Merchant & Mills Ottoline Jacket in Essex Linen

Merchant & Mills New “Made in Denim” Patterns

As you may have guessed, we are excited about Merchant & Mills’ new “Made in Denim” patterns. They have awesome names: Clementine, Ottoline, Francine and Heroine. They are silhouettes we want to wear, and they aren’t just for denim! Bonnie made the Francine out of drapey Cupro, the Clementine out of Eco Twill, and the Ottoline out of Essex Linen.

In this, the third and final installment of our “Made in Denim” series, seamstress Bonnie, reviews and models the Ottoline Jacket.

The Ottoline Style Lines and Fit

Merchant & Mills describes the Ottoline as a boxy workwear jacket, with cuff and side-seam splits, and an inside pocket with topstitching. The pattern photo looks kind of long, similar to the Merchant & Mills Foreman Jacket. But it’s short, similar to a classic jean jacket.  Bonnie is petite, and she shortened the sleeves three inches, and the bodice 1 ½ inches. Fit-wise, this jacket runs large. Bonnie made a size 10, as opposed to her usual size 12 in Merchant & Mills patterns. She appreciated that the finished measurements were on the outside of the pattern envelope, which made choosing a size easier.

Sewing the Merchant & Mills Ottoline Jacket

The jacket went together easily for Bonnie, which she attributed to her fabric choice. The Carolyn Friedlander Essex Linen in Roasted Pecan is 55% linen/45% cotton. Its weight is approximately 6 ounces per square yard. (For reference, a heavy-weight denim is 10 to 14 ounces per square yard.) A heavier-weight canvas or denim would have been more difficult to topstitch.

By pre-trimming the corners on its pattern pieces, Merchant & Mills makes life easier for those of us with intermediate skills. Bonnie is an advanced sewer, however, and she would rather decide when and how to clip her corners. The pre-corner-clipping was Bonnie’s only quibble with this pattern.

Final Conclusions

Bonnie loves her jacket (and so do I). She thinks the Ottoline can be made fancy or casual depending on the fabric you choose. Another winner from Merchant & Mills!