Upcycled Ilford Jacket by CiscoSews

Hello again! My name is Francisco Diaz, I am a designer and slow-fashion sewist living in Phoenix, Arizona. When I sew, my favorite thing to do is find a beautiful second-hand fabric and transform it into something new and unexpected. I love to thrift shop and hunt for fabrics with texture, bold color or funky prints. You can see more of my work at @ciscosews on Instagram! 

For this jacket, I wanted to make a twist on the traditional Fall staple- the flannel shirt. I used a woven tablecloth that I bought second-hand at a thrift store. The woven cloth has bright intersecting colors and the pattern of the weaving reminds me of the various flannel patterns found on most of us every Fall. The Ilford jacket was a perfect pair for this mid-weight woven fabric, the jacket is light enough for the temperate Fall/Winter that we have here in the Southwest US. 

What I loved the most when constructing this jacket was the “choose your own adventure” feature when it comes to the pockets. I am a big fan of massive pockets, the bigger the better, and this pattern delivers! I decided to keep the pockets minimal on this make in order to offset the busy pattern, but I was super inspired by other sewists maximizing their pocket use. I’ll be keeping my eyes out for a canvas or hearty cotton in the future, for a work jacket with plenty of pockets (and that pencil holder pocket is so cute)!

I started by cutting out all of my pattern pieces but left the pockets for the very end because I couldn’t decide which combinations to use! I went with an XXL because I wanted a looser fit on my body and I decided to use French seams to help with the fraying (this fabric shed a lot while I was working with it)! The fit is perfect- I love the cropped fit of the jacket and the dropped shoulder. 

I added my pocket pieces in the end and went with mix-matched darker wooden buttons that I’ve been collecting over the past year along the placket. For the two upper pockets, smaller wooden buttons were used- I think I'll store my wallet and phone here when I'm wearing it. The hand warmer pockets were the perfect size and I tried my best to pattern match them with the limited fabric I had.

I am super happy with how this make came out, and even happier that I found the perfect jacket pattern with so much potential to mix and match and for future makes I’m already planning a quilted version for the winter! Thanks to all the sewists posting their Ilfords online, I was super inspired by everyone’s take on the jacket.

If you want to see more of my makes, catch me on Instagram @ciscosews! BYE :o)

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Shop the Ilford Jacket PDF here

& printed pattern here.