Many people are intimidated by making an outerwear jacket. Perhaps they are thinking that it is akin to making a tailored jacket. Definitely not! Sewing basic no-frills outerwear is some of the easiest sewing that you can do.

Choose a fairly simple pattern (the number of pieces is a clue here), go for a relaxed fit, choose a suitable fabric and tuck in. I am going to cover the basics of making a reversible jacket in four lessons. I hope that I can convince you of just how easy such a garment is.

First, let's pick a pattern. Many patterns for outerwear are sized by small, medium, and large. This means the fit is fairly generous and each category will pretty much cover two size ranges. For instance, a medium pattern will generally be made to fit someone who would normally buy a size 12 or 14 pattern. This means there is quite a bit of leeway in the pattern for fit. As the majority of jackets are sewn with flat construction, the side seams are sewn continuously from wrist to hem. This order of construction makes it really easy to alter the fit of the jacket before you put the lining in.

The following patterns are some good choices if you are a first-timer at sewing outerwear.

McCalls 3381 , a shawl collar jacket with turn-back cuffs

Butterick 3573 in boucle wool and lined with silk

Butterick 3596 with a deep shawl collar, turn-back cuffs, all trimmed with fold-over braid

Vogue 7627 If you are up for a challenge, you might like to tackle faux fur, as in this coat. It requires a little more work, but is still a good option for an intermediate sewer. I will give you some techniques for sewing faux fur in the lessons. Just be sure to purchase a fur with low-pile, otherwise this coat would be too bulky. This Vogue coat is done in cotton twill on the outside and low-pile faux fur on the inside. Pick a pattern that has front, back, sleeves, collar or hood, and patch pockets. These are the simplest jackets to make. If your sewing skills are fairly good, you might want to opt for a welt pocket or zippered pocket. Yokes, pocket flaps, top-stitching are additional features to consider if you are an intermediate sewer.

All of the above jackets can be made reversible. Any jacket that is lined to the edge can be a reversible jacket. Even if you never reverse it, you should consider using a fabric for the inside that is nice and cozy. Having an interesting inner fabric gives you the choice of contrast cuffs by simply making the sleeves long enough to roll back.

There are quite a few fabrics suitable for reversible jackets. Think outside of the picture on the pattern cover. Your pattern may show the jacket done in wool, and lined with satin lining. You can just as easily make that pattern in fleece, lined with a quilted nylon lining, or denim lined with sherpa or berber fleece. Faux suedes and leathers are worth considering too. Faux suede is easier to sew than faux leather as it is less susceptible to the skipped stitches that you can get with faux leather.

Butterick 3595

I recently made Butterick 3595 from a sueded microfiber and lined it with Yukon alpaca fleece. Alpaca is my favourite fleece from Huntingdon Mills. It has 15% rayon added to it and this makes it super soft. And it has the appearance of Shetland wool because it is flecked with white yarns. This pattern is also shown in the Butterick magazine done in denim and lined with sherpa. A very nice choice for the in-between seasons.

same pattern in denim reversing to faux sherpa

Besides your fabric, what else will you need for this project? Some fusible interfacing to place along the opening edges of the jacket. This is a must if you are planning on having buttons and buttonholes in your jacket. If your pattern calls for a zipper, you may be able to skip the interfacing if your fabric has a lot of body. You will also need good quality polyester thread (cotton will rot when exposed to wind and rain). If denim is your fabric, you may want top-stitching thread in a contrasting colour for this.

If your pattern calls for a zipper, get a brand name zipper and one that has teeth, not coils. If the zip extends down to the hip area, try to get a two-way zipper. This will have two tabs on the zip, so that you can unzip the jacket at the bottom when you get into a car or sit down. If you don't have this option, the zipper will rip out in that area due to the strain. If you can't get these notions at your local fabric store, try an outerwear supplier such as Seattle Fabrics in the US or Textile Outfitters or MacPhee Workshop in Canada. Jacket zippers are important items and buy the appropriate one for the job.

If your jacket has buttons, you may prefer to purchase these when the jacket is finished. I often find that I can better decide which buttons to buy when I see the finished garment rather than getting them beforehand simply because the colour is right.

This step will depend on which fabric you bought. If you purchased polyester outerwear fabric, there is no need to pre-treat this fabric by washing it first. In fact, washing may remove some of the water-repellent solvents that have been applied to the fabric. But, if you are making a denim jacket, be sure to wash and dry cotton denim three times before cutting it out. This is because cotton denim has residual shrinkage and will continue to shrink with each successive wash. Three complete washings and dryings too will take care of this problem. If your second fabric choice (for the inside of the coat) is fleece or sherpa, there is no need to pre-treat this fabric as it too is polyester and won't shrink. But, again, if you have chosen a cotton flannel as lining or cotton corduroy, then wash and dry that fabric as well.

Tip: I used to serge the cut ends of fabric before washing. From a tip I read somewhere (can't remember now), I now sew the cut ends together with a narrow seam so that the fabric forms a circle. For some reason, this keeps the fabric untwisted and you only have to cut off the narrow seam after.

The last thing you need to get before you can start your project is the correct needle. I can't emphasize this enough. So many people just start sewing with whatever needle is in the machine. Do yourself a favour and get the right type and size of needle for your fabric. If you are sewing with a microfiber, you will want a microfiber or microtex needle in a fairly small size. This is a tightly woven fabric and a small, sharp pointed needle is necessary in order not to have skipped stitches. If your fabric is denim, then you will want to have a denim needle in two sizes, size 14 for the seams and size 16 for top-stitching. The same needles would be good for corduroy. Fleece is very forgiving and doesn't seem to mind what needle you use. Ordinarily a size 14 ballpoint is recommended for fleece and sherpas. You need the larger needle to get through the bulk of seam intersections.

There is a lot to think about before beginning a big project like a jacket. Some preparation now will save you time later, hunting around for what you need. If everything is ready to go, then you can right to your sewing without an extra trip to the fabric store. Well, it's not like we mind another trip to the store but that's another story.

Any sewing questions? I would be happy to try and answer them: you can email me at mail@timmelfabrics.com