat from last winter.  You see, I had the perfect pattern and the perfect fabric just waiting for that very thing.

A while back I found the Molly jacket pattern by Violette Field Threads.  It’s a great pattern with quite a few options for customization.  This pattern comes in 9 sizes from 12 months to 9/10.  I sewed the size 9/10 for Annie.  The Molly jacket can be sewn in 2 lengths, hip or above the knee.  I chose to lengthen the jacket several inches to hit Annie just below the knee.  Instructions are included for including a layer of batting between the lining and main fabric, and we did that for Annie’s new winter jacket.

This pattern can be made into a reversible jacket if you desire.  While Annie’s could probably be reversible, since I used faux fur for just one side of the collar, she will probably wear it only on the one side.  This is a very easy pattern to sew.  While I was making it, I kept thinking I should make bound buttonholes or add in welt pockets or do something to make it more difficult!  But in the end, it was the plain and simple version that won out.

The other change we made to the Molly jacket pattern was to narrow the sleeves.  If you look at the pattern, you can see they bell out quite a bit at the bottom.  There are instructions for making a gathered sleeve hem, but since we wanted to add a cuff, we decided to just narrow the sleeve.  We will have a tutorial later for adding fur cuffs to this (or any!) jacket pattern.

More about that fabric!  Several years ago, we were gifted this fabric.  I think it’s a wool tweed, and very stable and warm.  For the lining we used black stretch sateen.  The collar and cuffs are from faux fur.

We harvested the buttons from off a different jacket we got at the thrift store.  That’s my new go-to place for buttons.  If you don’t mind hunting a little, you can usually find a garment with pretty unique and numerous buttons for the price of the entire garment!  If you’ve purchased buttons at retail prices lately, you’ll know why I’ve started this new method of sourcing buttons!

It’s pretty safe to say Annie loves her new jacket!  She wears it every time we go out of this winter.  She says it’s warm, pretty and makes her feel great !