Varsity Try

 When I made the Halloween Varsity Jacket, I combined New Look 6120 and Simplicity 8175 on the fly

 

because I wanted to keep the short length and Junior sizing of the New Look (albeit cut in the largest Junior size), while having the button closure of the Simplicity.

I liked the result so much I wanted to trace off properly-merged pattern pieces for the front and front facing.  And I did!  This project was to test the merger.

The merger was a success! I'm still not so sure about the actual garment.

I defaulted to black ribbing because I had nothing else that even vaguely coordinated, so I figured using black buttons would at least bring black to more areas.

I used dark-blue-not-quite-navy thread throughout, though, because black thread...seemed...too harsh?

I managed to turn the corners around the ribbing a bit better than in the Halloween jacket, probably because the woven wool used here is more stable than the synthetic knit used there.  I don't know if I'll need to make the pockets ever so slightly narrower in the future to get the pocket stitching to line up with the stitching next to the waist band, or if it's a matter of just not yet being good with setting in that waistband.  Since the pocket pattern piece comes from a completely different pattern than the pattern for the placket and inset waistband, it's probably pure coincidence that they did end up so close.

I lined the pockets with the same synthetic knit fabric used for the sleeves and facings (and previous project), as much because I didn't have enough of the wool as because I wanted any parts of this jacket that would normally come into contact with my skin to not be wool.

You can see a lot of the color slubs coordinate fairly well with the colors in the wool, especially the mustardy yellow

I applied iron-on interfacing to the facings, heating the iron more aggressively than when I made the jumper from the same fabric, and nothing melted that wasn't supposed to melt.

As usual, I forgot to serge any of the pocket edges before sewing them down, but that's not a problem, especially for knits.  It might look a little unrefined, but these pictures are the only way anyone's going to see, right?

I won't be surprised if, someday, I decide I'd like to add a full lining to this buttoned version.  It is nice, though, how fast it is to make a jacket without lining.  Yeah, making buttonholes and sewing on buttons isn't as fast a process as installing a zipper, but the buttonholer and ability to machine stitch buttons still keeps it relatively quick.

The stripes in this fabric are uneven, so I cut the back first, then flipped the fabric over so get the stripes to line up at the shoulders when I cut the front pieces.  

I did edge stitching and top stitching everywhere, because that's what I do (I genuinely enjoy the process.)

So, technically, this turned out well, showing that the pattern merger works and that I need only to double check the pocket and band edge alignment.  It went together easily and the wool and ribbing and even the synthetic knit were lovely to work with.

But, do I like it?  I'm not sure.  I was hoping it would have at least a bit of a vintage 1940s or 50s vibe, but the stripe-not-plaid wool, and the colors it has, feel more early 1990s to me.

Which is still vintage, but, y'know, the kind of vintage I remember.