A month of months

I had a waterproof breathable jacket that I think I made from fabric purchased when you were still allowed to use the Goretex brand name.  It was a Burda pattern, super simple, and super annoying.  It was a pullover (NO), had no pockets for my hands (NO), a kangaroo pocket (ok), an ill-fitting hood (ok), raglan sleeves (yes), an asymmetric closure (yes), and was color-blocked (yes).  The capital NOs outweighed everything else.

It delaminated from age. And the arm holes would rip out regularly because of the whole putting-it-on-over-my-head thing.

I decided I would be environmentally conscious, and use waxed cotton canvas for the replacement.  It turned out to be not remotely waterproof, except that it was another layer for the rain to soak through before it got to me.

So the replacement replacement had to be waterproof breathable fabric, have the same interesting asymmetry and color-blocking-ness, a kangaroo pocket is fine, a taller front collar, and pockets for my hands.

Enter the Momiji Jacket from Waffle Patterns!


I stumbled across Waffle Patterns a few months ago (or years, whatever). I was immediately drawn to the designs because they had interesting pockets.  Like, there are so many pockets she has a pattern collection of just pockets.  Yes, please.

This jacket pattern is either just a stand-up collar with a kangaroo pocket and tabs on the cuffs, or a hood version with with many pocket variations, also including a kangaroo pocket, but with a hand warmer pocket built in, a chest pocket, a ticket pocket on the sleeve, and a knit cuff.  You can mix and match pockets and details between the versions.  Both have the asymmetric closure. 

I chose view A with the hood and maximum pocket-age, and just a plain cuff. This ticked all the boxes. 

For the fabric, I decided on a blue called Wedgewood and a black ripstop W/P/B. Since the pattern calls for all one color, I had to estimate the amount needed for each block.  I got 1.5 yds black, and 1.25 yds blue.  I could have bought .75 yards of the blue and had enough.

For the pockets, I used a .5 yd piece of leftover reflective fabric from the previous rain jacket project. It's not high vis reflective, but it definitely has a bit.

For the zippers, I wasn't quite sure what gauge I should get, and ended up with #6 for the kangaroo pockets, and #4 for the ticket and chest pockets.  Since I wanted zipper pulls that rotated, I had to buy zipper by the yard. I really wanted plastic zips, but the fabric store had more selection in coil.  I also got a prepackaged plastic zip for the jacket closure.

I wish I had thought more about it and purchased only bottom stops for all the pocket zips.  They don't need to open at the top, and I'd actually feel a little more confident with them closed at both ends.

The pattern pictures have additional details not covered in the instructions.  To the chest pocket, I added a little reflective ribbon tab with a D-ring to hang my compass on.

This is a slim-fitting jacket.  I muslined it and went up two sizes to be able to wear a sweater underneath it (as recommended), and still needed to add 2" to the circumference of the biceps!


The first step in the instructions was to make the chest pocket. Through no fault of the pattern, I had to remake it SEVEN times. Then one of the kangaroo pocket zipper heads disintigrated. It was just one of those projects.  I fixed them both, but it took me days.

The plastic closure zip was an inch too long, so I cut off some of the top teeth with wire cutters, and wow, those things really fly off to parts unknown!  I'm sure I will be finding them in the years to come.

I realized I put the ticket pocket on the right arm, meant to put the ticket pocket on the left arm, and refused to fix it. No more 7-try pockets.

I modified the sleeve cuffs with a couple buttonholes to accommodate an elastic cord and toggle, so I could snug them up over gloves if needed.

Despite being very careful, I managed to reverse the left and right sleeves in the lining. At least it wasn't in the shell, and I can't tell when wearing it.

Seam sealing really slows down the process of sewing, too.  I'm glad I had a lot of sewing knowledge. This was very challenging.

The jacket looks great (imho) in the above pictures and while wearing, but It's a little awkward to put on - I have to twist around to get the zipper lined up,   For the same reason, I don't like to wear it with the zipper fully open. It hangs a bit oddly.  For ventilation, so far, it's been fine just having it open to the waist.

I wish I had put more reflective material into this jacket while making it. But I refuse to put any more needle holes in the W/P/B that I have to seal! My next project is to get some peel 'n' stick fabric fuse, which despite the name, involves no fusing. It is a way to make stickers from fabric, and I have black and blue high-viz reflective fabric.

