Corduroy Shoalhaven Shacket

I've had the Muna and Broad Shoalhaven Shacket traced in my size and ready to cut out for months... almost a year, in fact, since I traced it while we were still living in our old apartment. 

Moving and home repairs, etc., kept me from it last winter, and then it was warmer weather and my mind was on summer sewing. 

Since turning to autumn sewing with my flannel Tarawi, I decided to give the Shoalhaven Shacket a go, and I’m glad I did!

(I'm not sure what's happening in the photo below, but it's giving LL Bean catalog model vibes, which seems appropriate):

The Shoalhaven Shacket has a lot of pieces and a lot of steps. It was a great, detailed project to dig into. I took my time, sewing it over the course of a few weeks, a little bit at a time. 

The Shoalhaven Shacket is a long shirt-jacket with chest pockets and flaps, a button band, a deeply curved hem, and a two-piece sleeve. The interior is lovely with bound seams and generous facings. 

I made my Shoalhaven Shacket from 14-wale corduroy in a rich merlot from my local fabric shop, Stash, which was a pretty great weight for the shacket (which I would categorize more on the jacket side of things, rather than a shirt, in terms of fit and weight). 

After a recent-ish corduroy nap cutting disaster, I think I managed to cut the corduroy this time with nap all in the same direction. I did lose track of things when sewing on the collar and cuffs, so I may have lost the nap direction there. Shrug. 

For the facings, back stay, and Hong Kong binding I used an odd-shaped piece of Kona cotton with some random cut-outs, dug from my stash. 

It had a few stains on it, so I covered up the stains by ice dyeing it with Dharma Trading Co. procion dye in eggplant. It coordinated perfectly with my corduroy!

I finished my Shoalhaven with 5/8 inch heavy-duty snaps as closures. My favorite.

I cut a size D Shoalhaven, which worked well. It's definitely roomy, but I think that's the intent. Plus it will be great for layering. 

The neck/collar is particularly large, but I think for a jacket that I'm likely to wear with a scarf or over something else with a collar or turtleneck it's fine. 

Construction-wise, there were a few tricky bits, but quite doable. Very much a follow-the-instructions situation, with seam allowances changing throughout. 

Some of the areas where lots of bound seams met things got dicey, like the sleeve plackets and the spot where the side seams meet up with the hem facing, but it worked out. 

Similarly I had some head-scratching moments with the collar (could have used a few more notches, or maybe I just needed to mark my pieces better!), but we got there in the end. 

I'm pretty enamoured with my Shoalhaven Shacket and will definitely get a lot of wear out of it during Vermont fall. 

I also love that it coordinates with my recently made Tarawi shirt, so I can basically be the Muna and Broad shirt pattern version of a turducken.