McCall’s M7668 Hooded Jacket

In the world of technical outdoor gear, there are few options for odd sized people. Ryan and I have always struggled to find gear that fits. We are tall, and most gear is intended for people much shorter than us. When I started sewing clothes, I always hoped I’d get to the point where I could make technical gear, and this jacket is the first step towards that dream.

DETAILS

• Pattern: McCall’s M7668 Hooded Jackets
• Fabric: Robin Egg Blue 0.66 oz MEMBRANE 10 taffeta nylon from Ripstop By the Yard
• Notions: 3 yards of ⅝” Driz Fold-Over Elastic, 26″ sport separating zipper

On a side note, sewing the pattern was actually really straight forward. I was able finish it in just a few hours. Don’t be intimidated by zippers either. I only had issues when trying to figure out how to shorten my zipper, otherwise it was easy to install.

ALTERATIONS

• ½” forward shoulder adjustment
• lengthened the front and back by 2″
• reduced the width of the sleeve by several inches and graded it back into original width at the sleeve cap

What I did change is how I constructed the jacket and finished the hems. As you can see below, hems are often finished with fold-over elastic. A traditional hem is used when there’s a drawstring to cinch the hem down.

For my jacket, I used fold-over elastic to finish the raw edge of the hood, the bottom hem, and the two cuffs. As far as stretching the elastic, I did not stretch it any for the hood, but instead just used it to encase the raw edge. For the bottom hem, I stretched the elastic significantly so that it would be snug against the body. For the wristband, I stretched it a little. Ryan prefers to not have anything tight around his wrists.

Sewing with the thin fabric was complicated enough that trying to stitch down hems would have been a nightmare. I’m so glad I used the fold-over elastic. Construction was a breeze.

I also used my serger to sew seams together and then topstitched the serged seams to give me a faux flat felled seam. Trying to create an actual flat felled seam with this fabric would have been next to impossible.

Finally, Ryan has an ultra lightweight wind and water resistant jacket that fits. It won’t provide UV sun protection, but it will help keep the mosquitoes off.