Sew a Straight Line: Sewing Lesson: Tailored Jacket with Notched Collar

The Book says, “When sewing a lined revere or shawl collar jacket, follow these same techniques.”

I’m going to do this lesson a little different. Since it’s one of the final sections of The Book, it’s basically a compilation of a ton of other steps and techniques already gone over. So all I’m going to go over are new techniques and what would apply to the construction of a lined jacket in general. Otherwise, this post would be far too long and, frankly, redundant, especially once I post the actual tutorial for the jacket itself. Got it? Okay.

First, you need to make the outer jacket almost completely. Put any pockets, sew darts, details, etc., then shoulder seams, side seams, sleeves.

Prepare the collar and and pin to the right side of the jacket at the collar

From lapel notch to lapel notch

Now, sew through all layers of fabric, attaching the collar in place.

Now you need to make the lining of the jacket.

When preparing your pattern, the lining needs to differ from the outer jacket pattern:
1 inch shorter hem on the lining than the outer
1/4 inch higher armhole/side seam corner, and also 1/4 inch out. Taper this back into the regular side about two inches down.

So what I did was trace the outer jacket pattern onto my lining material.

Then I took a straight edge and took away the inch on the bottom

And added the 1/4 inch at the arm corners, tapering back in about two inches down

Complete the jacket lining: any inside pockets, shoulder seams, side seams, sleeves:

Now you’ll have two friendly little matchey jackets

Right sides together, lay them so that all raw edges match, and the collar is tucked down and inside, sandwiched between the outer and the lining

Sew from the front bottom hem of the facing, up around the sides, collars, down the other side and end at the end of the other front bottom hem of the facing

Now match the bottom hems and sew those.

The Book says to expect a gap where the front facing and the front lining meet

This next part looks weird, and is a bit confusing, so I hope I can explain it.

With things still wrong side out, pull the sleeves of both the lining and the jacket up above the shoulders.

Now you need to match their raw edges of the cuffs, right sides facing. It’s awkward, because the entire sleeves are NOT inside of each other. You just have to put the openings of the cuffs ONLY inside each other
And stitch all around

Now unpick one sleeve’s side seam about 8-12 inches, depending on the size of the jacket. Why you can’t just leave this opening when first sewing the sleeve, I do not know.