Yasss blazer! I saw this chic styling by Black owned shoe brand Brother Vellies and this blazer plan jumped to the top of my sewing queue.
This is now practically the only blazer I own. Blazers have always been a challenge to fit my long arms, lower waistline, wider hips, etc. I refuse to invest in clothes that don’t fit me well, so I haven’t bought a blazer in years. I also hadn’t sewn a blazer yet because I was procrastinating making this one – ha!
After sewing my dazzling McCall’s M7997 blazer dress, this was cake to sew. The major difference? While the blazer dress has shaping darts in the front and back to snatch your waist, this blazer is straight up and down with no shaping.
The only difficulty I had with sewing this jacket was the welt pockets. I didn’t do a great job with this my first attempt at welt pockets and I blame the instructions. Before I make another attempt, I’m going to do some trial and error with a few different YouTube methods to master the corners. And for this jacket I might just switch to patch pockets in the future. There’s a lot of open space at the hips that could do with some pocket details.
Pants are coming soon…ish. I will update with more pictures of this jacket once I’ve finished the suit! Then you’ll be able to see the fun lining and the full view of the fit, sans waist-snatching belt.
Pattern
- Mimi G’s Simplicity 8749, View C
- Sewing Difficulty – 3/5
- Blame it on the welt pockets
- Fit Difficulty – 1/5
- I intend to sew the pants from this pattern and might make a version of the coat.
Fabric
- Cream and black puppytooth polyester suiting
- Leopard print satin lining
- Both fabrics from Rainbow Fabrics Kilburn – my old London neighborhood fabric shop
Fit & Modifications
- I lengthened the bodice by 1 1/4″ above the waist to extend to 34″ in finished length. By my choice, my blazer hits much shorter on my body than the pattern envelope.
- I added 3 5/8″ total to the sleeves but later shortened before hemming to these final measurements:
- 1 1/2″ added above the gathered elbow
- 1 1/8″ added below the elbow
Tips
- Mark ALL of your dots. For the collar it’s very important to match the dots of the facings, under collar and upper collar. Be sure to mark your dots with a good disappearing ink marker.
- Stitch the hem of your lining fabric after you’ve hemmed the main jacket. I found somehow that my jacket hem was slightly shorter than my lining and I had to cut and resew the lining hem. Apparently I got a little scissor happy because the lining hem is now slightly too short!
Tutorials That Were Helpful
- Mimi G has a full video tutorial for this pattern
