Roll over the new year

I'm making an effort to actually, y'know, sew from my stash (this isn't a new year's resolution--I don't do those...partly because I still haven't broken the resolution I made going into 1987, which, made to annoy my cousins, was to not watch Top Gun.  So.)  I have another hoodie for the kiddo lined up to make, but I decided to do a ridiculous jacket for myself first.

At the end of November, I thrifted another grab bag of cloth.  It was mostly woven cotton quarter yards of various shapes, plus a bit of upholstery weight cloth and an abandoned baby blanket (probably) project that consisted of a square of pre-quilted brown sewn around the edges to a square of minky dot in...let's call it aqua.  (Sky, turquoise, robin's egg, or light teal are also possibilities.)  I picked apart the stitching and have been thinking about using the quilted brown in a coat for the kiddo (there's...there's not a lot of variety out there when it comes to sewing for boys, and he really likes jackets, anyway), but had no ideas for the minky dot.  I decided I should use it soon, somehow, just to get it out of the stash--bulky minky takes up lots of room, after all.

There definitely wasn't enough of it to use alone in a jacket, so I shuffled through the stash and ended up with some pink velour that was thrifted a while ago with, yes, no clear idea what would be done with it.  So!  Together they'd go.

But what about a pattern?  My initial idea was for something that would have the minky as the sleeves and also across the chest, and, while I do indeed have a pattern or two that do that, they were more complicated than I wanted for this project.  Raglan sleeves, though, I decided, would be just fine.

'course it turns out that the only raglan sleeve jacket pattern I have

does not do anything else I wanted.

However...the shirts in this same envelope...


At first glance, they seem to be the same shirt, but there are variations, not only in collar/neck band, but also in length.  I went with *squints* view D: wider collar and shorter length.  I cut the back and sleeves and cuffs and waistband as given.  The collar was cut as given, then the corners rounded off so it could be used in a front-opening configuration.  I cut the front in two pieces, extending the center front so it could be overlapped for buttons.  (You know I have no problem installing zippers, right?  Actually using the stash of separating zippers I have, though...)  I used the pieces I cut for the front to cut facings from a woven cotton...and then got lazy and didn't use any kind of interfacing.  Finally, I cut the pockets, minus a few inches, as given for the actual jacket view.

Everything went together easily, going by my memories of making similar things in the past.  I probably could have added an inch or so to the length of the waistband, to compensate for the addition of the extensions for the buttons, but the ribbing stretched just enough to work.  More or less.

Before we get to the pictures, I'll just mention that the whole point of this project was to use up cloth and to be warm.  "Looking fashionable" was...not really ever a consideration. (Not that it ever is for me.)

So.

You've been warned.

 Consider this the glamor shot, showing off the textures.  The so-many textures.

I keep thinking this would have been a solid start on a nice pair of onesie pajamas, but I had neither the yardage nor the inclination to go that direction.  This is intended as an around-the-house-just-to-be-warm kinda thing.  Which is also a stash buster.

I'm not sure what I think of the fact that this is the back  pretty much as intended by the pattern, save the color variations.  Clothes fit a lot different in 1987.

 I think I need to admit that I feel...off...when I don't topstitch.  So here's some topstitching.

 And here's a view into the pocket, which was not installed as directed (not that I read the directions, but I looked at the envelope illustration, and I...didn't do it like that.)  I used a bit of the purple knit left from the jacket I just made for the kiddo.

The lowest button is pink while the rest are aqua, and one less than would've been ideal, because I didn't want to spend a lot of time sifting through the button stash to find buttons perfect in every way.  I don't plan to button this ever, and this could be passed off as an intentional design choice, right?

 More topstitching, more sparkles.  The purple sparkly ribbing is something from the long-gone days of the Walmart $1/yard bins.  It's not as stretchy as ribbing should be, but it works.  And sparkles.

And here's a peek at the facing--it doesn't extend much farther than shown, but it's more than enough to stabilize the velour for buttonholes.  I don't even want to think about making buttonholes in unstabilized velour. *shudder*

So there's my first finished project for the year.  We'll see if I can be more productive this year, as I--in theory--work through my stash, instead of only adding to it...