The Eyes Jacket

Once upon a time, there was a little boy who had a beloved hoodie.  This hoodie was a Target Halloween product, printed with black stripes on gray sweatshirt fleece, with staring green eyeballs scattered throughout.  The little boy wore this Eye Jacket until it was threadbare all around.  The jacket was then disassembled and a good piece of it used to make a pillow (because the little boy also loved pillows.  So. many. pillows.)  The little boy's mother had carefully picked apart the stitches holding the separating zipper, and then used it on another jacket--made of black, white, and red thread dyed plaid--just for the little boy.  The little boy also loved this jacket, but, as most little boys do, he grew and grew until it was no longer comfortable to wear.  And, so, when an all-over eyeball print was acquired from JoAnn this year, quickly followed by a copy of a Burda pattern for children's JOGGINGANZUG sweatsuit (the mother thinks she likes the German word better), well...things came together, and that zipper from the original Eyeball Jacket found its way into another Eyeball Jacket, and the little boy was happy.

So...yeah.

Got this cloth when Halloween prints were only 30 or 40% off, which is a bit more than I normally would have paid, but I was Halloween shopping with RetrogradeWorks, who worked as an enabler (probably as payback.)  I picked up a yard each of several different prints, thinking I'd make some shell shirts for me and button-up shirts for the kiddo.  Um...eventually.

Then JoAnn had that rarest of events, a Burda pattern sale.  I was able to get their new motorcycle jacket pattern (which...I'd been kinda obsessed with finding a good one of those) and a few patterns for traditional boys' clothes (because the American pattern companies apparently don't believe there's much interest in making those), including this

(This is technically unisex, but, really, all patterns are.  My kid just isn't interested in the patchwork ruffles stuff.) ((THAT SAID, I just discovered Simplicity 8027, and, hello, kids' motorcycle jacket--I hope we can get together when you're on sale sometime...  Anyway.))

I eventually realized that there was enough of the eyeball print (with its American Greetings copyright...yeah...) to make the zip-front jacket.  Sure, the pattern is technically for knits only, but 'baseball jackets' are a thing--a woven thing, with ribbing on the edges--so I figured it should work. I guess I should note, though, that this isn't ribbing as much as it's a waffly thermal knit.  I do have black rib knits on hand, but liked the idea of this texture for this jacket.  I mean, it's not like I was actually following any the other fabric recommendations, y'know?

Then I decided it should at least think about being warm, so I cut a layer of flannel for an underlining, which led me to decide to flat fell all the seams on the flannel side.  This worked well on the shoulder seams

Outside

Inside

...and not so well everywhere else, as you can see on that neck ribbing.  But it looks fine from the outside--see?

Well, sorta-see, as the neck's not really in focus, but, hey, the topstitching around the sleeves also looks fine (from the outside.)

I did similar single-needle double stitching around the edges of the pockets, too.

The seams inside the sleeves and around the cuffs and waistband are just serged--a better, more patient person than me probably could have neatly trimmed and folded those over, too, but...*looks at the flat fell attempt on the neckband*  part of learning is knowing what you need more work on.

So, the result of all this "making it more complicated than the pattern called for"...?

 I showed it to him when he got home from school today and he immediately put it on and hasn't taken it off since, so I'd say he likes it.

I cut it in a size 7, and it fits well despite using two layers of wovens, and it went together really easily despite me making things more complicated, so I'd say this is A Good Pattern, and I'll probably make it again.

Maybe then I'll even follow the directions.

Maybe.