After being invited to the Sacramento Tweed Ride, by friends Lisa and Robb, I had only two weeks to get something together. I took my inspiration from vintage hunting/riding/sporting attire and my imaginings of vintage country living. I hope to one day, own a country home. Until that happens, I can just dress as if I do, right?

Influence also came from two patterns I already own -

Butterick 6433 which is a 1920’s women’s banded sport coat. This jacket is very similar if not the same as the one Miss Fisher wears in episode 22 (season 2) “Framed for Murder” where she briefly stands in as director of the film where the murder takes place. I love this jacket with the belt at the center. I will definitely make up this jacket and perhaps the matching jodhpurs in the fall.

And also the 1934 Ladies hat pattern from Vintage Pattern Lending Library. This pointy hat is probably my favorite style from the era. I used this pattern and will post about how I put it together in another post as it was quite complicated a unique construction.

Being pressed for time, I went to our local Salvation Army to look for tweedy items and what I came up with was the following:

Modern Men’s Plaid Sport Coat - Jos A. Banks - $5.99

Men’s trousers already tailored to my size - Claiborne - $5.99

Women’s Tweed Vest - H&M - $3.99

I also wore a silk blouse from J Crew and a pair of Vintage Joan & David Spectator Oxfords that I bought several years ago at the Alameda Point Antique Faire.

The hat was made from scraps of fabric that I had at the shop, using the pattern listed above. I do have a skirt made out of this fabric, so that is pretty convenient for another tweedy outfit.

Here is what I did to change the Jacket.

1. I cut off the sleeves, leaving the shoulder pads in place. I cut those off later, but didn’t want to mess with them very much at this point.

2. The shoulders were opened and darts were taken at the front and a large bit of fullness removed from the back.

3. I decided where to put the “belt” and then cut off the bottom part of the jacket.

4. The jacket bodice was fitted on the sides and the back.

5. All darts were stitched and then pressed. Fullness removed, then stitched together and pressed.

6. The belt was attached. I thought I wanted it to overlap in the front, but changed my mind in the end, do it just finished at the edge of the garment.

6a. Note: when I removed the bottom portion of the coat, I removed a 4” section of fabric and that eventually became the belt. It was cut down to the new waist length and trimmed to 3 1/4” so the belt would be 2 1/4” when finished. None of the seams match up, but with limited fabric, I knew that would likely happen.

7. The bottom portion of the jacket needed to be reduced at the waist and also at the front edge so that the pockets didn’t lay on directly at my side on my hips. I adjusted the seam at the side seam, blending to 0” over the hips and then cut off a portion at the front, leaving enough seam allowance to press to the inside and slip stitch with the lining.

8. After reducing the fullness on the bottom “skirt” and finishing the edges, it was attached to the belt at the waist.

9. The Sleeves were next, however, first, I needed to create a gusset at the underarm, because the armholes were much too low. To create the gusset, I used a piece of fabric trimmed from the top of each sleeve cap. This made the sleeves shorter, which was necessary because they were too long.

10. The sleeves were too full so I reduced them a full 2” in circumference from the underarms through the sleeve opening. I could only do this on one seam so as not to disturb the button placket at the cuff.

11. I then reattached the sleeve head (not shown) to the top of the sleeve cap which gives it a nice shape over the shoulder.

12. The sleeves were then pinned in place around the armhole

13. The belt lining and sleeve linings were pinned an stitched in place by hand.

14. Three Buttonholes were made. I did this by hand, because I thought it would be fun. I was wrong. I used the wrong kind of embroidery thread, which kept breaking so they were rather uneven and clunky. They were not photographed.

Here you can see the finished product! I’m pretty happy with the jacket. It could be a little shorter, which would not take too much work. Clearly, I’m not afraid to cut things down.

As I mentioned in my last post, I won the “Style Maven” Award for this year’s Sacramento Tweed ride. Such an honor! The beautiful award ribbons (and the left photo above) were made by Vintage Millinery Designer (and Sacramento Tweed Ride Organizer), Lynn Taylor.

Until Next time, Happy Sewing!

xo Jennifer