It is highly probable that this jacket was made for the Dowager Empress Cixi (1835-1908) as suggested by both the style and ample girth.

Compare two very similar jackets in the Beijing Palace Museum: one with gold embroidered butterflies, illustrated in Dragon Emperor: Treasure from the Forbidden City, Melbourne, 1989, p. 110, fig. 64; and the other one with embroidered hydrangeas design, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue The Splendors of Imperial Costume, Beijing, 2008, fig. 90, p.130