Shoulders that will poke your eyes out: New Look 6013

One of the great things about sewing is that you're not limited to what's available in the shops - you can make what you want. One of the less great things is not finding out until after you've put in some time and effort that what you're making really isn't you!

I do like my work jackets to have a bit of interest about them - either a bright colour other than navy or black, or an interesting cut like a shawl collar rather than a standard notched collar. Which has led to my recently finished jacket - a shawl collar, a minty textured wool and formerly some crazy shoulders:

I say formerly because I ended up pulling off the crazy sleeves and re-sewed on some normal fitting sleeves which is what you seen in the photo. This is New Look 6013, a pattern that is now OOP. I made the dress once before in 2018 from a polka dot linen which I still wear thanks to it being not too fitted. 

 

The sleeve heads have an inverted pleat at the shoulder head which looks good on the model and on my dress form but just looked ridiculous on me. They shoulder head sticks out quite high above my natural shoulder level and to top it off the sleeves were quite wide and baggy too:

Instead I used a standard sleeve off another New Look pattern to cut out some normal sleeves to sew on. You can see the difference in shape in the photo below.

Even though the sleeve head of the new sleeve eased nicely into the shoulder seam, I can see there are terrible drag marks on the sleeves indicating that I need to reshape the shoulder slightly. Well I won't fix this, but it's good to know for the future.

For the back view instead of cutting on the fold I added a centre back seam so I could shape the seam better to suit my curves. This together with the princess seams means I got quite a nice fit in the back:

I made faux welt pockets because the jacket is so cropped it's unlikely I'll ever put my hands in them and the pocket bags would be so shallow anyway. The welts add a bit of interest to the front and even though I was worried they sit too close to the hemline I think overall they still looked balanced.

The final change I made to the pattern was to insert a lining. The pattern is meant to be an unlined jacket, but with several layers of interfacing in key places like the shoulder area, princess seams that need to be clipped to be pressed open and the messiness of welt pockets I think a lining is really necessary to cover up all that internal structure. Plus being a wool jacket it will wear better with a slippery lining.

This fabric was a total bargain - bought from the Sewing Basket charity fabric store earlier this year for a few dollars. When I spied this fabric in it's beautiful minty loveliness, I was reminded of one of my favourite costumes from the movie The Dressmaker:

All I need now is some cream wide leg pants and an awesome hat and I'll be set for a glamorous return to the office when it reopens! After all these months of casual wear whilst working from home I'm actually quite eager for a bit of dressing up on the few days a week that I'll be in the office.

So my final thoughts: if you like a bit of drama then I can highly recommend this pattern to you! The shawl collar is easy to construct, the princess seams make it easy to fit and overall it's quite a nice little jacket. If like me you prefer your clothes to be a bit more subdued, the sleeve is easily interchanged and you can still have a great jacket without the wow factor.