Wildwood Jacket

At the start of last year I watched Sequingirlie Creates video about sewing quilted jackets. It wasn't something I'd thought of doing, it seemed pretty advanced to me. But after watching the video I felt like this was something I could take on especially if I could some pre-quilted fabric. In Michael Guiney's in Kilkenny I found a quilt for sale. It wasn't too thick so I got it. 

Eventually in september with the autumn approaching I decided to make the jacket. I eventually settled on the Helen's Closet Wildwood jacket. I really like the look of this jacket and as I've mentioned before their patterns always seem to fit me well and the instructions are really great so even if I had no experience with making a jacket I'd get good guidance. The jacket is lined with bias binding and the sides overlap, I think it's a nice detail and I really love the shape of the pockets. The pattern is unisex and it can be made as a vest too. I love that there's an expansion that includes a collar and hood too. 

I unpicked the bias binding from the quilt. I was dreading this job but it turned out it had been sewn on with quite a long stitch so it was easy to remove. I carefully cut everything out. I did shorten the sleeves and I think in the end that maybe I should have left slightly more length in them. This jacket was great for learning to attach lots of bias binding. I discovered that I don't mind doing it, if you hate attaching binding I'd look at a different pattern. To keep things simple I didn't add a collar. I love the pockets. Once the edges were bound it was a short step to attach everything together. The overlapping seams meant there was less bulk at the joins and that the fit could be adjusted. I finished this off with metal poppers. 

There was a huge sense of achievement when I put this on. I made a jacket! And it looks great. During the autumn this was the perfect layer when it started to get cold. I'll be wearing it in the spring too. I would like to make a vest version of this too.