I was interested in making myself a relaxed fitting zip front hoodie with pockets that would be more suitable for layering than my beloved Ottobre hoodie.
Background
This is a zip front hoodie in two lengths: hip and mid thigh. There is a front waist seam with front angled pockets. Ribbing is used for the cuffs and hem band.
The ribbing is a 230 gsm weight ribbing from Frollein S. Unfortunately she shut down her fabric store right after my purchase, which is too bad because I had just discovered the store and she had such wonderful stuff!
As usual per Jalie the sizing is pretty inclusive and goes from 2T to 2X (womens size 24). Per my measurements I cut a size Y (40” bust) for the top and tapered out to a BB (47” hip) for the bottom. I would say it is a more relaxed fit but not baggy. In my photo I’m layering a slim fitted tee under a long sleeve fitted merino wool top under it, and it feels like it has the perfect amount of ease for this.
My waist is a size W (31.5”) so just for the back I tapered to the size W cutting line, just for a tiny bit of extra shaping.
I feel like the sleeves run a bit short for Jalie and added an inch to the length. I also added 3/4” with to the sleeves at the bicep/elbow (pretty normal for me no matter what the pattern brand).
It was tricky figuring out how to add the extra with at the hem for the front, so below are my altered pieces in case if you also need to alter from waist to hip and having a hard time envisioning what to do. I went from a Y at the waist seam to a BB at the bottom of the hem.
Here’s the lower front once altered. The right shows the original Y cutting line drawn in, tapering out to BB.
This is the front inset panel. Again, the right side shows the original Y cutting line drawn in. (The left is just me drawing in the stitching line when trying to figure out how to add the extra amount.)
Here’s the pocket piece. You can once again see the original cutting line drawn on the right. The pocket piece is actually the same for all adult sizes, but since I was going between sizes I needed to add extra room on the right. (Once worn I also found the pocket piece too narrow for my taste, so for next time I widened it 2”, that’s the middle alteration. That’s what is going on in the middle of the piece.
Construction
As usual with the newer Jalie patterns, I found the instructions were excellent (and I believe a video tutorial is also on their website). The hardest part is probably Step 10, getting the inset lined up with the lower front (since the pockets are tacked together at the very top and very bottom of the slash.)
I think in the future I would consider adding in a zipper to the front pockets, just for some extra security while at the playground.
I found the finishing where the hood attaches to the zipper very neatly done.
I do recommend tracing piece C1/C2 lower front and lower back) twice. One to attach to the upper back piece, and one so you can avoid having to take the extra step to cut the piece off indicated by the instructions in Step 5 after cutting the entire hoodie. Just eliminates more room for error.
Conclusion
A great hoodie pattern, especially for layering! It is perfect for my casual stay at home mom to a toddler life. I do recommend checking the width of the front pockets though because they seem on the narrow side, and while they work fine for hand warming I would like the ability to more securely store my keys, phone, etc when out and about. As you can see below there’s plenty of room to extend the width towards the center front.
Jalie 3675 is a simple unlined bomber jacket meant for stable knits or stretch wovens. It has a zip front opening, front welt pockets, and a little fabric tab where the hem band meets the zipper. It comes in sizes 2T (21″ chest, European 92) all the way to European size 52 (50″ bust). I was looking to make a fall jacket for my two year old son now that temperatures around here have officially left summer territory, and thought it was a perfect fit for the fabric I had recently purchased. Normally I love using Ottobre patterns for my son’s wardrobe, but with the tariff chaos they aren’t currently shipping to the US so I had to look elsewhere.
Materials
The main fabric is a quilted poly/cotton/lycra blend quilted knit from Jumping June Textiles. As soon as I saw this online I had to get it. It is definitely one of the most expensive fabrics I’ve purchased, but since toddler clothing has minimal yardage requirements it made the purchase less painful. I also have enough left over for a vest or colorblocked future jacket for him.
If you purchase this knit make sure to serge or bind the edges because it loves to shed.
