Autumn Leaves Jacket — Vogue 1817

Hard to believe, but this is the 6th rendition of this pattern that I’ve made! The minute I tried on the finished garment I breathed a sigh of happiness. It feels like a second skin, feels great, soft and smooth, has the vibe of a sweater, is flattering, hangs close to the body and will work as an indoor garment or an outer layer. Makes a good layering piece too, can slide a thin vest under the jacket and could slip a coat over it. The print adds a quiet wash of color and will work with all my black basics, so I know this will become a cool weather at home, out and about and travel basic. Does not show spots or wrinkle either.

This is a style that lends itself to dressing up or down.

• Consider using a collage of different fabrics.
• Make it as a jacket, vest or shirt.
• Use woven fabrics such as cotton flannel, taffeta, jacquard, lightweight brocade/jacquard, quilting cotton, light weight denim, linen, cotton canvas, wool suiting.
• Also, consider stable knits such as ponte or double knits.

And - it is fun to sew!

Cutting Tips

• Asymmetrical garments take a bit more time to cut as each section is cut from a single layer.
• I do all the cutting at once, then take the stack of pieces and carefully transfer the markings, sometimes with a clip in the seam allowance, sometimes with a dot made with a dressmaker pencil, sometimes with tailor tacks.
• I use embroidery floss for tailor tacks, taking just one stitch, leaving a ½” tail, then separate the layers and snip. The embroidery floss is heavy enough that is won’t pull out as the piece is handled, and it is easy to pull out when finished sewing.
• After marking I bundle the pieces as they will be sewn
• I start by the assembling the back.

Pockets & Interfacing Tips

• Interfacing
• While I am using less interfacing these days, because of the stretch of the knit, I used a lightweight fusible interfacing on the ponte.
• Place the stable direction of the interfacing so it is parallel with the buttonhole.

Pocket Tips

• Used lining fabric for pockets and facings.
• Serge around the curved edges on the pockets before attaching them to the garment.
• Attach the pockets along the front and back seam using the serger. This finishes the seam at the same time as attaching the pocket.
• Press the serged seam to one side.
• After stitching the side seam and finishing the pocket and opening, clip the back seam at the top and bottom of the pocket opening and press both seams toward the front.

Gathers & Pleats

• The jacket and vest use both pleats and gathers.
• In a heavier or thicker fabric, make pleats instead of gathers by distributing the fullness evenly - and the pleats do not have to be perfect!
• To smooth out the gathers or pleats and keep them from looking puffy, ‘set’ the gathers using steam from the iron.
• Working at the ironing board and over a ham, position the garment so the gathers are parallel and even, gently smoothing them lengthwise to create parallel folds.
• Holding the iron just above but not on the fabric, ‘set’ with steam.
• Smooth but do not flatten, let the steam do the work and allow the fabric to cool off and dry.

Collar

There are two different collar options for this pattern, so I assemble the jacket to decide before cutting the collar.
With the ponte, I used the one piece collar which can be worn up or flat.
No interfacing in the collar.