Friends, friends, everywhere...
- halljanell
- Mar 17
- 3 min read
Hey everyone! Guess what? We had two new quilters pop into our Wednesday meeting—Ana and Leah! It's always fun to get some fresh quilting brains in the mix!
Oh, and don't forget! Every meeting we've got a jumble of freebies, sometimes from Wrap the World and always from Just Sew You Know members, plus a library. Feel free to dive in and swap out that book, pattern, or fabric that's been giving you the side-eye!
Chantel, our resident fashionista with a knack for sewing clothes, is stepping up to teach us the art of quilted jackets on May 17th. I’m practically bouncing with excitement to stitch one up! And if you're quilt-less or just to time crunched to work up a fresh patchwork, Allyson's got a few spare quilts she's offered up. Check out Chantel's list of what you'll need:
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Quilted Coat Class Information
Patterns
I recommend using one of these two patterns:
Size range: 40"-64" Bust, 41.5"-71.5" Hip (And they will grade the pattern up for free if you’re outside of that size range)
Hovea Jacket and Coat Patterns by Megan Nielsen Patterns
Size range:
40”-60” Bust here (the coats I showed at our meeting on March 12 were made using this pattern)
If you want to use another pattern, I recommend you find one with:
No collar or sleeve plackets (the thing that buttons at your wrists). These can be pretty fussy, and especially difficult with thick, quilted material.
A loose fit. Quilted fabric isn’t great for tailored garments.
Simple closures. Zippers can be challenging for beginners, and buttonholes are time-consuming.
Fabric/Quilt Selection
I’ve provided some suggestions for both methods of making these jackets below (either piecing the material yourself or using a pre-made quilt):
Using a pre-made quilt
Try to focus on smaller patterns and avoid choosing a quilt with one big design in the center that you want to use. This can make it difficult to get all of your pattern pieces out of the same quilt (but nobody is stopping you from using two quilts if you want to get truly nuts!).
Lean towards bigger quilts vs. smaller ones. Even if you’re making a smaller size, this gives you more fabric to work with and more freedom to cut pieces out the way you want to.
Piecing/quilting the fabric yourself
I know you all don’t need much help here!
The best way I’ve found to do this is to print out the pattern, cut out the individual pieces (sleeves, front and back panels, etc.), and use them as a guide for laying out and planning pieces.
Plan your pieces to be 1”-2” bigger than the actual pattern piece to account for shrinkage during quilting and so that you can cut the pieces out neatly.
Also remember that the outside ½” to ¾” of each piece will be on the inside of the jacket in the seam allowance.
Finally, I do recommend washing and drying the fabric you’re planning to use in whatever manner you plan to wash your coat when it’s done. Sometimes the fabric shrinking in the wash can affect the fit of a garment, so pre-washing is a good idea.
Before/During/After Class
Before class:
Have your pattern printed and your pattern pieces cut out
These are great instructions for putting together a PDF pattern if you’ve never done that before.
You can also use services like PDF Plotting or local print centers to print patterns that don’t need to be assembled. Full disclosure, I have never done this, so I can’t help you with it, but many sewists online have!
The Hovea Jacket pattern also has the option to buy a traditional printed pattern (You’ll select “Printed Pattern Sizes X-Y” when purchasing)
Have your quilt ready to go (e.g., washed, holes mended, etc.) or your self-pieced fabric pieced, quilted, and ready to go
During class
We’ll talk about how to place your pattern pieces if you’re cutting from a pre-made quilt
We’ll cut out our patterns so that we have all of the pattern pieces
We’ll begin constructing our garments and get everyone as far into construction as possible
After the class
We’ll leave binding the edges and inside seams of your jacket for after class, since it can be time-consuming and is best done (I think) when watching a movie or listening to an audiobook!
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There you go- all you need to know to make a brand new quilted jacket! Let me know if you have any questions or comments about the class. I'm happy to forward questions and contacts to Chantel.
Remember our next meeting will be April 9th! We're looking forward to seeing you there!
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