The zipper is a navy blue #3 molded plastic zipper from WAWAK. I needed to shorten it to 12″ and didn’t have any #3 zipper stops in stock, so I borrowed a couple of stops from an old zipper in my stash.
The thread is Gutermann Mara 70. Normally I prefer Mara 100 or 120 weight for garments, but I couldn’t really find a good thread match for this fabric (it is like a saturated mustard color with orange/brown tones in it) and already had this in my stash, so I decided to just go with it. Luckily the thick knit was able to hold up to the heavier weight thread (and the topstitching does look nicer due to the loft of the fabric).
Fit/Alterations
My son is currently a size 92 in Ottobre. I hardly ever buy RTW clothes for him anymore, but when I do it seems right now he’s typically closer to a 3T than a 2T. Even though size 92 in Ottobre fits him pretty generously I decided to size up to the 3T in this pattern (Euro size 98) because I wanted him to be able to easily layer and hopefully get a year of use out of it. You can see it is a bit big on him right now but not overly so.
Since I wanted to easily layer this over some of his sweatshirts I removed some of the shaping from the sleeve, turning it into a straight line from the armpit to the hem instead of curving in around the elbow slightly as drafted. I’m not sure this was actually necessary but hey, the room is there if we need it. I also added a total of 2″ to the hem width because my son wears cloth diapers and that often means shirt hems too snug and tend to ride up.
Construction
This is one of the newer Jalie patterns. The instructions are very clear compared to some of their older patterns. I hadn’t done a single welt pocket in a while and had no problem following Jalie’s instructions (which include illustrations for each step as well as written instructions in both English and French). There’s also a video tutorial on the website. IMO Jalie has put a lot of effort into making their patterns more accessible in both expanded size offerings and more thorough instructions. I am not super dependent on instructions but as I spend most of my days sleep deprived and/or distracted by toddler antics I appreciate the extra hand holding.
I did use a narrow, dense zigzag stitch to reinforce the pocket openings. This wasn’t in the Jalie instructions but Ottobre often recommends it.
Conclusion
This is a great jacket pattern for the whole family. Instructions are clear and the drafting is well done. He wore it for the first time today when we went to see Grandma and Grandpa and refused to take it off the entire time we were there!
I have been using cloth diapers for over a year now. I wasn’t in a place to do any sewing when I first started (with having an infant and still trying to settle into our home and manage repairs and renovations after moving in a few months earlier) so I took the easy way out and bought a bunch of Alva Baby and Nora’s Nursery pocket diapers. They were working fine for a long time, with the help of changing out the included microfiber inserts for pad folded birdseye flats, then the flats placed on top of the microfiber inserts, followed by various combos of layering the flats over cotton/bamboo fleece and hemp/bamboo soaker inserts as he grew bigger. Lately he’s been soaking through even that. For nighttime I just put a lanolinized wool cover over a heavily boosted pocket diaper. It works fantastic and I haven’t had a single leak since using the wool cover. But since the wool is a bit bulky and can have that unpleasant wet wool smell if it gets a little wet I wanted something else for the daytime. I’ve heard that as babies grow and need more absorbency that pockets sometimes don’t work as well, so I was looking into using fitted diapers with a cover.
Disposables are certainly simpler, more convenient, and way less work. When my husband is in charge of changing him he uses disposables because despite my best efforts he still can’t manage the snaps. But the vast majority of the time I’m in charge and I hands down prefer cloth. No worrying about running out, or having to constantly dispose of dirty diapers. We don’t have curbside trash pickup in my town (unless you contract with a private hauler) so I need to drive our garbage to the local transfer station. (My mom used cloth diapers for all of us and has often commented about how many mountains of trash in the landfills must be from just disposable diapers.) I also felt like he was less prone to diaper rash with the cloth diapers. The PUL covers make them way cuter too!
Jalie 2907
Fitted diaper inside cover. Notice how much higher the cover is than the diaper. About an inch for both front and back.
Pattern Background
This pattern includes a pocket and all in one version along with a fitted diaper and diaper cover.
