The moment I saw the Seamwork Audrey denim jacket sewing pattern, I couldn’t stop thinking “I need a white denim jacket. I need a white denim jacket”.

I debated just buying one.

Do you have ever have that discussion yourself?

It’s a clothing item which is readily available. Inexpensive. And it wouldn’t be difficult to find one which fits me well. Whereas to sew, well, it looked a little complicated. All those buttonholes and top stitching…

But, in the end, my desire to Sew. All.The.Things won out.

Seamwork Magazine

I was so enamoured with the idea of a white Seamwork Audrey denim jacket that I even renewed a long dormant subscription to Seamwork Magazine.

Are you a Seamwork member?

I had been a member way back when it first launched. This was back in the day when you automatically received the two patterns of the month and you couldn’t accumulate credit to go towards patterns you liked most, including Colette patterns. I ended up cancelling the subscription pretty rapidly. I just didn’t want to sew enough of the patterns to justify it.

But, for Seamwork Audrey, I’ve gone back in. For a little while at least…

My Seamwork Audrey

As designed, I found the Seamwork Audrey to have quite an over-sized look – more like your boyfriend’s denim jacket than a feminine one.

Which can be a nice look, but not what I was going for here. I wanted to be wearing my Seamwork Audrey over dresses and with my high-waisted linen Flint Pants. A white denim jacket just screams summer, after all.

So the version you see here is a size 8. To make my Seamwork Audrey denim jacket more appropriate for my needs, I shortened it by 8 centimetres.

Looking at these photos, I see that my chop-work means that the shape at the back is less ideal. It could handle a couple of back darts to give it a bit more shape! I also could have chopped off 8cm at the front, but left a little extra length at the back.  But hey, you live, you learn.

(As an aside, before starting this blog, I never took photos of me wearing my makes. Now, I am realising that I learn a lot about fit and what works on my body from taking these pics. For some reason, I just don’t notice these little things when I’m actually wearing the garment. So even if you’re not big on sharing or social media, I would highly recommend getting someone to take a few shots of the back and side views of your garments for you. You really can learn all kinds of things that will help you in the future!)

Now back to Seamwork Audrey…

Also, I found the sleeves to be suuuuper long and oversized. With the  more cropped look of my Seamwork Audrey denim jacket, I decided to go a bit revolutionary on the sleeve.  I cut off 7cm in length off the sleeve itself. Then I entirely skipped the cuff. So this sleeve is significantly shorter than designed.

In the end I kind of like this “extreme bracelet” length – as long as I’m standing still with my arms by my side. When I move around, I worry that it’s a bit too short. But I have enough leftover fabric to add back in a cuff, if I find it really bothers me.

(It won’t. I always say this when I finish a garment and can’t be bothered fixing an imperfection – I’ll fix it later if it really matters. I NEVER fix it!)

Does anyone else make the mistake of chopping off length based on what it looks like when you stand absolutely still? I tend to forget that my body needs to, you know, move around!

The only other little personal tweak I made to my Seamwork Audrey denim jacket was cutting the waistband along the selvedge. Now I have a little frayed raw fringe along the bottom. I figure if I’ve gone to the effort to sew, rather than buy, I should at least include those little unique touches!

Seamwork Audrey: The Pattern

I was pleasantly surprised by the Seamwork Audrey pattern itself.

I feel like it is a nice interpretation of a classic denim jacket. This was also my first ever time sewing a three piece sleeve. And, even though I misread the instructions and had to sew it ‘in the round’, rather than flat, it went in without problem. For my mind, given how stiff and thick this denim is, such sleeve success is a sign of a well-drafted pattern.

So props to the designer for what I think is a very pleasing interpretation of the classic denim jacket.

But….

Seamwork Audrey: The Instructions

Having said that I loved the Seamwork Audrey pattern and found it to be of high quality, I have to confess that I was somewhat less enamoured by the instructions.

