Cruella 2021 Jacket Tutorial

It’s October and I’m here with a Cruella 2021 Jacket tutorial!

You might have noticed that I also have a tutorial from a few years ago about the 1996 version of Cruella from Disney’s 101 Dalmatians. Glenn Close wore some amazing garments then!

Well, I figured there needed to be one featuring the 2021 version, too, as I have a feeling it might be one of this year’s favorite characters for Halloween. So, hopefully this tutorial will end up being useful. I got a bit carried away with the graphics! 😀

The costumes are designed by Jenny Beavan. Here’s an interview, if you’re interested to learn more about her process. There are plenty of fabulous costumes in Cruella 2021, worn both by Emma Stone and Emma Thompson.

The Jacket from Cruella 2021

I chose my absolute favorite garment from the film for this tutorial. It’s this black jacket with spiked shoulders and some kind of cape sleeves Cruella is wearing in the poster. I was curious to “decode” the pattern, which in the end wasn’t that difficult. Of course, I couldn’t see all the details in the pictures and in the film, no matter how carefully I tried to look, but I think the end result looks similar enough. 🙂

First there was a toile. I made a few corrections to the hemline shape, the sleeves, and the collar based on it.

As a fabric, I think you should definitely go with wool. If you find a black bouclé, it will be perfect. I was working in half scale for this one, so bouclé would’ve been too heavyweight.

I picked a plain jacket wool instead, although that, too, wasn’t lightweight enough as you can see in the pictures. In human size it would’ve been perfect though. Because of the sleeves, this jacket requires quite a lot of fabric. Once you have the pattern you’ll be able to calculate the amount.

Pattern Block

To draft this pattern, you’ll either need an actual fitted jacket pattern (tailleur) or alternatively the basic bodice pattern, but with added ease. The jacket is rather fitted, but it still needs to fit on top of other clothes being an outer garment.

Using my bodice tutorial you’ll get a bodice block with 4cm of ease. Try adding 2cm to that to get 6cm of ease in total. Here’s how:

Begin by marking the underarm line and those for chest and back width.

Then lower the underarm line by 0.5cm (1.) and enlarge the side seams by 1cm both front and back (2.)

Move the armscye line outwards by 0.5cm adding 0.5cm also to the shoulder line, both front and back (3.). Lower the armhole notches so that they are located 5cm above the new underarm line.

Finally (4.), move the back waist dart 0.5cm towards the side seam.

As you’ve modified the bodice, you now need to modify the sleeve pattern as well. So “walk” the sleeve pattern along the bodice armscye to check how much to add to the sleeve on both sides of the armhole notches. The sleeve should become wider (5.). If you end up adding a different amount to the front and back, find the new center to re-draft the hemline.

For this jacket you won’t need much ease at the sleeve cap, so you might not need to add extra width in the center (6.), but if it’s too small, slash and spread from the central notch down to add the volume needed.

Now you have the basic block to draft the Cruella jacket pattern!

Cruella Jacket Bodice

Let’s start from the bodice then.

The first step (1.) is to get rid of that back shoulder dart by removing half of its width from the shoulder tip. Then, enlarge the back neckline by 0.5cm.

2. Rotate the bust dart towards the side seam.

3. Sort out the waistline. Measure around your waist to decide how tight you want the jacket to be and then measure the bodice waistline to see if you need to tighten it.

You can tighten the waist at the side seam and/or enlarge the waist darts. The original jacket doesn’t seem to have a back seam, but that’s another point where you can remove some extra volume (see the dashed line). It’s important not to remove all the volume at the same point. And remember that this is a jacket, so it shouldn’t be too tight.

4. Add length to the c-front to create the hemline shape.

5. Move the new bust dart point about 3cm away from the bust point and re-draw the dart legs.

6. Draw the pocket opening along the waistline. It’s slanted to follow the hemline shape and extends beyond the waist dart. To make it easier to sew the dart, re-draw it so that both dart legs have the same length.