I made the fitted diaper along with the cover.
Materials
You can use anything absorbent for this pattern – cotton velour, terry, flannel, etc. Jalie warns the fit will be slightly different for wovens vs knits (meaning a child will likely outgrow the woven version first). For the fitted diaper layers I cut up a few old cotton flannel shirts. For the built-in soaker I used an old towel for two layers and cotton flannel for the third.
For the cover standard diaper PUL is recommended and that’s what I used (also from Nature’s Fabrics). For those that aren’t familiar with PUL it is a thin laminated polyester with a tiny amount of stretch. I would consider it more water resistant than waterproof, because if your absorbent layers get saturated enough it will soak through.
Alterations and Fit
My son is currently almost 20 months and around 26-27 pounds. He has a very muscular, wiry build and is longer in the torso and shorter in the legs so I’ve always had to size up in disposables sooner rather than later. For this reason I chose size 24 months.
For the diaper cover I used fold over elastic instead of the recommended 1/4” braided elastic for one of my attempts.
Construction
The Jalie sewing instructions as usual are great. I did find they were not as good quality for the cover. However this pattern goes right easily and quickly.
Issues
While the instructions are great, the fit and design of this pattern was…not good. Jalie is usually a winner so this was a big disappointment. I really don’t recommend this pattern. If you do try it, do a muslin. Do not use your good diaper fabrics for the first run!
First of all, you have three layers of the diaper plus four layers of soaker fabric. They’re all sewn together. It is very bulky and makes sewing a royal pain, especially around the legs. I use a sprayer that attaches to the toilet for rinsing off soiled diapers, and with all these layers it is more unwieldy. The bigger issue is that all these layers make for a diaper that takes forever to dry, especially if you use bamboo or hemp in some of the soaker layers. Seriously, I had to run it in the dryer in high heat for 1.5 hours and then let it air dry overnight in order to get it completely dry. My normal preference is air drying, with a normal dryer cycle on damp days. For the times I air dry I sometimes use a 15 minute quick cycle to soften them up.
Both the cover and fitted diaper waist and especially leg openings are too tightly drafted. Jalie has you do the elastic length 50% of the measurement of the leg openings and waist respectively. The fitted diaper was passable because the heft of the flannel kept it from being too binding, but the leg openings of the cover are absolutely tiny. I couldn’t even snap it shut on the first column of snaps, and my son has very average size legs. Muscular, but neither skinny nor chunky. I tried again a few times playing with the elastic length of the cover. I found 65% was a more reasonable length.
The cover is very oddly drafted. It is like the wings of the diaper cover are way too short and the legs are cut too low and small. This causes it to be too long at the sides, and then bunches up when he moves around. At this point I decided to just give up on the pattern. I had wasted a few pieces of PUL and flannel and soaker fabrics and I was done trying to make it work. I really wanted to make this pattern work because the cover is so simple and easy to make, but I decided after a few tries to cut my losses.
The one thing I did really like is Jalie had an extra piece included for creating a “laundry tab” for the fitted diaper. It is just a small piece cut from the loop part of the Velcro and sewn next to the hook part so the hook part of the Velcro can be folded over and not catch anything in the laundry.
Rocket Bottoms One Size Fitted and In A Snap Cover
One size fitted diaperOutsideInside fleece layerSandwich soaker, unfolded (bamboo terry side)Other side of sandwich soaker (hemp/cotton fleece)Booster next to sandwich soaker. See how the booster is designed to snap into place. Sandwich soaker folded in half, with booster added. The snaps can snap into a cover or against the outer layer of the fitted diaper. In A Snap cover outside“Tuck it in” bottom and front facings Gussets
Pattern Background
The fitted diaper consists of three layers, an inner, outer, and inside layer. There’s tons of snaps for both rise and width adjustments. There’s fitted diaper includes pattern pieces for a soaker, booster, and sandwich style soaker. It is designed for infants and toddlers in the 10-35+ pound range. There’s just one size, with the rise snaps allowing for adjustment as they grow. The diaper can be constructed with serged edges, bound edges, or turned and topstitched.
