Never in a million years did I think I would be able to make a denim jacket, but here I am.

The reason:

During the spring, I began searching for the ideal denim jacket that would be versatile, pairing well with both pants and dresses. Little did I realize that trends weren’t aligning with my desires. This led me to consider sewing my own jacket, even though I wasn’t entirely confident in using my domestic sewing machine to tackle such a project.

Browsing online for inspiration and insights into the entire process filled me with hope, especially because now I own a Singer Heavy Duty and as the name suggests, it can handle a lot.

The fabrics:

The stories of these two pieces of fabric are pretty fascinating to me because I stumbled upon them years ago and they were not meant to be for this particular project.

About eight years ago, I began my journey of searching for fabrics in second-hand shops. At that time, I had just bought my first sewing machine and didn’t want to ruin any new fabrics. Being quite lucky one day, I scored three pieces of fabric with beautiful prints but not very lengthy. Still, I bought them because they were perfect for smaller projects. I quickly realized that I had a bigger chance of ruining these unique pieces of fabric, so I simply collected and never used them. Over the years, as I grew more confident, I started cutting into that pile of fabrics and ended up with two new blouses, one of which I wrote a story about HERE. I still had a beautiful floral piece of chambray and planned to make myself a tote bag but ended up using it for this jacket instead.

Fast forward to about three years ago, I found a massive piece of denim in another second-hand shop, with a very appealing price tag – only 60 DKK for 3 meters, which was a real bargain. My original plan with that piece of denim was to make some trousers, but I never got the perfect pattern to do them, and kept it in the fabric stash.

The pattern:

Two years ago, I created a list of all the free patterns that interested me and printed some of them. I found the printing and glueing process quite tedious and frustrating. Among those patterns, I printed the Olive Jacket from moodfabrics.com, more as a joke. But setting jokes aside, this year I finally found the courage to make it and I am very proud of the result.

The process:

I used my measurements from the bust, waist, and hips to determine the size, and I didn’t do any mockup for this project. I was in the mood for a challenge, and I didn’t want to rush the process. Also, I was quite confident that I would have enough fabric in case of some errors.

I ended up shortening the sleeves because, based on my hip measurements, I had to use a bigger size, and they were very long. This issue is very common when buying new jackets or blouses, and it’s the main reason that motivates me to sew my own clothes.

I used chambray to enclose all the seams and make all the tiny details like pockets and the collar. Even though it was a long process, I enjoyed it and prayed for my sewing machine. To be honest, everything went so smoothly with my new baby, Heavy Duty.

It took me four days to complete this jacket because, as I said, I didn’t want to rush, and the entire experience will stick with me forever, I had such a good time.