Each month in our pattern review column, readers share their unique style with a gorgeous garment make!
Whilst I have sewn up many jackets and blazers over the past couple of years, I was on the lookout for a more casual ‘Worker Jacket’, a lighter weight relaxed jacket. The Worker Jacket is a piece of outerwear designed to stand up to manual labour. It has a simple button front, classic collar, three or four patch pockets to the front, and is typically made from heavy cotton fabric like duck canvas, drill, or sometimes moleskin.
There are many examples, of worker jackets by indie pattern designers, but I went with the Tello Jacket by Pauline Alice due to its simplicity and lack of lining. I liked the quirky zip breast pocket and the way you could go mad with the topstitching to highlight the details. Seeing how the edge stitching added so much to the look of the garment was definitely my favourite part of the sew.
I like a tailored classic style and I prefer to make pieces that I know I’m going to wear for years. Being quite short in height at 5ft3, I avoid fussy or too boxy styles. You’ll rarely see me in a frill.
PAIRS WELL WITH
As we enter spring here in the UK, this jacket is the perfect weight for throwing on top of a light blouse or T-shirt during the day. It’ll be great for travelling to sunnier climes too as an evening cover up. I have paired this with my Olivia Blouse by Atelier Jupe and a pair of ready to wear white jeans. Next on my list to make are some linen trousers, which would be perfect to wear with this jacket.
FABRIC CHOICE
I knew I wanted a traditional canvas for this traditional make. This luxurious Meet Milk canvas is made from 100% TENCEL Lyocell which gives it the softest touch and more drape than you would meet in a cotton canvas. It’s certified according to STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX® (product class 2) so a lot of thought has gone into its production! It does have a tendency to fray quite easily due to its fairly loose weave so before pre-washing it I would recommend zigzagging or overlocking the edges to prevent fraying.
I was concerned about the fabric stretching out, so I stay stitched around the edge of all the garments pieces just within the seam allowance, immediately after cutting out.
TIMINGS
I only have time to sew in short stints, grabbing 30 minutes here and there, so the entire process took me around two weeks from start to finish, but I don’t get to sew every day. I chose to do lots of edge stitching using an edge stitching thread, which definitely added to the time to make this garment but that was one of the things that
