I am so thrilled to share this jacket. I really think it is my favorite thing I have ever made. I have been wanting to make a Closet Case Patterns Kelly anorak for a while now. I have seen so many lovely versions of it. I also had a jacket in this style that I wore a lot but I had gotten rid of it during one of my wardrobe clean outs. I felt a hole in my wardrobe because I didn’t have a lightweight jacket to wear in the spring and fall besides my denim jacket (which I don’t love to wear with jeans…) I added the pattern to my Make Nine for this year thinking I would carve out time to make a lined version for the fall. When I was looking at the new Rifle Paper Co fabric collection and saw this canvas– I immediately envisioned this jacket and those plans changed. I have never ordered fabric or a pattern so fast! It jumped to the top of my sewing queue as I impatiently waited for my parcels to arrive. I couldn’t wait to make this jacket a reality.
The Kelly Anorak is a great pattern if you are looking to up your sewing skills. There are things I have never done before- gusset pockets and a zipper placket to name a couple. Overall the instructions were easy to follow but I did find myself looking at the sew along on their blog a few times. I found it especially helpful at the pocket stage. I find myself leaning towards quick and satisfying projects more and more these days so I admit I was a little impatient while making this. I spent one weekend day and quite a few evenings working on it.
I’m really happy with the inside of the jacket as well. I chose to use flat felled seams since the jacket is unlined. I also used bias tape at the hem and at the hood. I just ended up serging a couple seams- the arm holes (honestly because it was easy) and the bottom on the sleeve (because I couldn’t get my machine in there).
I managed to pattern match on the front and back yokes. These are the most noticeable seams to me so I am glad I was able to do that. I would have loved to of matched more seams but I just didn’t have enough fabric to do that. I also made a silly cutting mistake where I cut along the wrong size line for the back jacket and had to recut! Thankfully I was able to cut some other pieces out of that mistake.
This jacket is everything I wanted it to be. I can’t believe how smoothly it came together. I know I am going to wear this so much. It’s my favorite and probably most practical make. I am still thinking about making a lined one the fall!
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