I'll be Sewing for Victory, will you?

If you haven't heard yet, Rochelle over at Lucy Lucille is hosting a fantastic sew-along, Sew for Victory! It's a 1940s themed sew-along, so of course I'm in!

As you know I already do a fair amount of 1940s sewing, so I wanted to use this sew-along to really challenge myself in some way. I've thought a lot about it and have come to a decision that I hopefully won't be regretting down the road... ha!

I'll be sewing the jacket from Hollywood Patterns 1678:

In the pattern it's referred to as a battle jacket, but you'll also see it called an Eisenhower or Ike jacket, as Dwight Eisenhower was responsible for the military design that inspired my pattern. The Ike jacket became standard issue in the United States military starting November 1944. It was in part modeled after a British military dress jacket, but you also see similar jackets in other countries.

{source: Kansas Historical Society}

At a time when patriotism was high and catalogs were filled with "man-tailored" women's suits, slacks and jackets, it's probably not surprising that this style of jacket made its way into women's sportswear!

This is one of my favorite styles of jackets, but I don't own any. Several months ago I squirreled away this amazing Hollywood pattern for the future. I'm going to sew view 1 with the collar and fly front (like the Ike jacket above):

I can't actually find anywhere in the pattern where it has you add buttons in the fly... it might just be assuming you know enough to add them when it's explaining them for the buttoned up view 2, but would you really do bound buttonholes inside a fly? It does say you can work them by hand or machine, so perhaps that's what it assumes you'll do for the fly?

(Anyone have a vintage fly-front jacket that can tell me how the buttonholes are worked inside the fly?)

Anyway, if I can't figure that out, I may just do the buttoned-up version like view 2. Or maybe do a mock fly where there's no real fly, but with top-stitching and hidden snaps on the inside.

Did I mention I've never sewn outerwear? The pattern has instructions including the lining, and I've ordered a couple of books specific to tailoring and jackets, and have been generally getting myself pumped to try this.

Here are a few inspiring pictures of other women's short jacket styles from the 1940s. Fly front styling on the windbreaker on the left, and two lovely double-breasted wool jackets:

{Source: Sears & Roebuck, 1943)

I need both of these skirts, jackets, blouses (or knit pullovers) and shoes, thank you.

{Source: Sears & Roebuck, 1944)

And these sports jackets (another fly front on the left) would be great for hiking and camping this spring!

{Source: Sears & Roebuck, 1943)

I also found a jacket from almost my exact pattern... but I'll save that for another post. ;)

I'm really excited about the Sew for Victory sew-along, so hopefully I hope I'm up to the challenge of sewing my first jacket!

If you haven't heard about the sew-along yet, pop over to Rochelle's intro post, her post on links to get your creative juices flowing, her post on authentic 1940s resources, and the Sew for Victory Flickr group. Join us!