The In A Snap cover is also designed for infants and toddlers in the 8-35 pound range. Theres actually newborn through large and then a one size pattern. The one size is slightly larger than the large size. What attracted me to this cover is it includes side gussets as well as “tuck it in” facings at the front and back. This is designed for being able to just throw in an insert and be on your way! (IMO this works better with younger babies.) The pattern includes markings for snaps, but you can also use Velcro.
Materials
For my first version of the fitted diaper (not pictured) I used three layers of thick, double napped cotton flannel I had leftover from making my husband and myself matching pajama pants.
For my second version I repurposed some birdseye cotton flats (two layers for the outside, two layers for the inner). The lining/inside layer is a cotton/modal sweatshirt fleece from Fabric Matt I had leftover from making my husband sweatpants this winter. The snaps are size 20 KAM snaps. I had an issue with some of the snaps coming apart due to the thickness of the fleece layer, so I repaired them with the long length size 20 snaps. (This is why some are blue and some are white.)
The elastic for both is 1/4” StretchRite elastic. It has good strength and recovery for this application.
The booster is two layers of the hemp/cotton fleece from Nature’s Fabrics.
The cover is a PUL print from Nature’s Fabrics. I used Velcro from an Amazon seller. The fold over elastic is 5/8” matte fold over elastic from WAWAK.
Fit and Alterations
For both of these I made the one size version.
After making them I think the fitted diaper wings are too long. For his Nora’s Nursery pocket diapers he starts at the third snap from each side. For this diaper I am close to having the wings touch in the middle. Now, the snaps are designed so that you can overlap if necessary but considering he’s at the upper end of the size range I think they would be way too long for an infant. I do like the rise though, they are a bit longer than the pocket diapers and fit his longer torso well.
I found the opposite issue with the cover. IMO the wings are too short. I also found that adding a little bit of height (1/2” at the front and back) ensured an easier time getting the cover completely over the diaper.
I left off the rise snaps because he’s already fitting into the full rise.
For the cover I added a piece of the loop side of the Velcro next to the hook side when attaching Velcro to the back wings. When I’m about to throw it into the laundry I attach the hook piece to the loop piece next to it to prevent the Velcro from sticking to everything. It works really well as a laundry tab. I took this idea from the Jalie pattern.
Construction
The instructions and pattern markings are where IMO Rocket Bottoms is really weak, especially for the fitted diaper.
There’s no technical drawings or illustrations, just some poor quality low res photos to go along with the written instructions. I found them workable but poorly organized and not clear and concise. They’re very vague about the design and usage of the diaper. No technical drawings of the overall diaper design either, nor explanations of how the diaper is supposed to work. There’s vague terms like fold down rise vs snap down rise, and fold over flap, along with hybrid diaper version. It would have been helpful to have technical drawings or even just a clear photo of each one, but instead you get an artistic photo of a toddler from the side in a diaper holding an umbrella. One of the fabrics listed is “MFT” and I still have no idea what that is. I’m a pretty experienced sewer – I’ve made Marfy patterns which include no instructions at all – but this one left me scratching my head.
The Jalie pattern instructions are written for people that sew that happen to be building a stash of cloth diapers; Rocket Bottoms seems to be more for people who are experts in cloth diapers that just so happen to want to sew some. For example, I know I messed up the sandwich soaker because some of the snaps go on one layer and some on the other. The pattern offers very little guidance. It would have made sense for example to have two separate pattern pieces for the sandwich soaker instead of telling you to print the same piece twice and tape it together in the middle. Same thing with the diaper, some of the snaps need to be placed facing down or facing up and there’s no guidance. The way they are marked sucks; I used a hole punch to cut out the holes to make it easier to mark the snap placement (I like using Frixon markers for this sort of thing). Problem is that the pattern uses either small open or shaded in circles to indicate stud vs socket, so by using a hole punch I lost that indicator. So I had to print off another pattern and use that as a key. All in all, you’re best off referencing either an already made diaper in person or diaper photos online from different brands to see how it is supposed to go together. I think next time I will make it even easier and just use Velcro for the closure. (You can also not put any closure and use pins or a Snappi.)
