Who doesn’t love an oversized denim jacket? (especially one from the 80’s). I know I do. This is Vintage Vogue 2958 (DKNY). My intent for this project was to stay on course and sew the pattern as drafted, but alas, I’m me, and here we are. Going into this, I knew the jacket was going to be large, so I was thinking the Size 10 would be perfect. I didn’t make a muslin, but as always when I skip that step (aka choose laziness), I wish I had. It was still pretty large and there were a lot of things I didn’t like (on me) so I changed them. I’ll go over what I did and why. To be honest, I re-drafted the entire pattern because I revised everything. Not sure why I didn’t just draft a pattern from scratch…

This is the flat on the back of the pattern envelope and on the instructions. It was so small it was hard to see all of the details.

The revised flat sketch of the final garment.

In my experience, I’ve found that vintage patterns are really well drafted, and this one is no exception, BUT remember that “you’re the boss” (as one of my expanders always says) and you can modify or fix whatever you want and do things your way. The pattern called for a 7” zipper but the zipper opening was for a 6 5/8” zipper. The instructions noted that you “may” have to shorten the zipper (as if they didn’t bother measuring the opening), so I went ahead and just lengthened it so that I could just use a 7” zip. The upper patch pocket construction had too much bulk at the corners for my liking (and the weight of denim I was using), so I mitered them instead of their fold and fold again method.

When I finished the main body of the jacket, I tried it on to see where we were. It was too long and wide and I decided that adding the sleeves would be a mistake and actually liked where the drop shoulder finished. Good thing I already sewed up the sleeves and the sleeve tabs! (HA!) All good.

I decided that I wanted the look of a cuffed sleeve without the actual cuff because it would be a LOT of bulk, but like I said, I wanted the sleeve to end where the OG drop shoulder ended. SO… I shortened the shoulder drop, re-drafted the “sleeve" into a short cuff, created a facing piece and chose to use the sleeve tabs that had already been constructed as epaulettes.

Oh - before I did that, I took the body in about 3” total, shortened the jacket as much as I could, which happened to be to the bottom of where the lower patch pockets sat. I ripped the lower front patch pockets (and the perfect topstitching) out so that I could move them up. It was a painful but necessary move. Oof. (And NO, I di not have a double needle machine).

I chose snaps over buttons and also added them to the chest pockets and the epaulettes. I moved the inside chest pocket to the outside.

I also added rivets to the pockets for reinforcement and also a bit of flare. I used a tiny zigzag stitch on my domestic machine with regular thread in the same color as my topstitching to do the bar tacks.

Overall I’m really happy with how this project turned out, especially given how many changes were made on the fly. Also, the collar is so, so good - it deserves a standing O.