It’s been a while since I’ve sewn a Seamwork pattern. I was somewhat struck by the relative brevity of the instructions and, in particular, the more minimalist use of diagrams. Have I become spoilt by the ‘diagrams for every step’ standard in the rest of the indie pattern world?

I’m in two minds as to the quality of instructions that it’s reasonable to expect from a Seamwork pattern. On the one hand, if you are subscribing, it is cheap, so I don’t expect as much hand-holding as a regular indie sewing pattern. On the other hand, Seamwork patterns are still sold as stand-alone patterns, so I feel that there does still need to be a level of quality control.

I had a few issues with the instructions. While it was nothing project-destroying, the instructions may have contributed to some needless mistakes.

First of all, I found that the instructions for sewing the welt pockets just kind of sucked. This is a step that really required more diagrams. I managed to muddle through without major issues, aided by the fact that I’ve already sewn welt pockets on my Rumana Coat and my Sasha trousers. But if this had been my first ever time sewing a welt pocket, I simply could not have done so based on these instructions alone.

And jump, And jump, And jump, And jump

But my main beef with the Seamwork Audrey denim jacket instructions is that they jumped around like crazy. The first steps were to assemble certain distinct pieces: the collar, the sleeve cuff, the waist band. Then you simply put them aside for pages and pages, while you basically assemble the rest of the denim jacket.

This kind of ordering in sewing instructions is a bit of a pet peeve for me. I totally understand that every sewist has her or his own preferences. And I know that that I can always change the order. But sewing is also my ‘down time’. Sometimes I’m just in the mood not to think too much for myself. I like to be able to just follow the instructions!

But I feel that there is a pretty compelling case as to why it generally works better to construct  pieces as you need them!

Take this Seamwork Audrey, for example. Following the instructions, like a good little (too tired to do anything but follow instructions) sewist, I dutifully assembled by waistband at the beginning of the project. In the course of sewing, however, I decided to significantly shorten my denim jacket. This meant I also had to re-sew my waistband piece to be a slightly different size.  If I had just waited to assemble the waistband when I actually needed to sew it, I could have just cut the pieces to size at that point.

The same thing went for assembling the collar in advance. When I sewed my collar, I accidentally turned my seam allowance on one side in the wrong direction, which eventually caused me some difficulties. If I had assembled the collar once the jacket was assembled, rather than as the very first step of the project, I feel that it would have been easier to visualise exactly what I was going to be doing with that collar.

Thus, reducing the likelihood of idiotic mistakes.

Which comes first, the chicken or…

There were also a couple of other instruction order issues that I found bizarre. It instructed you to first install the buttons, then make the buttonholes.

I always do this the other way around. It seems to be infinitely easier to ensure that your buttons and buttonholes actually match up if you start with the buttonholes first.

Is it actually a thing to sew your buttons on before you’ve made your buttonholes ?

So, while I think this a great pattern, I felt that the instructions, at times, made it more of a slog than it needed to be!

On the search for hardware

One of the things which I love about my white denim Seamwork Audrey jacket are these rose gold/copper jeans buttons.

Does anyone else find that the only jeans buttons in their local fabric stores are butt ugly? While I find that I can make do with local offerings if I’m actually sewing jeans, where it’s just one little button, my local offerings just wouldn’t do for this one.

I really wanted something rose gold toned. These buttons came from an Etsy seller based in Japan: Citron Jeans. I couldn’t decide between these buttons and another set that actually say “What A Lovely Day” on them. I kind of regret that I didn’t go for the lovely day buttons, but these ones are still great. I feel they really  make the project. I splurged on 30 buttons, so I’m sure you will see them on future denim-based projects too!

Over and out…

I’ve worn this Seamwork Audrey denim jacket soooo much in the weeks since I made it. I feel that it really is the ideal summer jacket for my wardrobe. And I do feel super proud of myself for ‘sewing it’, rather than giving in to RTW.

Oh and, finally, a little P.S! If you like to get your blog hits through Bloglovin’, feel free to follow me over there: you can find me here. And you can find me on Instagram here.