The fur jacket trend doesn’t seem to be fading as autumn slowly turns to winter, and honestly I can’t complain. With all of Mood’s new faux furs hitting the site, I’ve been dying to work with more of them.
My first venture into faux fur sewing was just a couple months ago, with a long vest you can find right here (I also explain the best way to cut and sew with fur!). For this project, I made the body of the jacket almost the exact same way, however I chose to crop it to just 18″. Then, of course, came the sleeves and hood.
To save you some work, I drew up a template of the hood I made. It’s big and cozy, and should fit most adults! Below, I’ll be explaining an easy way to draft a bell sleeve pattern.
- 2 yards Gray Herringbone Faux Fur
- 2 yards Rag & Bone Champagne Viscose Satin
If you’ve never drafted a sleeve before, it’s easiest to alter a sleeve pattern that you already know fits. For this one, I took a pattern piece from a button up shirt. Since, it’s from something more form fitting than a jacket, I thought I might need to change up the top as well, but after measuring the curve and the arm hole of my jacket, I discovered they were both the same length – perfect!
Next, I needed to create the bell shape. I began by cutting 5 evenly spaced, straight lines from the bottom of the sleeve until about 1/4″ from the top.
Each was then spaced out until I had the desired length at the bottom of the bell. Between the center two strips, I left two inches, then 3″ and 5″ respectively going outward.
The sleeve should be symmetrical, so I did the same measurements on both sides.
Lastly, I just needed to trace and connect the dots. The top and sides are very similar to the original sleeve, but the bottom now creates a slight curve!
Once all the pattern pieces are drafted, they go together pretty easily. The actual sewing of the jacket probably only took an hour. The side hood panels go on either side of the rectangular strip and the whole thing attaches at the neckline of the jacket.
The lining pieces are the same, so they get sewn together similarly. To attach the lining to the fur, I sewed it right-sides together, leaving a small opening along the bottom back to put it right-side out. A quick slip-stitch closed it up!
5 comments
Love the jacket!!! Beautiful job!
Thank you so much!
Love this! I can’t sew- would you ever consider selling these?
Hi! I am very new to sewing and I want to follow your design and I have a few questions.
1. if i don’t plan on cropping my coat, but instead I want to make it even a few inches longer than the vest that you made- do you think 3 yards would be sufficient?
2. What is the smaller rectangle in your hood template for?
Thank you!
Hi there! Yes, 3 yards would probably be more than enough if you’re only looking to lengthen it by a few inches. And the rectangle in the hood template is for the center panel of the hood. It goes between the two sides. 🙂