A Cozy Jacket for Spring

Springtime is always a time when I naturally slow down on sewing, since I always have a bunch of yard projects and general weeding, etc, to do, but this year I'm doing project 333 (a capsule wardrobe of 33 items for 3 months), so that takes the pressure off of sewing a bit.  Of course, not entirely though, and I have a short list of things to make and refashion for it, because I can't help it!  The first thing that I wanted to make sure I finished up before the April 1st start date was a wool double-knit jacket, as early spring can be chilly, even if I'll be sweating through the late days of my 3 month capsule.  I've had this double-faced wool knit (kind of a slate grey on one side, deep purply-blue on the other) for a while now from Emma One Sock, and was originally thinking of doing the Tessuti Sydney Jacket, as it's specifically drafted for fabrics like this that can leave unfinished edges, but I decided I didn't want to show both sides of the fabric (the collar shows the reverse).  This was just a personal preference for how it fit into my capsule wardrobe, but I still do want to make the Sydney Jacket someday.  

I instead went with the Style Arc Besharl Jacket, which I had attempted to make a few years ago, but didn't like the particular fabric I was using, and just wasn't crazy about it, so I ended up scrapping it.  I do like the fun cocoon shape though, and thought it would be delightful with this fabric.  

Because it was still so cold out and I wanted longer sleeves than the elbow cuffs as drafted, I replaced them with bracelet-length sleeves.  I actually intended to still attach the cuffs to the end to make them full length, but I tried multiple widths of cuffs, and it just looked heavy and disproportional, so I left them off.  The only other change I did was to do topstitching everywhere - I love the way it looks in this squishy wool and it adds a subtle detail that I enjoy. 

I also handstitched the hem, and secured the bottom of the pocket to the hem to make sure it didn't flap about (no one likes flappy pockets).  All in all, it was a quick sew but I enjoyed slowing down and taking my time a bit and making sure everything was just right!  It's gotten a lot of wear in my capsule over the past few weeks and it's one of my favorite garments ever, I think!