This is my new fashion look for work and other business casual situations, along with general wear when I’m not preferring to be in athletic or other types of garments. It was inspired by McCall pattern 4745 of a historical Civil War look, with me doing my own pattern and adding the DIY wheeled or ring buttons that I came up with the idea for when the local fabric store didn’t have any buttons I liked and could use.

It took me a couple of tries to get things right for this pattern. The hardest part was the part below the built in belt. I needed something wide enough to have a slight flare, but not so much that it ended up looking like a skirt.

I also tried some new serging techniques for the curve on the sleeve, cause I serge pretty much anything I can, you see. They were met with mixed results. I’ll have to refine them or go back to my old ways in the future versions.

I also need to use fabrics that don’t wrinkle so easily as you see in the picture here after an hour of swing dancing. 🙂

This outfit would also have looked better with silver buttons, but I couldn’t find a set where there was a large version for the front, and small ones for the sleeves. All are decorative because the front buttons are really under on a placket as is typical of my style. I can wear this without the front buttons, in other words.

The sleeve buttons are 3 vertical on one sleeve, and 3 horizontal on the other. Just to be asymmetric as is also my style. In some garments I’ve made, the button arrangements have had meaning. Here, they don’t. You have to keep people guessing if you’re going to be interesting, lol. I share here but most who will see me in this outfit will never know.

I can’t wait to create more of these outfit and change my work wardrobe again. This has a much more serious look than my previous designs that were more like dress shirts of this style and not a longer jacket.

Silver rating

I very much like the look and feel of this outfit, with the originality of the buttons. However, the sewing could be a tad better, and the fit was just a tad tight due to an error that left me with just too little fabric to sew as intended by the pattern I created. I had to improvise to tighten up a few areas, and I’m relieved it worked. However, the next version will be a tad more spacious to fit better. So I’ll give it a silver rating.

Please click here to see other fashion posts I have written, including garments made.