This is kind of a fun tale of how sewing actually saved money.  I know, I know….if you/your spouse/your significant other sews, you might be laughing your ass off at this statement.  Because you know that this hobby is a money pit.  Try “running into the store for one specific fabric” just once and see how well that goes.

BUT, this is an exception to the rule.  For quite possibly the first time ever for me (ha).  And it all surrounds this new jacket of Bennett’s!

Bennett and I have been huge fans of Aziz Ansari for forever now.  And when we learned of his Netflix series “Master of None“, we jumped on it.  Two seasons later, we are smitten.  It’s such a good show!  The themes, the food, the humor, the Aziz charm — totally worth the watch.

My husband is not exactly a man of fashion.  I can’t remember the last time he’s ever requested anything beyond some flannels being made for him.  But as we were watching S2 of Master of None, he kept commenting on the plaid peacoat that Aziz’s character kept wearing.  Let’s be honest, it’s a combo of his love for Aziz and plaid that sold Bennett on the jacket, but he really liked it and I couldn’t help but look into it.

A quick google search took me to the original source of the jacket.

SAINT LAURENT: Faux-Shearling-Lined Plaid Coat
At a small price tag of $2,490.  BUT YOU GUYS!  It’s 50% off!

So really it’s priced at $1,249 right now.  What a deal!

I knew I could obviously do better than that.  I’ve been hearing of Thread Theory a lot for some pretty solid men’s sewing patterns and remembered seeing a jacket on their site.  Yay me!  They have this Goldstream Peacoat that was close enough to the same style as this Saint Laurent jacket and I knew we had a winner.

JoAnn Fabrics started carrying this super thick, double sided, flannel and we were totally sold on the print.  On top of that, we grabbed some of their faux-shearling and wooden buttons and called it a day.

I only half regret the choice in fabric.  The combination of the shearling and the flannel was enough to make my machine hate me the entire time I was sewing this.  It’s so thick and I have a pretty basic machine.  I spent a lot of time helping it feed the fabric through, rather than it wanting to pull it on it’s own.  I didn’t want to give up though, I’m not a quitter.  Bennett wanted something special and I wanted to make it for him.

This was my first time sewing with a Thread Theory pattern.  It was really well written and drafted and you can tell they have a very “old school” way of drafting.  I understand why people like their patterns so much.  It creates a very well tailored piece of clothing and it seemed really professionally done.

My only complaint is how long it took me to put the pattern together, haha.  I am beyond spoiled with no-trim pattern pieces from designers lately.  And piecing the paper pattern together took me an hour.  It took a lot of paper for the pieces as well.  I’m not really complaining.  I know it was needed.  But there were just small things like the sleeve main and lining pieces that were practically the same piece, but the lining was slightly shorter.  Instead of needing two a top and under sleeve for both the lining and outer…a cut line would have saved me some paper and pattern piecing.  Minimal things like that would have made my day better, but it’s nothing I’m going to pout too hard over.

Bennett is super happy with the finished piece.  That’s all that really counts, right?

The only thing I’d probably do differently would have been to compensate for the thickness of the fabrics and maybe sized up one more.  Because of the “poof” of the shearling, especially mixed with the thickness of the plaid, the jacket doesn’t lay perfectly at the bottom and it’s making my eyes go crossed a little in some of the photos.  It’s possible that it’ll settle down after it’s been worn a little.  If not, I might throw in another row of buttons to contain it better.  Just for my sake, haha.  Bennett doesn’t see a problem with it.

Should we talk about how much money I saved with sewing? My final tally with the fabric, buttons and pattern purchase was $100.32, tax included.  If we went from the “sale price” of the designer jacket: $1148.68
SEWING SAVES MONEY!  TELL EVERYONE!

**As always, you’ll find some affiliate links scattered within my post, which means I receive a small amount of compensation if you end up purchasing something I’ve recommended.  Thanks for helping to feed my sewing habits!