Butterick 5335 - Yellow linen jacket w/ large gathered collar

Hey there! Thanks for all the comments and congratulations about our impending bundle of joy. I am overwhelmed by all of your sweet comments. Well, I wrote in my last post that I hoped to have a jacket finished by last weekend. Oops, that didn't happen. Although I did have it completed Tuesday but we have been busy busy around here. And it's been raining so getting any good photos was difficult.

However, today the dark clouds parted for a few hours and I got some snaps taken. This jacket is a little crazy for me. I'm more of a tailored-collar-and-lapels type of girl. I think I was won over by the envelope drawing of it in yellow, to tell the truth. It's not the first time I've talked myself into making something because the picture showed it in yellow.

One of my problems with this jacket is that I envisioned it coordinating with a lot of other yellow garments in my wardrobe. I've finally figured out that it wants to be the star, and just to pair it with simple other clothing, like the jeans and white top you see here. I did add some fun shoes, though. Otherwise it's too plain.

I love the built-in back belt. Per some PR reviews, I shortened the belt by 3 inches. No other alterations were made. My usual Butterick size is 12, but this jacket was made in a 10 because the measurements were so big on the pattern tissue. I should have made a muslin but... I winged it.

Here you can see it worn open with my hands in the handy front pockets. Take a look at those humongous snaps! They take forever to sew on! And I'm a pretty patient button/snap attacher.

Okay, so if I had been able to try it on and figure out how the collar was going to lay early on, it probably would have become a wadder. But there is a ton of sewing and the lining is put in before you can really see what you've got. Then I thought - Holy cow! I've made a clown jacket!!! The collar flowed from its gathering high around the neck right over my shoulders and made me look like I had no shoulder definition. Not a pretty look. After playing around with the collar for awhile, I discovered that if the drawstring is gathered somewhat and knotted at the buttonhole opening, the collar stays gathered and poofy around the neck. Now you can see that I do indeed have shoulders.

Here's a close-up of the interesting pleated sleeves. I sewed the pleats from the inside instead of basting from the outside, and left them in after the lining was attached.

This jacket has a full lining. I matched the yellow as best as possible. This linen is somewhat transparent, and any type of interesting color or pattern would have been visible from the outside.

These are the ginormous snaps. Originally I had them sewn to the collar as well, as per the pattern drawing. But they served no purpose, were very expensive, and weighted the collar down, so I removed them. If you ever use these and really want a nice look, be sure to sew them all in exactly the same. The ones on the collar had their holes pointing in all different directions before I figured out that was noticeable.


Even though I had hesitations about this jacket's deviation from my typical style, I ended up loving it. Sometimes you just have to take a risk a be a little out there, right? Keep them guessing.

The costs:

pattern - $0.99
1 7/8 yards yellow linen with a half off coupon - $14.06
1 1/2 yards yellow lining also with a coupon - $5.24
thread - $1.50 ish
4 huge snaps on sale half off - $7.50 (!!!)
little bit of interfacing - $1.00 ish

Grand total: $30.29 plus or minus

This is my jacket for April. Wonder what happened to a jacket for March? It didn't happen, that's what happened. I'll have to double up in one of the coming months to make up for it.