I found the cover a little more organized – at least there’s a clear photo – but again, a technical drawing showing front and back would have made things easier. There’s a reference to a facing for the front, but no indication of what that means in the instructions. Is it another PUL layer?
I think a large part of the problem is that the creator originally had a website and facebook group to help support the patterns, but she gave up the pattern business about a decade ago so those are now long gone.
Overall I found the Rocket Bottoms fit and design very well done. It’s just that the pattern markings and instructions suck. There’s far more detail for how to print the PDF than there is for actually sewing and understanding what each version looks like and does.
Performance
The Rocket Bottoms set is my go-to for when we are out and about. I did have an issue once with leakage at the waist because I didn’t have the cover pulled high enough one time and he completely saturated the diaper, but otherwise there’s been zero issues with the legs leaking (which was my bigger problem). The gussets really work! With fitted diapers you have way more absorbent fabric all around (especially with the leg ruffles) so it gets quickly absorbed instead of leaking out the side like a pocket.
I’m not a fan of the sandwich soaker and will likely use the regular doubler insert with a booster snapped in instead in the future. it’s a great design for quicker drying laundry but I find it cumbersome to keep it folded together when I’m maneuvering a diaper change with a very active toddler.
I have found that I prefer to snap the soaker to the cover vs to the diaper. Future covers will include snaps at the back for this purpose. It just gets too unwieldy with trying to place the diaper and get it closed with a floppy folded soaker in the way. Way easier to prep the cover with the soaker tucked into the facings and put the fitted on as a completely separate layer. Plus if there’s a poop diaper I find it easier to get the cover and soaker out of the way then deal with the fitted vs having to remove a fitted with a soaker attached while trying to make sure I don’t accidentally drop the poop out of it!
As for laundry, I find the Rocket Bottoms diaper is fantastic. The diaper itself is only three flat layers so it is easy to rinse off any solids, and drying won’t take forever. The sandwich soaker unfolds so you’re only drying 2-3 layers at once instead of 4-6. Same for the booster. I love using cotton for diapers because it doesn’t hold smells unlike some synthetics, and it can take the abuse of bleach, high dryer heat, etc. With a separate cover you can wash the cover more gently and be way more aggressive with the fitted and soaker layers. My subsequent versions of this diaper will be three layers of cotton flannel, or two layers of cotton flannel with a cotton or bamboo fleece/terry inside.
I find the hemp/cotton fleece is super absorbent so will likely make the soakers and boosters out of that. Since the booster is so small I can get away with remaking some of his current pocket inserts into boosters.
Diapers aren’t my favorite thing to sew, and I’m finding it daunting thinking of just how many I still need to make. (Plus covers, but you can generally get away with way less of those since they are easy to wipe down between changes.) But I really like how I can use higher quality fabrics than what is offered in a lot of store bought diaper systems and customize them to whatever I need them to be for my son’s needs.
Jalie 4457 is a pattern for sweatpants and shorts that includes side cargo pockets, side inseam pockets, and back patch pockets with flaps. The pants have a wider straight leg. The waist is finished with elastic that is topstitched in place with one or two rows of stitching (this will vary based on the size you make).
The side seam pockets can be made from one piece of jersey with the facing pocket piece self fabric to help reduce bulk. They hang from where the waistband is stitched, thus reducing bunching.
There’s the normal range of Jalie sizes, from 2T to women’s plus size 2X. I think they have an extended size pattern also available on their website that has more plus sizes. You can make these for men too though, especially if you are willing to shorten the back crotch curve for their typically flatter butts.
Materials
Jalie suggests sweatshirt fleece, French terry, and heavier jersey with at least 20% stretch across the grain.
I used a mid weight French terry with a brushed, fleecy back from Fabric Mart with 20% stretch widthwise and 40% stretch along the length. It is sooo soft and has great drape – perfect for the wider legs of this pattern!
