Reversible Jacket — Butterick 6863

Wanting something warm to wear, I decided it would be fun to try my hoodie pattern Butterick 6863 in flannel. The pattern is oversized so this continues my experiment with making this ‘designed for stretch knits’ in a woven. This is emerging as a theme along with making the garment reversible (see my blog on the kantha hoodie, same pattern, different problem solving). With no stretch I find the arms do need some added width — more about that later.




Once I decided to make the hoodie reversible for added warmth, the fabric, design and construction choices appear.

Design & Cutting Tips

The boldness of the red and black of Crimson Baby Buffalo Check Flannel provides the right juxtaposition to the small scale of Black and White Mini Houndstooth Flannel and makes a perfect contrast in color, balance and proportion. Cut the checked fabric separately to match the checks. Each side has one pocket in the contrast fabric to balance the inside of the hood which is exposed when worn. Cut the identical fabric pockets on the bias to provide design variation and solve matching issues.

Construction Tips

Essentially you are stitching together two separate hoodies. The zipper is first sewn on each side of the Crimson Check so the checks match. Basting the zipper in place with thread or double-faced tape is crucial. I used a 27” YKK #5 Molded Plastic Reversible Jacket Zipper purchased from Wawak.com. Once both sides are constructed and the zipper installed, with right sides together, stitch around all the edges of the garment, including sleeve hems, leaving a 5” opening on one edge to turn the whole shebang right sides out. All the seams are topstitched. This gives the hoodie a nice structure and keeps the 2 layers from bagging out. About those sleeves. With no stretch in the fabric, the sleeves need to be cut larger. This means that both the armhole and sleeve seams must be enlarged. I added 1½ ” on both sleeve seams for a total of 3”. Drop the front and back armhole 1½” so everything matches.



Have fun, keep warm and well!