The Next Project: But First, A Bit of History

 

Ahhh, the humble denim jacket is often mistaken as an All-American classic but it isn't so.  The denim jacket has a shared global history.  According to Dan Ketchum's piece, "The History of the Denim Jackets," denim blue jeans trace their history back to 1860 Italy.  

Levi Strauss is often created for designing denim blue jeans but it wasn't until the 1870s that his dry goods company started making heavy duty work pants.  A garment already created back as "part of the uniform of Giuseppe Garibaldi's army" back in Italy a decade earlier (Ketchum).  And as they say, the rest is history.  Okay, not quite... 

Levi Strauss was born in Germany in 1829 and came to America in 1847 where he worked with his brothers in New York where they had a dry goods company.  A year later and elsewhere in the country opportunity was calling.  The California Gold Rush caused a significant population increase to the western coast of the United States as many sought their fortune.  Strauss, being one of them, relocated in 1853 to San Francisco to establish his own dry goods company and sell his goods to a thriving mining industry.  And being the successful businessman that he was, Strauss introduced the denim work clothes to the influx of gold prospectors coming to California.  

Levi Strauss didn't invent denim work clothes but he certainly deserves credit for marketing denim to miners and propelling it to iconic status to the masses globally.  Today, the brand that bears his name is worth $10.88 billion (USD).  

And today, there are many brands and clothing manufacturers creating denim pieces.  Sadly, with the rise of fast-fashion there are ill-fitting and less than desirable knock-offs.  Thankfully, home sewists, like myself, can skip the fast-fashion trends and have fun creating their own denim jacket that fits well and in 100% cotton with out the man-made fibre additions 

So where to start?  Well, the pattern of course!  There are so many options to chose.  Here are just a few:  

I do like the classic seams on Mimi G's denim jacket pattern, Simplicity 8845.  Added bonus the pockets and this is a unisex pattern. 

Jalie patterns offers a PDF version of the iconic jean jacket.  It is currently out-of-print but still available as a downloadable.  

Style Arc offers the Stacie Jean Jacket in both PDF and printed versions.  

Butterick 5616 offers a jean jacket and denim shirt style pattern.  

And these are just a few jean jacket style jackets out there.  Over the decades, there have been many more, many now out-of-print (OOP), but still available over at Etsy or Ebay if you are interested in checking out other options.  

For my own jean jacket, I'm going to give OOP Butterick 6376 a try.  How about you, have you made a jean jacket?  

Stay Safe and Happy Sewing!