Fit and Alterations
Based on my hip size I made a AA. I cut a size Z for the waistband elastic.
I left off the side cargo pockets. Maybe I will add them to summer shorts. I mostly bought this for the cut, not the cargo detail.
For alterations I lengthened the legs 1.25”. I probably only need an inch but I like to allow a little bit of extra fabric for new pants as I have noticed no matter how much I preshrink, as time goes on the length tends to contract. I also added 3” at the center back seam, tapering to nothing at the center front.
The 3” seems like such a dramatic amount of height to add, but a couple of years ago I got some pajama pants from Lands End that fit really well (balanced at the waist, no pulling down in the back when sitting) and when I measured them I discovered it was because the back crotch curve was so much longer/taller than the front. I use these measurements as a guide now for altering pants.
Construction
Jalie has great instructions for this pattern, perhaps even better than some of their old patterns. The pattern sheet is also color coded for the lines rather than the old style pattern sheets which are all black and white, which makes it very easy to trace your size.
The entire pants pattern uses 3/8” seam allowances, not 1/4”. You sew on a regular sewing machine then finish the edges on a serger as you go along. When it comes time to do the waistband casing you finish the edge with a serger then fold it over and stitch in place. This makes for a lot less bulk than folding the edge under. Also, when you make the front side seam pockets you baste them 3.25” (for my size) from the upper waistband raw edge, then trim close to the stitching. This way when you make the waistband casing the raw edges are caught in the seam, but you don’t have any extra bulk.
When I added the back pockets and flaps I used Design Plus fusible web tape to hold everything in place. Highly recommend over pins!
I recommend that after you sew the waistband casing in place and pull through the elastic that you try them on and adjust the gathering before topstitching the elastic in place. The first time I just went ahead after evenly gathering all around and the pockets were gaping with a lot of diagonal pulling towards the front. When I unpicked the topstitching (needed something to do after I couldn’t fall asleep after my son woke up) I adjust the gathers so there was almost none at the front and they were mostly in the back. Much better! The side seams were straight, the pockets flat, and the front was much flatter and more flattering.
Conclusion
Great comfortable sweatpants and shorts pattern for the slightly stretchier heavier knits out there.
These yoga pants have a bootcut leg, optional topstitched seams, and and upper and lower waistband which can be used with a contrast fabric. The waistband is secured with 3/8” elastic at the upper edge. The back is split into two pieces, which is great if you’re like me and always dealing with gaping at the center back!
As usual with Jalie, the enormous size range goes from child size 2 to adult women’s 22 (so hip sizes 22”-53”)
Materials
Jalie recommends fabrics with 50% minimum stretch in both the width and length.
For my first version (not shown as it is in the laundry!) I used light-to-medium weight cotton/lycra French terry with around 50% stretch in both directions from Fabric Mart.
For my second version (which is shown in the photos above) I used an Italian viscose/lycra French terry from Gorgeous Fabrics.
Fit
I made size AA based on my hip measurement, and did the following alterations:
Added 3” to height of center back seam. I am unsure if for future versions I would keep this much height. On one hand I love how when I bend over it is super secure. On the other hand, after being worn for a while it seems like it was a bit too much as when the day goes on the fabric relaxes and I end up feeling like 2-2.5”may have been enough. For the two versions I made the extra height isn’t a deal breaker.
Added 1” length to the inseam.
Took in the waist slightly, using a size Z and snugging in the elastic to a size Y. I took in the waist entirely at the back leg seams.
Both of the pants fit really well, and are SUPER comfortable. They avoid the RTW fit issues of feeling too tight in the legs while being too loose in the waist, and the fabrics are simply heavenly. This is my go-to pattern for stretchy knit pants now.
Construction
These are a simple sew. I only used my sewing machine for stitching the waistband elastic ends together and then zig-zagging the elastic to the upper waistband edge. It was otherwise constructed entirely on my serger and cover stitch machines. Jalie provides good instructions with both text and illustrations.
Clothing Engineer 