I have this Katarina Roccella fabric, and I haven’t decided what to do with it (besides hoard it and pet it). I think Abbey may have me convinced that I need it to be a Zinnia Jacket!
Does this sweatshirt jacket have you dreaming of spring as much as me? Spring is my favorite season…flowers blooming with warm sunny days and cool evenings. Cool evenings that will be perfect for my new Zinnia Jacket!
I spent a ridiculous amount of time deciding on a fabric for this jacket. I originally wanted to make it out of a heavy sweatshirt knit that would be more appropriate for the season we are currently in, but I just couldn’t commit. I found myself coming back to this floral knit I had in my stash over and over again and finally decided to ignore the fact that the groundhog saw his shadow and cut in!
I’m so glad I decided to cut in! I love how it turned out! I sewed up a straight size small and the only major changes I made were to change the pockets to a kangaroo pocket (are they really called kangaroo pockets or is that just what I all them, haha). I really have a thing for kangaroo pockets and I liked the idea of adding in a little more of the pink fabric that I used for the sleeves.
Switching the pocket was super easy. You would need to see the front pattern piece to see what I’m talking about, but I just didn’t cut the half circle shape of the original pocket. I used the pocket piece from another pattern to make mine, but you could easily trace a pocket off of a RTW item you already own. You just need to hem the pocket opening and turn the remaining sides under and stitch it on. (Melissa’s note: There’s a tutorial that shows how to make kangaroo pockets here.)
One other change I made was to enclose the free edge of my zipper with bias tape. I didn’t like how you could see this part of the zipper where the jacket is not zipped all the way up. I also didn’t think to switch from hot pink thread to white thread when sewing mine on. I checked out some RTW sweatshirt jackets of mine and they all had zippers finished this way. I think it makes for a very neat and professional finish! (Melissa’s note: another option, if you don’t want the zipper tape showing, would be to line the jacket. That would also make it substantially warmer)
Another reason I took so long to decide on a fabric for this jacket was that the ribbing requirement was limiting my options. When I first thought about using this floral fabric, I was going to do the whole jacket out of the floral because then I could just use white ribbing, which is easy to find. I just kept picturing the floral with the pink and couldn’t settle with all floral. I decided to try using the pink fabric where I was supposed to use ribbing. I told myself if it didn’t work, I would just recut the sleeves with the floral. Well, it seems to have worked just fine!
I can’t wait to talk Piper for some walks this spring in my new jacket!