Then, remove the part of the dart that’s below the pocket from the side seam, as shown. Once you sew the dart above the pocket, the two sides will have the same length again.

7. Mark the break point (where the button will be) a bit above the waistline. This jacket doesn’t have an overlap at the c-front. There’s just one button and a button loop.

8. Then draft the pocket flap and pocket bag pattern shapes onto the bodice front. They are parallel to the c-front line. The pocket flap is quite large. Try to make the shape accommodate both the pocket opening and the jacket hemline inclination.

The pocket bag has a straight hemline. You’ll also need the welt pattern piece. If you want to learn more about welt pockets, here’s a tutorial.

Copy the pocket pattern pieces.

9. How about the spiked shoulders? Well, they are not very high. I added just 2.5cm spikes at the shoulder tips. Place them slightly outwards, and make the front and back curves identical.

Notice, that if your jacket will have shoulder pads, you should also raise the shoulder tip by CA 0.5-1cm, depending on the shoulder pad height (in addition to the spikes).

10. Getting to the collar, measure the back neckline and continue the front shoulder line 1cm towards the c-front, as shown, and mark a notch (11.). Unite the notch with the break point. This will become the collar’s roll line.

The Collar

To finish the bodice pattern, you just need to draft the lapel and collar now. The collar has a particular shape, as it’s folded in half even at the front.

Draw another line, starting from the end of the roll line, in a 45 degree angle to the c-front using your back neckline measurement (1.). It will be the guideline for the collar’s neckline.

2. Draft the lapel shape starting from the break point. You can fold the pattern along the roll line to see the final shape. I drafted a 13cm wide lapel.

3. Draw the c-back line of the collar, inclining it slightly backwards at the top edge. Here the c-back is 8cm high, which will then be folded in half.

4. Then draft the collar neckline around the guideline, starting in a 90 degree angle to the c-back line. Make it curved, as shown, and unite it to the lapel line. Mark a notch where the collar starts. In this case it’s fairly high up. I left a 12cm lapel tip.

5. Complete the collar shape by drafting the top edge. Fold the collar in the middle (dashed line) to get the correct shape for the collar tip. It easily remains too short otherwise. I added some reference measurements in the picture for you.

6. Add a notch where the shoulder seam is and then separate the collar pattern. It will become the under collar piece, cut on the bias. Check the neckline length by “walking” the collar around the bodice neckline. Add or remove excess length from the c-back of the collar.

7. Copy the under collar piece and add 0.3cm extra height to its top edge to create the upper collar pattern.

Then draft the front facing shape. If your jacket will have a lining, it’s a good idea to draft the facing in a way that it’s easy to absorb the waist dart.

Trace the facing piece and add 0.3cm of extra width around the lapel tip, too.

By the way, if you want to learn more about collars, I have a collar pattern guide called Collar Galore that will show you how to draft all sorts of different collar patterns. You’ll find it at the shop page.

Cruella Sleeves

Now there’s my favorite part of the jacket: the sleeves! They definitely have a cool shape, forming a little cape at the back.

Begin by tracing the basic sleeve pattern.

Let’s add the pointed shape to the sleeve cap first (1.). As we added 2.5cm at the shoulder tips, now we can raise the sleeve cap by the same amount and then draft the new cap shape. “Walk” the sleeve cap along the bodice armscye to check the measurements. You can leave some ease, as it’s easy to absorb when working with wool, but no more than 10%. Lower or raise the sleeve cap tip to adjust, if needed.

2. To create the opening for the arm we need to add a seam. You can place it about in the center of the front section measured at the elbow line. The opening starts, for example, 4cm above the elbow line and ends at the hemline. Mark a notch.

3. Decide how long you want the sleeves/cape to be and lengthen the sleeve pattern accordingly.

4. Draft the new sleeve seam shape. You need to take more measurements to figure out how low the curve and how wide the sleeve should be. Ideally you won’t see the jacket hemline at the back, so the curve needs to end up higher than that.

