Jalie 2795 is a fitted zip-front jacket or hoodie with welt pockets in the front princess seams. The cuffs and hem band are made from self-fabric rather than rib and there are numerous stylistic seams which are top stitched. It is made for stretch fleece or sweatshirting although Jalie even recommends using swim fabric to make a zip-front rashguard or lengthening the bodice and sleeves and using the pattern to make a men’s fitted track jacket.
I have made this pattern twice now. The first was a jacket from stretch fleece otherwise known as a (sadly now discontinued) £3 IKEA Skogsklocka blanket (below). The second was a hoodie from some wonderful brushed back 100% cotton French Terry from Stoff & Stil (above). With the French Terry version I didn’t use self fabric for the bands as the 100% cotton fabric had very poor recovery. I chose to use cotton lycra rib instead.
Like all Jalie patterns, this comes in a whopping 27 sizes from age 2 to women’s plus sizes. The pattern comes in both paper and PDF formats and the PDF version is layered so you can print just your size. A separate copy shop (A0) file is included. I chose to print the A0 file via the wonderful Netprinter rather than cut and stick the pages together. I actually use the “plan printing” service rather than the “sewing patterns” one as it’s cheaper. But more on that another day!
I made a size S (34″ bust/28″ waist/37″ hip) in both my fleece and French Terry versions and am 5’5″ and measure 33″/28″/38″ with broad upper chest/shoulders. In the French Terry it is a perfect fit over a long sleeved top and in the fleece it even fits over a fitted jumper. I suspect the difference in fit is due to the fleece having more stretch despite its thickness. Both fabrics only have stretch in one direction (no lycra content) which isn’t actually recommended by the pattern but seemed to be fine.
On a side note, if you’re going to use IKEA fleece blankets to make clothing don’t put your makes in the dryer. I neglected to follow the washing instructions and my jacket pilled and is much less soft than it was as a blanket. Oh well, lesson learned!
When I first came across Jalie I was quite frankly terrified by their very brief instructions. However, in the end this turned out to be a pretty straight forward sew. It helped that I read through Kelly Hogaboom’s sew along and watched Jalie’s video for the Charlie Bomber jacket. One small thing to note: the instruction to sew the zip in place is missing. If you read the French instructions you will see the words “and stitch” have been omitted as the final step.
For my first make I followed all the instructions to the letter until I got to hand sewing the inner collar. Loathe to hand stitch anything I ended up rather messily top stitching it down from the outside instead. For my second attempt at the pattern I used some Wonder Tape* to stick the inner collar down before top stitching and I got a perfect finish. I sometimes think I should have finished the side fronts before attaching the zipper but of course the raw edge is hidden under the zip tape and knits don’t fray. I didn’t finish the fleece because I didn’t feel it needed it but the reason I didn’t finish the French Terry is because the fabric was super stretchy with no recovery and I didn’t want to stretch it out before adding the zip.
I absolutely love the funnel neck and the generous sleeve length but others may find the neck a little snug and the arms a little long. Next time I might be tempted to add a pony tail hole to the hood so I have somewhere for my hair to go!
With my first fleece version I went with the pattern exactly as written apart from top stitching the collar down as described above. I sewed it entirely on my sewing machine using a long straight stitch except for the cuffs and band that I sewed on with a zigzag. This led to the cuffs and band being sewn on with a 3/8″ seam instead of 1/4″ because I didn’t alter my machine foot placement – oops!
The French Terry version was sewn on both my sewing machine and my overlocker and as such perhaps ended up slightly snugger due to my overlocker having a seam slightly wider than 6mm. The biggest change I made with this version though is that I combined a number of pattern pieces to remove as many seams as possible (all the arm pieces and the back princess seam). This was easily done as the seams are purely decorative and provide no shaping. I just overlapped the pieces by 12mm lining up the stitch lines. I also dropped all top stitching except for the pockets and zip and used a knit interfacing* on the welt and welt opening as per Kelly Hogaboom’s instructions.
I highly recommend this pattern to adventurous beginners or intermediate sewers. When I made the fleece jacket I was only an adventurous beginner who had never sewn welt pockets or inserted a zip before. However, I found that the instructions (once you combine the words with the pictures) were actually pretty easy to follow and the whole thing was reasonably straight forward in the end. Now I’m a more seasoned sewer I can appreciate that the pattern is well drafted, the instructions are clear and the results are reliable. You don’t need an overlocker to make this hoodie but I relied heavily on my walking foot when top stitching the fleece so I recommend you get one if you want to make this from a fabric with a pile. I also highly recommend some Wonder Tape* if you want a ripple free zip insertion and an alternative to hand stitching the collar.
I’m really glad I returned to this pattern when deciding I needed a spring hoodie. I considered SO MANY other patterns (the DIBY Babe, Hey June Halifax Hoodie, New Horizons Tami and Tilly and the Buttons Stella to name a few), and but Jalie is such a reliable company and I never have any fitting issues with them. I highly recommend you check them out!
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Your jackets are both really nice and look wonderful on you. Congrats on your first review, too!
Thank you!