Dakota Jacket
Sew a comfortable women’s jacket with character, featuring pockets, a collar, plackets, cuffs and an elasticated hem. Make it light and breezy or warmer and sturdier depending on your fabric.
Project preview
This video is for members
Join Lulu Ferris to watch the complete class and sew along at your own pace.
A casual jacket with thoughtful details
The Dakota Jacket is a cropped women’s jacket for woven fabrics, designed as a comfortable everyday layer. It has front pockets, a back yoke, collar, cuffs, front plackets, and an elastic hem that gently draws in the silhouette.
It is a structured project without feeling stiff: you can wear it open, add buttons or snaps, and play with the topstitching to make the finish more casual, more denim-inspired, or more polished. The result works very well between seasons and changes style significantly depending on the fabric.
What you’ll learn in the class
- Sew a woven jacket with front, back, yoke, sleeve, collar, cuff, and placket pieces.
- Work with two-piece sleeves and finish them with cuffs, taking care with the fit at the armhole and the exterior finish.
- Construct front welt pockets with flaps, reinforcing delicate areas to achieve a clean opening.
- Use interfacing and stay tape to add body or stability where the fabric needs it.
- Create a lower waistband with elastic to achieve a comfortable, slightly gathered hem.
- Apply topstitching, overcasting, and alternative finishes with a serger, zigzag stitch, or twin needle, depending on your machine and the style of the jacket.
Fabrics and structure
The sample is sewn in linen-cotton, a fresh, natural fabric with a relaxed drape. You can also make the Dakota Jacket in other woven fabrics such as fine corduroy, corduroy or denim for a warmer or more structured version.
The class helps you control the feel of the garment: the collar can be crisper or softer depending on the interfacing, while stay tape supports areas that may stretch as you sew. The pattern uses interfacing, 4 cm elastic for the hem and buttons, with metal snaps as an alternative closure option.
Ways to make it your own
The Dakota Jacket offers visible choices without changing the core design. You can include or skip the pocket flap, place it in the direction you prefer, add a decorative button, use snaps, or keep the pocket finish simpler.
The front closure is flexible too: traditional buttons and buttonholes, decorative buttons only, snaps, or no closure if you prefer to wear it open. Topstitching can be subtle or bold, and your fabric choice will shift the jacket from breezy and casual to sportier or more structured.
Sizes and useful measurements
The Dakota Jacket pattern includes sizes 34 to 56. The size chart covers bust measurements from 86 to 132 cm, waist from 64 to 110 cm, and hip from 90 to 136 cm.
The finished jacket length ranges approximately from 51 to 56 cm, depending on the size. It is a cropped jacket with an elastic hem, comfortable to wear over T-shirts, lightweight shirts, or light layers.
What’s included in this class
In the full class, Lulú sews the Dakota Jacket from start to finish, focusing on the details that build confidence in this kind of garment: pockets, plackets, collar, sleeves, stabilising and finishing.
Membership includes the complete video class and the downloadable pattern in A4 and A0 formats, plus the size chart, fabric requirements, assembly layout, cutting layout guidance and placement references so you can prepare your version with confidence.
Pattern & materials
Patterns are included with membership
Active members can download every available PDF and materials list.