Back of jacket	Front  of Jacket

Instructions

I just finished a sweatshirt based jacket tonight. No pattern needed really.  I got 1 size larger sweatshirt than I usually wear and the jacket actually fits. These are the steps I did:

Cut from top to bottom (except for the neck ribbing which I left intact to keep the neck from stretching).

My shirt did not have side seams so I just cut from bottom to armpit of the sides (otherwise open the side seams).

Removed the sleeves and opened the inside seams of the sleeves. Now you will have a back and two parts of the front connected together with the neckband as well as the shoulder seams, and 2 separate flat sleeve pieces.

Handle carefully and before you do anything else stitch close to the edge around all pieces that do not have finished edges to keep them from stretching.

You can cover the fabric on the outside in many ways. This is the way I did this one.

I made 6 - 3 inch paperpiece flowers sewing these together in long vertical row with 1 1/2 inch sashing in between each block.

I placed the vertical row of flowers from top to bottom on the front right hand side of the shirt (Where the buttonholes would be if it had buttons). I put it one half inch in from the edge, then pinning carefully, I stitched a sashing row down each side of the strip by placing the side sashings right side down on the right and left sides of the flower strip. This gave a ladder like look. I stitched the seams while it was on the shirt to quilt as I went.

I stitched lots of 3 " square in a square blocks and sewed them into long strips. Making sure I matched the seam lines, I stitched the strips onto the sweatshirt (both right and left sides of the front).

I then made 3 6" paperpieced flowers with the same fabrics as the smaller ones and put these down the middle of the back, sashing the same way I did on the front.

Made lots more little 3" square in a square blocks and attached them together in rows and then added them to the back using the quilt as you go method. I made sure that the top ends of the rows on the back overlapped the ones on the front at the shoulder seams and left them unfinished for now.

I cut a piece of the fabric to use for sleeves. Pinned it solidly to the sleeve pieces and then quilted the fabric and sweatshirt sleeve together. I had 4 blocks left over, so I used 2 for each sleeve. Stitched them together and then lined them with the same fabric that I used for the sleeves. I did this by stitching the blocks right sides together with the lining and turning the units to have lined blocks and topstitched them down to the sleeves.(I also used this fabric for the finishing edging as well as the sashing).

Then I trimmed all the edges so the covering and the sweatshirt edges were even.

Put the shirt back together. You can add a breakfront zipper at this point if you wish. I thought it looked dressier without it.

Then I used 1 1/2 inch strips and bound the edges.

You can use any block patterns you want or even left over bocks from your stash. I was going for a fairly subtle look.

Send me pictures if you make one. email