I could see making another one of these jackets, maybe out of wool, or something else warm.
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Started: 1/19/22
Finished: 2/7/22
Cost: ~$100

I got so tired of sewing on the buttons that I didn't make a full gif. As mentioned before, you can click on the above to replay the animation. Also, as mentioned before, I only, ha "only", needed 10 buttons for the tails. I love these tails!


After the buttons are sewn on the tails, the tails are finished with a bit of lining to hide everything and tidy up the edges.  The collar did turn out a little big. Not sure why since the basted version fit fine.


Then the sleeves are made, and I made them as big as possible through the biceps and forearms. And I also made them backwards. The images in the instructions were a bit confusing to me, and I should have paid attention to the actual pattern piece names. I ended up doing yet more hand sewing and tacking down the sleeve vents so they didn't stick out weirdly due to facing the wrong way. And I did that after making three buttonholes and sewing three buttons on each vent.


The home stretch - making 17 buttonholes and 17 buttons. The pattern recommend making handmade buttonholes. HAHAHA!


I had about 1/4 of one layer of thread left on the spool after sewing all these buttonholes. My heart was beating a little hard, and there were several stops to wind more thread on the bobbin, but not too much, so I wouldn't run out of either the thread or bobbin one before the other. And it was especially nerve-wracking because I had just been at the fabric store the prior day and thought "I have plenty of thread! I'm sure I don't need to buy anymore!" Thankfully, I was right.


The buttons ready to be sewn on. I think it took me 4 hours to sew all 17 buttons on the front.

Next up, the actual jacket on an actual person!

Immediately after making the blue jacket, I wanted another one, this time bigger than a size XS. I can't remember what size I did make. Oops.  This was also made in April. Or May. I wish I'd kept track. Oops again.

I actually bought fabric for the main color - black linen.*

The lining was a piece of vintage fabric gifted to me by a coworker.  It was narrow and a little over 3 yards, so there was some piecing happening there, too.


I don't wear it red-side out as it's not quite my color, but I do like the pop it gives at the cuffs.

*I used some leftovers for  the sleep mask I just made.

I just finished reading Overdressed by Elizabeth L. Cline (2011). In it she talks about how fast fashion is bad for the environment, workers, and, well, fashion.  One of the ways to she says we can mitigate the effects of fast fashion is refashioning. It was timely because - I did that!

I have been doing that with my clothes and thrift store clothes for years, decades at this point.

Earlier this year, I went through my closet and sorted things into piles: keep, toss, mend, I want a new one, and I wish this were something else.

I made McCall's 7439 c. 1964 size in black corduroy with Bemberg Cupromonium Rayon underlining a few years ago.


I made the collarless version. I thought it would be a nice basic wardrobe piece. It was not.

I've had Simplicity 3369 c. 1960s size 14 on my to-make list for a long time.


Could I get this jacket out of the dress?!?

Since the dress had raglan sleeves and the jacket had set-in sleeves, it looked dicey. I held the jacket sleeve pattern pieces to the bodice pattern piece and kind of held it over the dress. (Suuuuper not technical or precise.)

Surprisingly, the finished dress bodice was pretty much the same exact width as the jacket pattern.  The jacket pattern just had straight side seams. I could just reuse the bodice! 

The sleeves looked ok? So they could stay attached!

Which was weird because it was a really fitted dress. They were both a size 14 - maybe the pattern companies all used the same fit models and slopers?

But oh well, I just wanted to make something, so I dove in, removed the side zipper, ripped the side seams, took out all the darts, took off the skirt, and started laying out pattern pieces.

I still had scraps in my stash.

So, would there be enough to make it? Yes! Sort of.

The skirt made the jacket longer (with pieced lengths), filled in the side seams, and lapel facings (which are pieced).



The sleeves were almost long enough as is - the cuffs, when undone, were a lot of extra length.

Scraps made up the collar and finished the lapels.

And the corduroy was done. Slivers were leftover.

So sturdy cotton pajama fabric lined the collar and pockets, and extra lining to cover horse hair canvas that should have been under the underlining.


Because the lapels had so many pieces, it's super bulky and won't iron flat. Do the buttons and buttonholes work? No! But I wouldn't be able to button it anyway because it's a little snug.

But I don't care! I love this thing. I've worn it approximately 34 times more than the dress. It's exactly the sort of crumpled, vintage-y looking jacket I wanted.