Fleece Jacket that doesn't deserve a Blog

Looking back over the last three years of my sewing journey and I can see I've made huge improvements but the fact is that lately I seem to have regressed and fallen foul of mistakes I shouldn't be making any more.

How can this happen?

I made a new fleece jacket to wear through Autumn and Winter. Having made a few fleeces before I was confident of success this time and although I really need to make a proper winter coat, I haven't reached that level of construction yet so this would be an easy make - Yes?

I bought this fabric back in August whilst we were up in the Lake District for a Family Gathering. While my husband and a friend wanted to walk all day up on some faraway mountain ridge, I opted for the far more favourable pastime of fabric shopping in Penrith, Cumbria. I had visited Just Sew during a previous visit so knew exactly where to head. I bought this super soft polar fleece which although a bit 'in your face' contained the light turquoise and purple tones that are in my favourite palette.

The cutting out to my well tried and fitted pattern went well and starting the sewing was no problem either. Then I got to the zip. I'd learned from the original Craftsy Class I bought some time back that the secret for inserting the open ended zip was to use double sided tape to place it in position before sewing. I had done this previously and it worked like a dream but NOT this time.

I must have used a different tape before because no matter how many times I changed the needle on my machine, the stickiness of the glue attached itself to the needle and gummed up everything stopping the stitch from being created. I changed needles, I tried cleaning the needle with a cotton pad soaked in degreaser every time it was in the up position and I even tried my old Janome workhorse machine to see if it would work without fuss. Nothing I did made any difference. The tape was so well stuck I couldn't remove it to start again so it was without doubt the worst effort to produce a wearable garment since I began sewing.

I ended up hand topstitching which was like trying to push a needle through a lump of concrete.

I am so NOT proud of this but at least the photos show how snuggly comfortable the jacket is. I think Tesco's is probably the only place likely to see me wearing it out so if you spot me [and with that fabric why wouldn't you?] please don't come too close as the stitching is unforgivable.

 

I love the casual wearability of a fleece jacket and I will make this versatile pattern again but next time I will use a tiny bit of stick gum in strategic places [across the yoke join to ensure it matches exactly] and hand sew a basting stitch instead to position the zip.

 









So now to choose another fleece fabric. I found this woodland scene fleece on the Just Sew website at £6.00 per metre. Hmmm not too sure about it??? What do you think?