Jackie Hoodie x Fibre Mood
This post is my honest opinion using a pattern I received free of charge from Fibre Mood.
Even though I’ve still been sewing for my kids lately, their makes haven’t made their way on to the blog in several months. But I loved this jacket so much, it just had to make it on here!
I chose the Jackie Hoodie from the new Fibre Mood pattern book #7 to make for miss Mars. The Jackie Hoodie obviously has a hood but I went with the ribbed collar, and shortened the elongated silhouette for a more traditional bomber jacket look. I think the full length jacket looks so cool but I knew my little girl would probably do better with a more traditional length.
The Jackie is designed for more stable knits like sweatshirting or double knit, with ribbing for the cuffs and bands. Its a perfectly lightweight layer with no lining, and has a zip closure and kangaroo patch pockets on the front—which makes for a neat jacket in combination with the bomber style collar instead of the hood.
This make worked out great as a stash buster as I was able to use some leftover fabric from a couple other projects. A few months ago I had some large scale floral scuba knit to work with for another blog post and had polled my instagram followers about what I should make with it, and several people voted for a bomber jacket. Thinking I wouldn’t wear the floral bomber jacket I went with a dress instead, but I figured the scraps would be perfect for this. And boy, all of those people right. This jacket is a beaut! I love how striking the floral print is as a bomber and how the large print takes up the whole jacket. Plus, Mars adores her “flower jacket” and picks it out constantly. I finished the jacket with some leftover black rib knit I bought from Indiesew last year which complements the scuba knit so nicely. Finally, my zipper was too long and I had a tough time securing the top so the zipper pull wouldn’t come right off, so I used some velvet ribbon to cap the top of the zipper.
Sewing the Jackie went pretty smoothly, although I don’t know if this is a pattern I’d recommend to a beginner. The garment itself is simple enough and the instructions are adequate, but the pattern pieces are a little bare bones and I can see them tripping up someone not used to these style of patterns. Like some other European pattern companies, Fibre Mood patterns don’t include seam allowances and must be drawn in before the fabric is cut. To their credit, there is a diagram at the end of the instructions showing where to add them on the pattern pieces.
Because I was making this jacket for a child and using knit fabric, and because it appeared to have plenty of ease, I chose to cut out my daughter’s size (according to the size chart) with no added seam allowances and assembled it with a 1/4” seam allowance. This method worked perfectly for sewing on the serger and the fit is spot on for Mars. I wouldn’t skip seam allowances for a more fitted, woven garment, but for something like this it was ok for me to fudge it.
In addition to seam allowances, the pattern pieces aren’t labeled (“front”, “sleeve”, etc), and don’t list how (on the fold, mirrored, etc) or how many to cut of each piece. Again, this information is provided at the end of the instruction booklet, but its not as convenient when you’re at the cutting table and its not on the pieces. Of course you could just write in this info before cutting your fabric, but some people might not like the extra step.
Though a little different from other PDF patterns I typically use, if I saw a Fibre Mood pattern I liked I wouldn’t hesitate to make it. They have several designs that are modern and interesting and having to add in the seam allowance isn’t the end of the world for me.
I really enjoyed making this jacket and obviously Mars is quite thrilled with it as well—which is just the icing on the cake.
How do you feel about no seam allowance patterns? Worth the effort? Inconvenient? Let me know in the comments!
