Jalie 3884: Frédéric Hoodie

Background

The Jalie Frédéric is drafted for men and boys, sizes 2T to 50 (XXL). It has zippered pockets, ribbed cuffs and hem, a full zip, and lined hood with drawstring. The front and back are seamed at the waist.

While it is drafted for men and boys, women can use this pattern too as long as they’re aware that it falls straight down from the chest and the hips are drafted smaller than they would be for a women’s pattern. (I’ve also found that Jalie men’s patterns tend to be drafted with longer body and sleeve lengths than the women’s patterns.)

I made this for my two year old son. I was specifically looking to make him a non-bulky fleece jacket he could wear while traveling in his car seat during the cold months. (I never realized how problematic winter coats could be for kids using car seats until I actually had a kid and quickly found out that puffy down jackets are a no-no for car seats.)

Fabric and Notions

Suggested fabrics are stable sweatshirt fabrics, with rib knit for the cuffs and hem band and lightweight jersey for the hood lining. The seaming and colorblocking potential makes it a great stash buster, especially for the little sizes.

I used 4-way stretch Polartec fleeces for the body, sleeves, and hood. Both are scraps from previous projects and purchased years ago from Fabric Mart. I think it’s possible the black fleece is 15 years old at this point!

I used a black cotton ribbing from my stash for the cuffs and hem band. It was from either Nature’s Fabrics (my most common source for ribbing) or Fabric Mart. As a side note, Jumping June Textiles is also a great source for ribbing, especially if you’re looking for the heavier 230 gsm weight more suitable for sweatshirts.

The hood lining was cut from an old modal/cotton/lycra jersey Amazon Essentials t-shirt of mine.

The front zipper is a #3 YKK molded plastic separating zipper from WAWAK I had in my stash. The pocket zips are plain YKK #3 nylon coil non-separating zippers, also from WAWAK. The pattern referred to “nylon oil zipper” for the pockets, which left me totally confused until I realized it was likely a typo and meant to say “nylon coil zipper” instead.

The grommets for the drawstring are also from WAWAK. The drawstring for the hoodie was part of a 3/8” herringbone weave cotton drawstring color assortment from Amazon.

Fit and Sizing

I cut a size G (3T) for my son. It’s big for him, but he’s grown SO much since his birthday four months ago (like 1.5”) that I’m reluctant to make his actual size right now, which would be 2T.

The only alteration I made was widening the hip area by 2” to make more room for his cloth diapers.

I’m really happy with the fit. It isn’t too bulky and layers nicely over sweatshirts, while allowing plenty of room for future growth.

Construction

The most challenging part of this jacket is probably the zippered front pockets. If you look at the “Tutorials and Resources” section of the pattern listing on Jalie’s website there is a handy written tutorial with photos on how to construct them (though I didn’t use it myself).

The seam allowances included are 3/8”. When I make this pattern again (either for my son in a larger size, or for my husband) I will trim down the seam allowances on the pattern to 1/4” for everything that’s able to be sewn on the serger.

Since my fleece is so stretchy, when it came time to attach the zippers (both pockets and front) I ended up using strips of some Pro-Sheer Elegance fusible interfacing for stabilization. I also used a scrap of this interfacing for stabilizing the section of the hood where the grommets are set.

Conclusion

I’m very pleased with how this jacket came out. It isn’t a super quick project that I could bang out in a couple of hours, but he’s wearing it so much that it was well worth the effort.

With the chaotic tariff nonsense causing issues with importing back issues of the Ottobre pattern magazine, I find myself using Jalie patterns more and more. I’m doing a lot of family style sewing at this point in my life and the wide range of sizes, reliable drafting, simplicity, practicality, and often unisex styles make them surprisingly cost effective.

Jalie 3675: Charlie Bomber Jacket

One of my favorite projects for my son this fall.

Pattern Background

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 rib is a coordinating heavy rib knit, also from Jumping June Textiles.

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!

Ottobre 4/2023 #6: Infant/Toddler Coat

Background

Ottobre 4/2023 #6 is a children’s winter coat pattern for European sizes 62-98 (basically infants through toddlers). It features rounded patch pockets, a hood with darts at the back and elastic at the middle front for additional shaping, and extra long raglan sleeves meant to be cuffed. This jacket is fully lined.

I made a size 80 for my son. I think he’s about 31″ long and 22-23 pounds so at this point (just a guess, he’s really hard to measure now).

Materials

The pattern calls for ready-quilted fabric and fleece lining. I chose instead to use a wide wale deep navy medium weight corduroy from Gorgeous Fabrics.

For the lining I used a soft, sturdy cotton flannel from Fabric Mart (which was left over from my husband’s pajama pants).

Since this is meant to be a winter jacket I wanted more warmth, so I used 3M Thinsulate C150 from Vogue Fabrics for the interlining. I actually bought the Thinsulate a dozen years ago…just getting around to using it!

Instead of velcro for the hood and snaps for the front I chose to use wood buttons. It seemed to fit in more with the rustic corduroy and flannel fabrics.

Construction

The pockets are a single piece which is folded over, sewn, then turned out. This makes it very easy to get a nice rounded edge, plus it provides a self lining.

For the Thinsulate interlining I placed attached it directly to the lining, with the fleecy side facing the wrong side of the lining and the quilted side facing the wrong side of the corduroy. I never worked with Thinsulate before so it was a new experience for me. I didn’t need to baste it to the lining as the flannel provided plenty of “grip.” I did trim it down to 1/8″ seam allowances after sewing a seam. This stuff is pretty fragile with heat, so pressing the seams needed to be done lightly and carefully. (I accidentally melted a section of it.) It does have some loft but is lightweight and easy to sew through. I had no problem making the buttonholes, though I did use a buttonhole stabilizer plate simply due to wanting to eliminate error with the bulky fabric.

Ottobre instructions are quite minimal (basically the same as Burda’s used to be) so you should have some experience with sewing a coat before you attempt this pattern. The nice thing again about baby clothes is since they take so little fabric it isn’t a big deal if you need to recut and start over again! I haven’t sewed a lined jacket/coat in forever so I needed to think a bit about how to bag the lining, but I managed just fine. There’s no front facing so that makes things simpler.