Aubrey's Little Jacket

So at my inlaws for Thanksgiving, Scott's 7-year old niece Aubrey recalls that I made her a fleece blanket that folded up into a drawstring backpack, and suggests that it would be really nice to have a shirt made out of that fabric because it's SO soft! Now, his nieces and nephew rarely talk to us (mostly because we're never around), so this tickled me pink, and I resolved to make her whatever I could squeeze out of the leftover fleece. Fellow sewer Lisa brought the perfect little button-up jacket pattern to class for me today. I had just enough fleece to cut all the pieces out if I added a center back seam instead of placing it on a fold. There was even enough to center the "girly-girl" design on each of the front panels, and a flower on each pocket (Lisa's idea).

I opted for view C, which has patch pockets and no collar. Since I was working with fleece, I eliminated all the steps for quilting and lining the jacket. Instead I used faux flat-fell seams (topstitching the seam allowance to one side), which had a nice, finished look. That was also Lisa's idea; she was full of them today! I adore topstitching and edgestitching, they hold everything together looking nice and flat and professional. The front and neck edges I finished with single-fold bias tape, a new technique for me which I really like. I probably should have used it around the bottom hem, too; it stretched and got a little wavy when I turned up the hem.

I'm still using the same spool of thread I used on the blanket last year, stretching it out by using a different shade of pink in the bobbin. I kind of feel like the biblical widow with the never-ending jar of oil; I was sure I'd run out halfway through the project, but there's just enough left to finish the sleeve hems! I'm going to raid the jar of buttons my mother-in-law gave me (it was her mother's) to see if anything matches; it would just be cool if the buttons came from Aubrey's great-grandmother's stash!