As for the width, it determines how much you’ll be able to move your arms. On the other hand you don’t want too much slack either. So it might be a good idea to make a toile to get the measurements right.

5. Finally, add some flare to the sleeve hemline. I added 10cm on both sides.

The Final Pattern Pieces

Alright, now we have the jacket pattern ready. Here are all the pieces you should have now.

The collar pieces, the facing, the pocket flap, and the welts should be interfaced. The back piece will either be cut on the fold or into two pieces, depending on if you have a straight back seam or not.

Mark a notch where the pocket ends up along the back side seam.

About the Lining

I made this jacket just for my half-scale dressform so there’s no lining. If you’re making a quick costume, you might also not be interested in making a lining. But for a serious jacket, you do need one.

Therefore just a few words about the lining.

You can modify the existing pattern pieces to create the lining pattern: remove the spiked shoulder shape from the bodice and sleeve pattern.

Remove the pocket opening from the front bodice lining by going back to the original side seam shape. Absorb the waist dart into the front bodice lining – facing seam. Leave some of the dart volume though, as lining should be slightly larger than the main layer. So maybe attempt to absorb only half of the dart.

Add a couple of millimeters of extra width to the bodice side seam and the sleeve seam, too.

You might find this coat tutorial helpful for drafting the lining pattern.

Sewing the Cruella 2021 Jacket

I took a few pictures also during the sewing process.

Here you can see the collar and the pocket flaps sewn and pressed. Also the welts are pressed in half and ready to be attached. I always like to start by sewing the details.

As for the bodice, I closed the darts, the c-back seam, and the shoulder seams first. Here you can see the pocket opening already slashed open: you can’t close the waist darts otherwise. But cut only enough to close the darts. You’ll cut the rest after having sewn the welts.

Then attach the button loop at the c-front on the right side. After that you can already sew the facing, if you want.

Sew the side seams, stopping at the pocket opening on both sides. Here you can also see the front waist dart flattened to avoid bulk.

Sew the welts to the pocket opening on the right side, the raw edges pointing towards the center.

After that you can finish cutting the opening before pulling the welts to the wrong side. You might need to trim the seam allowances to remove bulk.

By the way, the welt pocket tutorial mentioned earlier includes also instructions for sewing welt pockets.

Here’s the pocket flap. You sew it to the seam allowance of the upper welt.

After the pocket flap, you can attach the pocket bag pieces and close the seams to complete the pocket. I chose red pocket bags!

Attach the collar before the sleeves because the sleeves will make your jacket more difficult to handle. I forgot to take pics, but basically you just sew the under collar layer to the main layer of the jacket neckline first and press the seam allowance towards the collar.

Then sew the upper collar to the facing, and finally press the remaining seam allowance inside the collar and top stitch near the edge. Complete the collar by uniting the two layers by “stitching in the ditch” along the front neckline.

Sewing the Sleeve

First, sew the two sleeve pieces together on both sides of the opening. If there’s no lining, you can simply fold the seam allowance under and stitch around the opening. In the case of a lining, unite the main layer to the lining around the opening instead.

Sew also the curved seam to close the sleeve.

Then you can attach the sleeves to the bodice. If you have ease at the sleeve cap, sew two rows of gathering stitches between the armhole notches first. Pin the sleeve to the armhole, matching the notches and seams. I found that for this shape, it’s easier to sew with the bodice side on top.

After having completed the seam, trim off some extra bulk around the pointed tip before turning the right side out.

Now you still have one seam open; the one that unites the two sleeves at the back. So close that.

Finally, hem the jacket, attach a button to the c-front, and you might also need to add a few hand stitches to keep the collar neatly folded at the front.

The Result

So how did the jacket turn out then? Well, here are some pics! What do you think? Close enough?

I’m tempted to make a human sized version for myself with more practical sleeves.

I hope this was useful. 🙂 Feel free to share with any friends of yours, too, that might be looking for a Cruella 2021 jacket pattern.

Will you be making any costumes?