My "Come Hop In My Tractor" Shacket

Shackets are the rage right now.  They are basically a flannel shirt with a soft fleece or sherpa lining that can be worn as a jacket because they are warm.  Sometimes, they have a hood and pockets, sometimes they look just like a shirt and sometimes they have been hemmed with a straight hem to look like a jacket.  Sometimes they are't lined but somehow also don't look like a flannel shirt.

They must be magical.

I'm not one to really hop on whatever is "the rage" but I've been looking at them for a year or so.  I bought this pumpkin colored fabric a few months ago (it's really a tablecloth that I really liked and was not expensive for such a nice piece of fabric) and I couldn't stop thinking I should make a fall jacket out it. Enter the Style Tahoe Shacket.

There were really so many options, but I kind of went into it knowing what I wanted. I debated whether or not to have a hood but my intention was not for it to be ultra casual, just a fall jacket I could wear any time, so I opted for no hood.

I knew I wanted it lined with this incredibly soft fleece that I used for 2 different coats in the past few years (here's one of them) neither of which really worked for me. The richness of this red combined with the softness of this fleece makes it my favorite fleece ever.  I got it at Joann Fabrics a while back. I swear it was some kind of clearance fabric that I bought a lot of because that red really drew me in but I had no plan for what I'd really do with it.  

Before I even started, I knew how easily you'd see that lining every time I wear the coat, so it's a little crazy for a lining.  Because this is really just a shirt made into a jacket, the placket on the center front piece is very narrow for a coat.  This means that the lining is RIGHT THERE for everyone to see at any time.

If you have a lined coat, go look at it.  You'll see that where you button your coat, there are usually about 2 inches of fabric on the inside and then you have the lining.  That's why we don't always see the lining of a coat.  

None of this occurred to me until it was all put together and by then, it was too late to change anything.  It will be loud and that's just how it will have to be.

Have you ever had a jacket that you loved but when you wear certain sweater, the sleeves are suddenly so tight you look like the Michelin man? I learned very quickly after the first coat that this particular fleece can't be used for sleeve linings.  I do not like a sleeve that's too tight or too short, so in my second coat which also wasn't so great for me, I used this somewhat similar print for the sleeves.  It's some kind of satin so everything just glides over it and there's no bulkiness.  

You might be thinking it looks nothing like the fleece part of the lining and you are correct.  But what is the likelihood any will see the inside of the sleeve?  The inside of the sleeve placket (the part at the wrist) is the soft fleece because I love the way that feels on my wrists on a cold day. This lesson I learned for jacket #2 as well.  Some people think your arms need to be lined in the same fabric as the body of the jacket but personally, my arms don't get cold if my core is warm. This is why I love vests. I've also noticed that a lot of coats use something lighter for the lining on a sleeve because it's impossible to slide your arms into a thick sleeve if you already have a thick sleeve on to begin with!

One of my favorite things about sewing is topstitching. Knits sometimes have topstitching but the really satisfying type of topstitching for me is on wovens.  I like a pattern that has a lot of details like this one with the placket.  If you've never sewn this kind of placket on a shirt sleeve, it's intimidating at first but it comes out so nicely.  You have to really trust each step in the directions to make it make sense!

While we're here let's talk about buttons.  I have a million buttons that I've collected, had given to me, found a thrift stores etc. I don't usually go out and buy buttons before making something. I usually finish the garment and then look at my buttons to find what will work. Sometimes, I have to bite the bullet and go and actually buy buttons because nothing I have will work or because I don't have enough.  

In this case, I had a lot of smaller buttons with this fake wood kind of pattern.  It's a really common kind of button and I had enough to use on this shacket.  I found 2 smaller versions to use on the placket because I like those to be button closed.  It bothers me when they gape open.

Because of the narrow front plackets, since this really is a shirt and not a coat, I couldn't use the bigger buttons I wanted to use.  This gives the whole coat a more casual look than I was going for.  To me they kind of look like the kind of buttons you'd put on a denim jacket.

For a minute, I debated doing that, but that's not really what I wanted to do. 

The most woeful part of this whole button situation is that I made all of the buttonholes on the front just a smidge too small.  The 4 I did on the sleeve plackets are PERFECT but I used my other machine to do the front ones and made them slightly smaller.  

When I topstitch, I usually like to use my old Bernina 1001 for that and I use my newer Bernina 350 for the actual construction.  This lets me save the specific color I have for topstitching to be used just for buttonholes and topstitching and then I can use my more neutral thread for construction on the other machine.  

My older 1001 does a nice job topstitching and doing buttonholes but my 350 has an automatic buttonhole foot.  That makes it easy to get every buttonhole the same size, but it really doesn't like anything thick.  The front plackets are thicker at the top and bottom so I ended up using my 1001 where I manually turn a dial to do the buttonholes.  I pre marked them and sadly, I should have gone about 1/8 inch wider.  I have buttoned and unbuttoned them all several times hoping to stretch them a little, and they have stretched but right now, if I were to button it up in front of someone, they'd think something was wrong with my dexterity because it's a struggle.

My initial vision was for this to be an every day jacket that wasn't exactly come hop in my tractor and let's go for a ride.

When I was first putting it together, I tried it on without sleeves and the first thing I thought of was a Carhartt jacket.  There's nothing wrong with Carhartt jackets and if I were planning to wear this to the barn or to get dirty outside, I would have loved how similar it looks.

But as something I will wear to work, and by work I mean inside schools and offices, I''m a little annoyed at how casual it looks.  I could have gone with the denim jacket buttons and it wouldn't have made it look any more casual than it does.

Overall, I'm happy with how it came out. The directions were really easy to follow and the pictures were extremely helpful. I think there is a sew along too, if you need more help.

I'm especially excited about how warm it's going to be. That fleece is very thick and I almost wonder if I could end up wearing this well into the cold months.

I don't worry too much about a jacket being too big and I know I could have probably graded down a size in a few spots, but I like to know that I can wear a thicker sweater or sweatshirt under it and not feel like I can't breathe when it's buttoned up.

I don't need any more jackets but there is something about a flannel version of this in true shacket form that really intrigues me.  If I found the right flannel, I might make another one with a hood and keep it with the shirt tail hem.

I also wanted to showcase this flowered fabric for the inside pockets. I love a pocket that is soft and warm rather than nylon or something cold like a lot of jacket pockets seem to be.

I had some leftover modal French terry from this Fire Flowers print that I got from Waymaker Fabrics a few years ago.  I didn't want to use the fleece I used for the lining because it's thick and I didn't want any extra thickness at my hips.  I had just enough of this fabric and I love knowing there's something pretty hidden inside!