Reversible Tamarack Jacket by Grainline Studio | Quilt Upcycle

I wore this jacket to fly from NYC to Denver and got so many compliments!! It’s the Grainline Studio Tamarack jacket and the shining star is the wonderfully embroidered quilt I rescued from Fabscrap. With a natural cotton on one side and ice blue cotton sateen on the opposite, I knew I had to hack the pattern to make a fully reversible Tamarack jacket. Now, I have a beautiful layer for Spring and Fall that’s both casual and dressed up!

The major decision when constructing a reversible quilted jacket is how to finish the seams. If this were a lightweight fabric I might have used French seams or flat-felled seams to conceal the raw edges on the “wrong” side of the fabric. With the thick batting layers, instead I used bias tape to bind the shoulders, sides and arms. Rather than using a color from the quilt, I chose to use a contrasting khaki green for the binding, inspired by the contrast piping and binding in some Ulla Johnson designs. It actually took me a really long time to settle on the binding color, debating jade green and natural cotton initially. The delay wasted cold weather weeks in the Spring and I wound up hanging up this jacket for another 5 months before I finished sewing in early fall!

In making the pre-quilted fabric reversible, I couldn’t add any pockets or closures. I also compromised on the hemline since I had too little of the quilt fabric for the curved hem. I absolutely did not compromise on the fit for the length or sleeve length, two major upgrades to what’s available to buy for tall women.

Love LOVE this jacket. I’m going to protect it from getting dirty with all my might. And I look forward to wearing this classic style for decades to come.

Pattern

• Tamarack Jacket by Grainline Studio
• Sewing Difficulty – 2/5
  • Since I used a pre-quilted fabric, the only sewing difficulty was attaching the bias binding to all seams.
• Fit Difficulty – 2/5
  • This is a straightforward fit with inly 3 pattern pieces.
• I’ve seen many stunning quilted versions of this jacket and I’d love to make another with my own quilt design!

Fabric

• Embroidered quilt fabric (or former blanket) from Fabscrap
• I found a small remnant of this fabric at the Fabscrap warehouse while volunteering
• I created my own 1″ single fold bias binding with 1 yard of cotton broadcloth from my neighborhood fabric store

Fit & Modifications

• I sewed the size 10
• After tissue fitting the pattern, I made a 3/4″ full bust adjustment
• I added 2″  in length to body
• The sleeves needed a lot of extra length for me. I added 3 3/4″ at the bottom so they would taper to be more narrow at the wrist.
• With the length added, I didn’t have enough fabric for the curved hemline so I finished it with a straight hem.

Tips to Make a Reversible Tamarack Jacket

• Eliminate pockets to prevent the pocket topstitching from showing on the other side of the fabric.
• Button closures would not work well on a reversible jacket, but you could hack a zipper to the jacket. I chose no closure.
• One side of the jacket will need to show bias bound seams along the sides, shoulders and armholes. Choose the side of the fabric that will benefit from this extra character.
• After bias binding the shoulder seams, press it flat towards the back. Topstitch down flat.
• I chose not to topstitch the binding down along the side seams and armholes, but it’s an option.
• You may be tempted to stitch in the ditch to finish the binding. I tried that and do not recommend because it can leave an uneven fold in the fabric. Instead, hand sew the binding with a slipstitch all around.

Tutorials That Were Helpful

• I found this incredible method to make my own continuous bias tape. It produced more than 20 meters from less than 1 yard of fabric. And I only had to stitch the fabric together twice.
• Since this was my first time doing bias binding on seams in this manner, I needed a little extra help. Grainline Studio has a photo tutorial of each step in the making process for the binding.