Real stories · The last-walk-of-the-day jacket

The 9pm walk with the dog was the coldest job in this house — this jacket took the sting out of it

The soft jacket that does the sofa, the garden and the last walk of the day — one layer for the whole in-between. I'm 67, and in autumn my evenings are a small comedy of layers: cardigan on the sofa, too cold for the garden; big coat for Winnie's 9pm lap of the block, far too much for ten minutes; and the crisp-evening bit in the middle served by nothing at all.

What I wanted was one soft warm thing I could put on at seven and simply keep on until bed.

Then I found the Selviannea from a British label called York Boutique — a camel suede-look jacket edged in soft cream teddy-style trim at the collar, cuffs and hem, with simple buttons and a relaxed hip-length cut. It comes in the one lovely colour, and that's the one I have.

The trick is how light it is for how warm it is. The soft-touch finish feels closer to a cardigan than a coat — which is why it never gets taken off between the sofa and the street — while the teddy-style trim seals the warmth in at the collar and cuffs, exactly where a crisp evening gets in. The relaxed fit goes over whatever I'm already wearing, and it's genuinely pretty — the postman's compliment was unsolicited.

Soft enough to keep on at the kitchen table, warm enough for the 9pm lap of the block with Winnie — one layer for the whole in-between, and it looks lovely doing it.

It was £49.95 — half the usual £100 — and once I counted its jobs — sofa cardigan, garden layer, dog-walk coat, every single evening from September to April — one jacket doing three jobs stopped being a decision at all. A fortnight to send it back and free delivery did the rest.

It has since done a week of evenings: crossword at the kitchen table, deadheading the last of the roses, and seven laps of the block with Winnie, none of them cold. Sandra tried it on on Thursday and went quiet in a way I recognised. I've told her the sizes only run S to XL. She's told me that's why she's not waiting.

If your evenings also run cardigan–gap–overcoat, do have a look. The Selviannea is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 150 women — but fair warning: one colour, sizes UK 8/10 to 14/16 only, and at half price that maths does itself.