Elokuu-jacket and a matching skirt

I fell in love with the Elokuu-jacket pattern from the Finnish book Mekkotehdas koulutyttöjen tyyliin by Kirsi Etula and Sunna Valkeapää-Ikola. I bought the knit fabric for it almost a year ago but it took me a while to get to this project. Now the changing of the weather made me realise that my daughter’s wardrobe needed some serious update and this jacket was the first project to make.

The Elokuu-jacket pattern comes in sizes 128 to 170 cm. I made the size 134 cm which was perfect. The original pattern is pretty relaxed and this shows in the sewing instructions, too. For me, it took some time to decipher the pattern sheet that had the buttoning placket and the cuffs drawn onto the sleeve and the jacket front pieces. Finally, I figured out that you still needed to cut the jacket and the sleeve pieces with those parts in. Unfortunately, I had already cut sleeves too short! Well, I just made regular cuffs instead…

The pattern instructions don’t mention any interfacings but I wanted to make a bit neater work and interfaced the facings, the buttoning plackets and the cuffs. I also limited the frayed edges to the buttoning placket and the patch pocked edges. Furthermore, I added two snaps so that the jacket can be fully closed.

I had this idea of adding a bit of lace to decorate the pockets and S got to choose the style of the lace decorations. She chose the pink and off-white lace and I sewed them on to decorate the patch pockets.

To not to make the hem ruffle too stiff, I finished the edge of it with the rolled hem.

I made classic cuffs with no frayed edges. I cut the buttoning placet from the selvage edge of the fabric as it looked nice. To finish the jacket, I added five snaps.

The finished Elokuu-jacket

I think that the finished Elokuu jacket looks pretty neat!

I had a bit of the fabric leftover so I decided to make a matching skirt. The skirt is just a gathered rectangle with an elasticated waist and a patch pocket.

Here is the whole outfit from the back:

It was just perfect weather for a photoshoot, today. Last night brought us a layer of snow and the sun was shining brightly. Everything was sparkly white!

During days like this, the forest backyard turns magical. You can expect to make a turn and find your way into Narnia.

Unfortunately, we didn’t find any fairytale creatures, but S made a new doggy friend called Ringo.

I like how this project turned out and S seems to love her new outfit, too. Even better, I don’t now have any scrap fabric that I need to store as the skirt took care of it! The Elokuu-jacket and the skirt look great together but they can also be worn separately and dressed up or down. The knit fabric is warm but easy to take care of as it is cotton.

This is all for today. Happy sewing!

Katja