This project has been a long time coming. It's something I've fancied making for a while but always felt intimidated by, once I got up the courage to make it the project itself took some time, and then I had to wait ages to get photos of it because the weather kept being too rainy. At long last, I'm happy to share my Helen's Closet Wildwood jacket!
The Wildwood is a quilted jacket or vest/gilet that comes in high hip, low hip and mid thigh lengths. It has overlapping shoulder and side seams, and the edges are bound with bias tape. The pattern also includes patch pockets, and the jacket/vest closes with front snaps.
The pattern covers bust sizes from 31 to 60" and hip measurements from 33 to 62".
If, like me, you find the idea of making a quilted jacket appealing but a bit daunting, I'd definitely recommend the Wildwood pattern.
The instructions are really clear and detailed. In addition to telling you how to make the actual jacket/vest, they also guide you through making and attaching bias binding, quilting your pieces, choosing the stitching pattern for quilting and pre-shrinking your pieces.
They answered all of the questions that I had in my mind about making the jacket and made me confident that I could tackle the project successfully.
Sewing the jacket itself is actually relatively straightforward, and the overlapped shoulder and side seams are helpful if you need to adjust your fit a bit. Binding all the outside edges and the interior seams does take a bit of time, but it's not difficult.
I made sewing my Wildwood jacket more time consuming because I pieced the patchwork for the outside of my jacket rather than just using a fabric. I was lucky enough to win the fabric I used in a fat quarter bundle from Sew Scrumptious a year or two ago. They're Liberty quilting cottons from The Artist's Home collection. As they're such pretty prints, I took my time deciding what to use them for - they were almost turned into a bag or a quilt, but I'm glad that I went down the quilted jacket route in the end.
The pieces I cut for my patchwork were 5.25" x 4.75" (so ended up 4.75" x 4.25" once sewn) - a slightly random size that I chose to make maximum use of the fat quarters. I had 11 fat quarters and that gave me plenty of fabric; I have small sections left of each of them.
Once I'd pieced together my outer "fabric", I had to decide how to quilt the pieces. I debated a couple of options, and eventually decided to keep things simple and stitched horizontal lines one inch from each horizontal seam. Thankfully that seems to have worked out nicely.
I bought my batting from 1st for Fabrics, and the lining fabric that I used is a vintage Laura Ashley cotton that I've had for so long that I can't remember where it came from!
The next decision to make was about the binding. I wanted something that would stand out whilst also complementing all the pretty prints in my quilted pieces. In the end, I plumped for a red cotton with small white spots, and made my own bias binding. I'm happy with that choice - it's just the look I was after.
I made the possibly controversial choice to omit the pockets from the jacket. I like pockets as much as the next person, but I felt like my jacket had enough going on as it was and that adding patch pockets might be taking things one step too far. I also decided to use sew on snap fasteners instead of setting in snaps - I've had some disasters with snaps before, and I'd invested so much time in the jacket by that point that I didn't want to risk that happening to this project! Sewing on snaps seemed far less risky, and they work fine.
I used the size recommended for my measurements (blending from a 14 at the bust to a 16 at the hips) and I'm happy with that. There is a bit of ease in the jacket and some people might like it slightly more fitted, but I'd prefer to have it as it is to allow for wearing layers underneath.
I used the high hip view of the pattern, and it's the perfect length for me - long enough to cover my waist if I'm wearing separates, but short enough to look good with dresses too.
All in all, in case it's not obvious already, I'm so proud of how my Wildwood turned out! It wasn't a quick project, but I really enjoyed working on it, and my jacked turned out just how I hoped it would. I'd heartily recommend the pattern if you're looking for a quilted jacket/vest. And I'm very tempted to make another version - that's always a good verdict on a pattern, isn't it?!
