Proud Floridians will tell you that genuine Key Lime Pie is never actually green, but yellow. My newly finished McCall 5525 jacket is green, but I’m calling it “Key Lime Trench” anyway. I decree that genuine Key Lime Trenches can be green. I finally got around to photographing it today. Well, more correctly I ran around in a park while Dan snapped pictures- thanks, Dan! It’s still too chilly here for a spring jacket (I wore my heavy wool coat to the park and changed into my trench for the vanity shots), but I’m looking forward to warmer temperatures soon. Until then, I’m still playing with snow.

I used a combination of views- the length, collar, and lapels from view D, the sleeves and button bands from view E. I’m really glad I added the button bands on the sleeves- in the end I think they’re helping to keep the trench from looking too crafty-quilty and giving a more tailored finish. There’s lots of topstitching too, which helps as well.

The fabric is Amy Butler’s Full Moon Polka Dot in lime (100% cotton), fully underlined with white muslin (also 100% cotton) because it’s too lightweight for a jacket on its own. The freakishly matched buttons are Gutermann, the on-seam pockets are silk taffeta, of which I had a remnant from my Delancey dress, the lining is Bemberg (100% rayon) in a blush pink.  It’s a bit flimsy for a jacket, but it was all I had in the house:

I did a fair bit of hand finishing on this coat- the hem and sleeve hems are blindstitched by hand and the bottom of the lining and ends of the sleeve lining are also slipstitched by hand. I actually like hand sewing, and I find it gives me more control when easing than using the blindstitch on my machine (maybe because I rarely use it, so I’m not good at it.)

And here, more for the sake of stroking my sewing ego than any other reason, are lots of pictures of my new favorite spring jacket, in all of its buttoned and unbuttoned, front, side, and back view glory, shown here with a pair of my beloved Jalie 2908 jeans, cheery orange heels from ModCloth, and a beater I probably bought more than a decade ago. 

 

I love you, Key Lime Trench! 

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