Liz’s Corduroy jacket and trousers!

 Hello everybody I am back with another blog for Felicity Fabrics and this time I have looked ahead to the Autumn. It is my favourite season, despite the colder air, I love the colours Autumn brings and the opportunity to start layering up. So when I was choosing my fabric for my second blog I knew I wanted something that would see me into the Autumn and possibly winter months too. I love using corduroy fabric and have quite a few things in my wardrobe made from this fabric that have lasted well. This made my mind up as I headed to the website to browse – my favourite part! 

Felicity Fabrics have a wonderful selection of high quality corduroy some beautiful colours. I have made a pair of dungarees using the petrol blue shade so settled on my favourite colour green. 

I originally wanted to make the Tilly and the Buttons Jessa trousers and ordered 2.5 metres of corduroy after checking the recommended fabric suggestions. However once I had cut the pattern out I still had a metre of fabric left. 

Not wanting to waste the fabric I decided to create a matching jacket too. I have been seeing lots of co-ordinating jacket and trousers looks on the high street lately and therefore settled on trying to create the look for myself. 

Choosing a pattern 

 I have been re-organising my sewing space recently which has meant looking through and reorganising my pattern stash. As I was doing this I came across the Tilly and the Buttons Jessa trousers pattern. I bought this pattern when I first started sewing but lacked the skills to construct the pattern. Fast forward to now and I definitely felt I could tackle it. Plus I know Tilly’s instructions are always amazing! 

Having settled on a trouser pattern I then wanted to find a suitable jacket pattern that I felt confident making as I knew I would need to work hard to get the trousers to fit. I recently made myself a summer version of the Sew Over It Sorrento jacket and thought this pattern would be perfect. I have this habit when sewing of making the same pattern twice. I find it helps the news skills I have acquired stick.

Choosing the fabric 

 I felt inspired after seeing a corduroy jacket and trouser suit on Pinterest which helped to confirm my finished suit would be made in corduroy. I love looking for fabric and find the Felicity Fabrics website easy to navigate. I filtered the search results by using the drop down menu and chose a bottle green corduroy. I checked the pattern requirements and ordered enough to make the flared trousers. I was delighted to find I then had enough left over to make a matching jacket. 

Making the Sorrento jacket 

 Having already made this jacket up in a denim I knew the size 8 would fit me really well. I found the instructions well written and it was an enjoyable sew. The fabric was a dream to work with. I just had to be careful when pressing the fabric – I used a low temperature on my iron to prevent any burn marks on the corduroy. The jacket has some lovely features – I particularly like the cuff opening which is finished with bias binding. The pockets are constructed in a really interesting way too. You attach a facing first then stitch the pocket panel onto the inside of the jacket before top stitching. The cuffs have a cute pleat on too and the back waistband has two tabs finished with buttons making it a really authentic looking denim jacket. The other thing to mention with this pattern is there is a lot of top stitching! I found that really fun and relaxing to do. 

Making the Jessa trousers

The Jessa pattern from Tilly and the Buttons can be made into shorts or flared trousers. When I bought the pattern it came in sizes 1 – 8 (UK sizes 6 – 20) but Tilly has just expanded the size range so it now includes sizes 9 and 10 (UK sizes 22 and 24). They are a flared trouser with a nod to the seventies and include some really lovely details. You can add patch pockets on the back and a faux pocket flap on the front and the waist band is curved and is meant to be high waisted. It has a zip fly which was very easy to construct thanks to fantastic instructions. If you do get stuck at this point Tilly has a fantastic tutorial you can follow.

I had to make a few adjustments to get the fit right on the trousers. I had to do a front rise adjustment and ended up taking two inches off the front rise. To do this I used the lengthen/shorten line on the pattern. I am still not 100% happy with the fit around my tummy area and think I probably need to take out another couple of centimetres but for this version the fit is okay. I had to take off 2 inches from the hem as they came up very long on me and I also had to take out an inch off the sides. 

As the trousers are high waisted and fitted in this area I used my waist measurement to determine the size I made. My waist is 28 inches which meant I needed to make a size 3 (UK 10). However my hip measurement, which is 34/35 inches, meant I fell into the Size 2 (UK size 8) measurement. I should have graded between a size 2 and size 3 as I think I would have achieved a better fit the first time. I guess this is part of the learning process and something I will remember to do next time I make the trousers. 

Overall I’m really pleased with the finished jacket and trousers. They are both patterns I can see myself reaching for again – I have another sorrento jacket cut out already for my daughter! I am determined to get the fit on the trousers right on my next pair too. As always it was a joy to sew using fabric from Felicity Fabrics – always great quality and the fabric came out really well after pre-washing.