Today I’m sharing a long overdue finished make! I made this jacket early in the year and then totally forgot to put it online. It’s the perfect rainy day jacket because it’s waterproof and so bright, it’s like instant sunshine!
Simplicity 8843 is an easy to wear, drop shoulder jacket with drawstring waist, 2 styles of patch pockets, optional hood and choice between zipper front or popper front. Watch the video sewalong for this pattern on YouTube. I chose to make a mix of views A and B – with the pockets of view A and the zipper front of view B. As you can see I omitted the drawstring as I prefer a boxy jacket I can wear chunky sweaters underneath.
My gorgeous fabric is a waterproof treated cotton by Rico Design available at Minerva.com. But this pattern also works in untreated cottons and even organza for a lightweight workout layer. The last raincoat I made was from ripstop, a nylon fabric that is water-resistant. And while I made it super warm by layering it with flannel, it’s not suitable to heavier showers.
This jacket/fabric got a really good splashing and totally held up so I’m really pleased. Though I will say the treatment makes it a little stiff and prone to slight wrinkling. But if you’re stopping me in the street to say “oh your jacket is a little wrinkly” I’ll be telling you to naff off.
Treated fabrics can be a little trickier to sew as the surface is a little stickier, dragging against your machine and presser foot. Some people choose to invest in a Teflon foot but I think these are unnecessary. Two things that can help are: 1) sewing with tissue paper above and below your fabric that you would rip out of the seams after sewing and 2) adding a bit of sellotape to the bottom of your presser foot with a hole for the needle.
To avoid scorching the fabric and removing the waterproofing, use with a medium iron and pressing cloth, pressing from the reverse. Always a use a sharp or synthetic needle with a polyester thread in your machine for waterproofed/water resistant fabric. You’ll need a longer stitch length of at least 2.8mm to get through a tougher fabric like this. I chose to add the internal version of a flat felled seam shown in my linked tutorial, which is strong and tough for outerwear jackets.
It’s created by sewing the seam right sides together then trimming half the allowance down to a few mm and then pressing over the other half of the allowance to cover it.You trim the allowance that is nearest the back of the garment, then press the full seam allowance in half before pressing over the top of the trimmed side. This creates a neat folded edge that you can top-stitch in place from the right side of the garment. In case you’re wondering, true flat felled seams are sewn on the outside of the garment by first sewing WRONG sides together.
I used a 30″ open ended chunky zipper in a golden yellow. It took me three attempts to match the colour so I wish I’d just gone for white or gold! And I used two gold Prym anorak snaps for the pockets. Snaps are so much fun to install when you have a bit of stress to work out and can use a hammer… or you can use the clever pliers available if you don’t want to make a racket.
For the top-stitching I used my blind hem foot (as I don’t have an edge-stitching foot) with the needle set 3mm away from the edge for the lower pockets and zipper edges. Then my 1/4″ foot for stitching the flat felled seams on the right side of the garment and pocket flaps. Finally I used a stitch in the ditch foot to secure the hood lining from the right side of the fabric. I absolutely love having feet like this in my sewing toolkit and 100% recommend you buy them or request them as gifts.
I made a size XS at the shoulders and size M at the hips, grading between sizes. The only other changes I made was to use facings for the sleeve and body hems. I cut my bodice before I found my zipper so needed the hem facing to create the appropriate finish at the lower edge. Then I liked it so much I added it to the sleeves. It gives the support of a cuff! Time to head out in the rain?
‘Singing in the rain’, no need for an umbrella with this waterproof creation. Lovely bright material for a rainy day!
You’ll certainly be getting a lot of use out of it at the moment! Looks lovely!
Great tip about sellotape on the foot, I’ll try that, thanks!