Tello leatherette jacket

It began with a dream…

…of a leather jacket. Since I can’t buy anything anymore, because the fit is not so good, or the quality of the fabric doesn’t meet my expectations or the price doesn’t fit my purse, I have to press the sewing pedal myself to fulfill my wish. Therefore I am happy to tell you the story of how this dream came true.

Since I have been collecting pictures of leather jackets on Pinterest for a while now, it was clear to me how my jacket should look like. It is supposed to come along in the so-called shacket style. This means a piece of clothing that is a mixture of shirt and jacket.

Tello Jacket Pattern

The Tello Jacket seemed to me a good starting point for my project. I got the pattern, as well as the synthetic leather material and the viscose lining from Tissu & Co. Tissu & Co. is a cute fabric shop from French-speaking Switzerland with many enchanting fabrics and patterns mainly from France. I can only recommend a (virtual) visit!

The Hack

To match the pattern to my dream jacket, I have:

• extended front and back part by 10 cm
• drawn Pocket flaps
• placed the lower pockets 10 cm lower
• replaced the zipper breast pocket with a patch breast pocket
• sewn Belt loops and a belt
• draw and sewn lining pattern pieces and sewn (the original is without lining)

The sewing journey

Sewing leatherette was completely new for me and had unexpected pitfalls: I had just finished the first seam, when I noticed that I still had 5cm left of the fabric above, while the fabric below was already finished. Since both pieces were the same length at the beginning, I knew: „Something must have happened during the sewing!“ The fabric contains spandex and therefore expanded during the sewing process. So I literally sewed the whole jacket on tissue paper. This means that I placed tissue paper on the sewn fabric and sewed it on the tissue paper to prevent the fabric from expanding. As an alternative, an upper foot transporter would certainly have been helpful. Unfortunately mine broke up into its individual pieces a year ago. I have probably overused it a little bit…

Sewing is always a gamble. Even if you know a pattern, every fabric behaves differently. That’s why I am all the more pleased that my plan worked out. Also in terms of the choice of fabric: I think the flower-check viscose lining takes the severity out of the jacket and gives it a feminine touch. By the way, I used anorak press studs for the buttons; I actually wanted to sew buttonholes, but my sewing machine couldn’t get past the breast pockets. Well, flexibility is everything in life!

Happy Sewing

• Fabrics: Kunstleder und Viskose zur Verfügung gestellt von Tissu & Co
• Pattern: Tello Jacket by Pauline Alice Patterns