(If you weren’t a teen in the 90s and don’t think of Cake every time you hear “long jacket,” here you go.)
This all started as an “I could make that” when I saw this Everlane Drape Trench:
It was in a cotton/lyocell blend, which made it drapey, but I knew lyocell was going to wrinkle like crazy once you sat on that long jacket. It was also $148.
My shoulders had outgrown my old J. Crew Factory trench; I was starting voluntary isolation; and indie fabric stores had just had to close their brick and mortars and needed some love. I knew what I had to do: Order 3.5 yards of 100% cotton twill from Hart’s Fabric and make my own version.
I used Simplicity 8554 (view A). It’s an unlined trench style, pretty close to the Everlane inspiration but with no buttons. It would have been e a super fast sew…except I decided to go all-out with my finishes and Hong Kong finished EVERY. SEAM. with bias tape I cut from a Japanese print from deep stash. (I also added a back vent instead of the side slits, using this tutorial.)
I even added the belt loops and belt, even though I’ll probably wear this open 90% of the time. I was a little worried about sewing on the loops, since that meant sewing through 6 layers of heavy canvas, but my machine handled it like a champ.
Whew! A long post for a long-ish project. I haven’t ever had a jacket this long and I love wearing it–it brings me back to the 90s when the cool dangerous kids at school wore long dusters and didn’t care about failing classes (unthinkable!). This may read as a classic un-dangerous trench, but in my mind I’m the girl in the Cake song.