Made by a Fabricista: Papercut Patterns Stacker Jacket

Hello sewing friends! I'm truly delighted to join the wildly talented Fabricistas to share some of my sewing projects in 2021. Sewing has been very helpful for me with the lockdown happening; each project forces me to focus on something specific and completing each garment goal is highly satisfying. My wardrobe is definitely coming out of this whole era the most impressive it's ever been!

Lately I've been eyeing some lighter jacket patterns. Living in southern California means that real winter weather never arrives, but I tend to run cold anyway and love to layer up to stave off the shivering. I settled on the Stacker Jacket from Papercut Patterns. The boxier style means I can throw it on over another shirt layer (or two!) without feeling like I'm too constrained, and I like the more cropped look since I don't need too much heavy coverage for weather that will soon be warming up around here.

This was my first time using a paper pattern from an indie designer, and I'm so accustomed to printing my own PDFs that it was a huge treat to skip the taping step. The pattern and instructions come printed on midweight brown paper. I initially aimed to trace off just my size, but that quickly became more labor intensive than I had the patience for, so I went ahead and cut up the paper and saved all the scraps as neatly as I could for possible future sizing adjustments. I cut a straight size 3 since my measurements match the size chart almost exactly and I knew there'd be plenty of ease to play with. Bold times call for bold measures! I gave the paper pieces a quick iron (no steam!) to remove some of the creasing, and then I sewed a quick fit check using the lining pattern pieces before deciding to lengthen both the bodice and sleeves about an inch. You can grab your own paper copy of the Stacker Jacket here.

For the outer portion of the jacket, I chose to work with a cotton sateen that's a heavier jacket mid-weight. I love these colors arranged together, they remind me of something both vintage and varsity. I would describe the hand as similar to a very soft canvas and the raised threads are a beautiful detail. I LOVE the challenge of pattern matching, and honestly, I was pretty thrilled to turn on a podcast, ignore my kids, and carefully cut out all my matching pieces. The fabric didn't fray very much as I cut out my pattern, and it was stable and pleasantly cooperative for lining up the stripes. I had fun playing with the stripe direction, too: I centered it vertically for the back yoke and patch pockets, and I flipped it for the front yoke so the tiny stripes are in the opposite order. The shape of the sleeves threw me for a bit of a loop as the seam matches up with the back yoke instead of the side seam at the armscye, so I opted to cut the cuffs to end at the same red stripe as the bodice, and overall I think that looks really cohesive.