Simplicity 2443 jacket & New Look 6597 skirt

Hi again.
Sunday's sewing session started early today, when I woke up at 5am.
My sewing room is at the opposite end of the house to the bedrooms (a deliberate design!) so when I wake up early (which is more often that not) I go do some sewing.
I've had Simplicity 2443 jacket & New Look 6597 skirt cut out & ready to go for a month or so now, & today I decided it was time to make them up.
The fabric is a fairly heavy stretch twill with an embroidered floral design all over it, in a lovely terracotta/rust red colour. For some reason though it photographed as coral.
I had barely enough fabric to get both out (I think I had 3m?) but with a bit of manouvring, managed to get it all cut, with tiny scraps only left over.
The skirt came together quickly, I've made this one heaps of times before.
Although this pattern is now out of print, it was available up until recently as a download from http://www.printsew.com/.
Sadly, it doesn't appear to be available there any more, so if you want one, you might be lucky enough to find one on Ebay, Etsy etc....

As you can see from the pattern pieces, it has interesting seam lines, & is a quick skirt to sew. I made another one of these recently as part of my 10 piece wardrobe plan for the http://www.patternreview.com/ wardrobe competition.
I used self bias on the waistline, for a nicer finish.
Sadly the photo does not show off what a nice skirt pattern this is.

After breakfast, it was on to the jacket.



This is a Cynthia Rowley pattern, & quite honestly, I think the dress is absolutely ghastly!
But the jacket? Well that is mega cute.
Heaps of people have reviewed it on http://www.patternreview.com/ already, so I decided I'd also have a go.

Did I mention this fabric was a bit too heavy for this pattern?
It came together well, but I managed to break 4 heavy duty needles when topstitching the sleeve cuffs.
I don't normally topstich 1/4" away from the edge on pockets (a look I don't normally go for) but I deviated from my usual practise & decided to do what the instructions said for a change.
Also, I couldn't find the right colour D-rings for the sleeve cuffs, so decided I'd use a jeans button instead.
(I'vegot some bronze rivets & jeans buttons to put on, but do you think I could find bronze D-rings??)
This of course required modifying the sleeve cuff to suit (I used the same markings of course to attach, but chopped off the extensions)...
BUT, I was so focused on whether I was going to have enough thread to finish the jacket or not, that I forgot to measure the length of the sleeve cuff before fitting it on!
And boy, what a mistake that turned out to be.
Lets just say I must have REALLY FAT arms, as there's no way on EARTH that I'll even be able to do these up!
So I've put it on the dummy for now, taken a few photos, while I mull over how I'm going to save this.
Because apart from the sleeve stuff-up, I LOVE the jacket & really want to be able to wear it.
My thoughts at this stage, are to unpick the sleeve tab & cut off the sleeve at that level, & do an elastic casing.
ONLY because I just don't have enough fabric left to cut more cuffs (which would be my preferred option).
My other option would be to use the strip of bias I have left over from the skirt waistband to try & rig something up, but am not sure I have enough to do that....
Any suggestions would be most appreciated!
Anyway, here's the finished jacket, tell me what you think.

PS. I'd like to give this pattern one more try. (this time with a properly sized sleeve cuff!)

I've got some royal blue linen left over from another dress made recently, so may try it in that.
Hopefully it will be easier to topstitch than this jacket was!