Well, it was supposed to be a bed jacket...but I like it so much I think I'll be wearing this one out & about! On those mornings when I don't need to jump out of bed, I enjoy a few minutes of sitting up in bed and "beditating". On those chilly winter mornings, however, this usually means crawling out of bed to put the fuzzy warm robe on, & then crawling back in bed with the ungainly robe, and it doesn't even cover those cold ears anyway! The solution? A warm, fleecey, hooded bed jacket! I meant to make this Kwik Sew last year, but never got around to it. A couple of recent below freezing (OK, ok, maybe below 55, but still....COLD for these tropical-loving old bones!) mornings convinced me that it was time to whip this puppy up soon. After a session with the Peony Vest that involved a few too many trials and errors figuring out the hem/lining details, I decided it was time for a quick & easy side trip to rejuvenate the mojo - the bed jacket was just the ticket! I dug into my fleece stash & selected this nice, thick, soothing green Polartec 200, traced off a Small, and cut out the 2 pattern pieces w/ no alterations, looked through the instructions, & decided this was probably about 30 minutes of needle time. Including sewing on a button! Well.....almost it was. I serged the first 3 (out of 4) seams, & decided that the serged seams were entirely too bulky for this thick fleece. So I finger pressed the seams to one side & sewed over them with a decorative stitch to flatten them. The last seam (underarms & sides) I just sewed with a straight stitch. I also had an issue sewing the corner where the hood attached to the back - going over clipped corners with the serger is not a technique I've figured out yet.
If you look closely, you can sort of see the clipped corners - on the wrong side of the serging - this was definitely a case where the sewing machine is preferable, at least for me!
The small ended up being a tad on the too small side, so instead of making a buttonhole & button, I braided 3 thin strips of the fleece together to make a button loop - this allowed the front to be a little bit looser. Then I did a decorative stitch around all of the edges (the pattern calls for hand sewing a blanket stitch around the edges, but for a one hour top? I think not....) Here's a close up of the deco stitching & buttons: Can a project be too easy & still produce results that are this much fun? I'm happy to add a few more sewing projects like this to my repertoire!
I love that the collar can lay flat, or sit up....lots of options!
The collar as it fell when I pulled the hood down - fun!
Materials: 1.5 yards of Polartec 200 Fleece, 2 vintage pleather buttons from stash, thread. Time: About 3 hours, from pattern tracing through button sewing. Rating: Two Thumbs Up! I'll definitely make another variation (or two) of this one! The question still remains: will I be wearing my bedclothes out on the street, or will I be wearing street clothes in bed? And does it matter? May your dreams be pleasant, and your mornings be full of promise :)
