I finished the wearable muslin jacket (Butterick 5931) and I did learn a few things from it.  I wanted to try some new seams and my first attempt fell flat, i.e., the flat-felled seams were a failure.  Flat-felled seams are the kind you see on the inner pant leg of jeans.  It was always a mystery how they were done as there are no raw edges in this type of seam.  I wanted to try it out on this jacket because I thought it would go with the denim look.  It’s the seam across the jacket’s yoke, which included the pocket front and back, and the lower front piece.  That came out to 6 layers of denim, which, when I finally trimmed the yoke seam, turned out to be too thick to work.  So, I changed it into a French seam.  I also decided not to top-stitch it for now, because of that thickness.

I ended up using several different seam finishes in this jacket because I alternated between impatience and obsessiveness.  For example, I used 1/4″ bias tape around the pocket seams, pinking and then stitching down the jacket facing, 1/2″ bias tape on the side seams, and overcast stitching around the armholes.  I also top-stitched wherever I felt like it, from 1/4″ away from a seam to 1/8″.  And, the sleeve seams are not finished at all for now!

Issues with this pattern:

• The sleeves are too short.  I assumed the models on the pattern cover where long-armed and that surely, the sleeves would be too long on me, as they always are, but they’re actually too short (for a long-sleeved jacket).
• The facing is not under stitched.  I ended up top-stitching to compensate.
• The set of the sleeve is pitched too far forward.  I should have reset them about an inch backwards, but got lazy.
• The cuffs are very large, letting in a lot of air.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I adjusted the ease to my measurements, and it felt like I was swimming in fabric.  I made the 3x, which should have worked.  So I cut the sides down even more.  It still feels too big overall, but I’m trying it out anyway.  Barbara Deckert says we’re all too used to close-fitting garments what with lycra in everything.

For my future goretex jacket I will need to add a drawstring to the hood, also making it meet in the center front.  I’m thinking of using some other patterns I’ve found and combining them.  I may also add a waist drawstring and add velcro fasteners for the cuffs.

Overexposed, but shows more detail: