The Side Quests Category
This is my first project intentionally posted under the “Side Quests” umbrella, essentially a category of “thing” that more often than not will include items that I will never make as product or commission. I feel it’s important to dedicate time to work on personal projects in the field you work in to keep that creative spark alive. I’ll do my best to share the resources used to make the project come alive, so you’ll see lots of links throughout the article. Sidenote: I am not sponsored for any of these posts, and I have no affiliate links on this website. If I ever do, they will be explicitly labeled as such!
Overview
Jackets are by far the piece of clothing that interests me the most. It doesn’t help that they tend to be the most expensive and more difficult to make depending on the pattern, but they offer so much opportunity for blending utility with interesting visual components. Plus I live in Chicago so the majority of the year presents opportunities for wearing them. Some personal favorites for aesthetic reference are from Battenwear, William Ellery, and Front Office.
One brand that stands out to me is Paynter. They only do pre-order batches on a quarterly schedule, mostly focusing on variations of a core chore jacket design, and partner with different fabric manufactures while highlighting them and their work. They released a consumer version of their pattern in September 2024 in partnership with Merchant & Mills (they also recommended some of their fabrics for use with the pattern), and I picked a physical version of it from Evanston Stitchworks.
I actually finished this jacket quite a while ago, but it was when the weather was too warm to wear it. It’s gotten lots of use now that it’s winter!
Resources
Pattern
The pattern has been linked above, but in general I thought it was well constructed! They have a video detailing the harder portions, primarily the front pockets which I found genuinely helpful. The main change I made to this jacket was to add a lining, something that is explicitly not called for in the pattern but was easy enough to make happen by serging the lining fabric to the outer before construction and having the bottom hem have the lining fabric a tad shorter to not reduce bulk but still get covered in the fold. I chose to have a taffeta for the sleeves so a sweater could slide into the sleeves easily, and the tartan for warmth on the body.
Materials
- Amber Waxed Canvas from Nina Chicago, used as outer layer, outer pockets and inner pockets
- Brown 9 Whale Corduroy from FWD (Fabric Wholesale Direct), used for collar
- Black Polyester Taffeta Lining from FWD, used for sleeve lining
- Teal Tartan Plaid Cotton Flannel from FWD, used for main body lining
- Buttons from Soutache, a local button/ribbon/trim/misc store not far from me!
- Paynter-branded tags were included in the pattern
Images
