Button Front Blazer
A women's single-breasted jacket, hip length, with a notched collar, front and back princess seams, double-welt pockets and two-piece sleeves with a buttoned vent. Five-button front, fully lined.
When To Wear
- With a skirt or trousers for the office.
- Over a dress or a top as a light outer layer in spring and autumn.
Key Design Features
Silhouette: Semi-fitted, shaped by front and back princess seams.
Length: Hip length.
Collar: Notched collar of two pieces cut on the fold, basted into the neckline and enclosed between the jacket and the cut-on facings, which also form the lapels.
Front: Centre front with cut-on facing and a side front; five buttonholes on the right front.
Pockets: Double-welt (jetted) pockets without flaps, with bias-cut interfaced welts joined at the folds by hand. Pocket bags of lining and main fabric are kept out of the side seams.
Sleeves: Two-piece set-in sleeves with a vent of cut-on facing and extension, small buttons sewn through the extension. A strip of wadding about 4 cm wide is sewn into the sleeve cap.
Back: Middle back cut on the fold, with no centre back seam, and side backs; interfaced back neck facing.
Lining: Full lining of body and sleeves, sewn to the facings and hand-stitched to the hems, with ease folds about 1 cm deep above the jacket and sleeve hems. Shoulder pads sit between jacket and lining.
Level Of Difficulty
Advanced. Jetted pockets, sleeve vents, a collar enclosed by cut-on facings and a full lining finished by hand.
Fabric Recommendations
Medium-weight jacket fabrics with body: wool suiting, wool hopsack, tweed, wool blends, linen blends.
Additional Supplies
- Lining fabric
- Fusible interfacing (centre fronts, back neck facing, pocket welts)
- 5 buttons for the front
- Small buttons for the sleeve vents
- Sleeve head wadding, strips about 4 cm wide
- Shoulder pads
Cutter's Must
- From main fabric:
- Center Front – 2 pieces (with cut-on facing)
- Side Front – 2 pieces
- Middle Back – 1 piece (on fold)
- Side Back – 2 pieces
- Back Neckline Facing – 1 piece
- Collar – 2 pieces (on fold)
- Upper Sleeve – 2 pieces
- Lower Sleeve – 2 pieces
- Pocket Facing – 4 pieces
- From fusible interfacing:
- Center Front – 2 pieces
- Back Neckline Facing – 1 piece
- Pocket Facing – 4 pieces
- From lining:
- Center Front – 2 pieces
- Side Front – 2 pieces
- Middle Back – 1 piece (on fold)
- Side Back – 2 pieces
- Upper Sleeve – 2 pieces
- Lower Sleeve – 2 pieces
- Pocket Bag – 4 pieces
Sewing Instructions
- Sew the front princess seams.
- Double-welt pockets: Place both bias pocket facings (welts) of each pocket on the front, right sides together, pin along the marked pocket opening line and stitch along the marked stitching lines, aligning the long edges of the pocket facings exactly with the pocket opening line.
- Cut the front along the opening between the stitching lines, cutting diagonally towards the front ends of the stitching. Be careful not to cut the pocket facings!
- Press the seam allowances open. Turn the pocket facings through the opening to the wrong side, wrapping them around the seam allowances, and baste.
- From the right side, stitch in the ditch of the pocket facing seams.
- Turn the small triangle at the front end of the opening to the wrong side and stitch it to the pocket facings, exactly from the end of one stitching line to the end of the other.
- Join the folds of the welts with an invisible hand stitch.
- From the wrong side, attach the pocket bags: one pocket bag to the seam allowances of the lower pocket facing, the other to the seam allowances of the upper pocket facing.
- Press the pocket bags downwards, trim them even and stitch them together.
- Sew the back princess seams, side seams, and shoulder seams.
- When sewing the side seams, do not catch the side edges of the pocket bags.
- Two-piece sleeves: Stitch the sleeve seams. Hem the sleeves.
- Press the vent edges. From the wrong side of the sleeve, stitch together the long edges and the short upper edges of the cut-on vent facing and the vent extension.
- Sew small buttons onto the sleeve, catching the vent extension.
- Set in the sleeves, easing the cap.
- Sew a strip of wadding approx. 4 cm wide to the armhole seam allowances in the sleeve cap area.
- Stitch the two collar pieces together along the outer edges, turn, and baste the open edges together into the neckline.
- On the lining pieces, stitch the princess and side seams.
- Stitch the lining center fronts to the inner edges of the cut-on front facings, leaving sections approx. 8 cm long open at the bottom.
- Sew the shoulder seams.
- Stitch the lining sleeve seams and set the lining sleeves in.
- Fold the cut-on front facings with the attached lining onto the jacket, right sides together, and stitch the neckline, enclosing the collar between the jacket and the facings/lining.
- Hem the jacket. Sew the front facings to the bottom hem.
- Insert the shoulder pads between the jacket and the lining and sew to the seam allowances of the sleeve setting seams and to the seam allowances of the shoulder seams.
- Above the jacket bottom hem and sleeve bottom hems, pin folds approx. 1 cm deep on the lining for ease.
- Turn under the lining and hand-stitch to the bottom hems of the jacket and sleeves. Remove pins, press excess lining fabric downwards.
- Finish the remaining open sections of the lining seams (at the front facings).
- Make 5 buttonholes on the right front. Sew on the buttons.
