Saturday, January 2, 2021

Grinch Green Seamwork Amari

I had big plans to sew myself a beautiful red velvet dress for Christmas... but in the end I gave in to the reality of 2020 and sewed this Grinch green fleece jacket instead. 

This is the Seamwork Amari jacket... perfect for lounging around the house!

Note: I am a Seamwork Ambassador, which means I received a one-year subscription in exchange for sewing up 10 of their patterns and providing some feedback to Seamwork about their patterns, articles, etc. If you use this link, you can get a little discount if you decide to purchase from Seamwork.

The Amari pattern is a roomy pullover with dropped shoulders, a yoke , a quarter zip, and a stand collar. 

I cut a size 16 from the curvy range (so designed for a DD-cup), which is actually a little bit smaller than my current body measurements suggest. I looked at the finished measurements, though, and decided it had more than enough ease to accommodate me.

 In fact, it's so oversized it's bordering on too big! The sleeves are quite wide, too... next time I might taper them a bit towards the wrist, or maybe add a cuff? The cold air sneaks in through that roomy wrist!

My fabric is this Polartec® 4-Way Stretch Fleece Fabric I got from Rockywoods when I was placing an order for the fabric for my hiking pants. They call the color of the fabric Parrot Green but I'm calling it Grinch Green, for obvious reasons. It's smooth on the outside and soft and fuzzy on the inside. 

In retrospect I should have used it for something more close-fitting since it has nice stretch and recovery, but oh well.

When sewing my Amari, I made a couple small construction changes: I added a strip of interfacing behind the zipper to stabilize it. I also understitched the collar to get a crisper edge and make the seam roll to the inside. 


One thing this jacket is missing: pockets! I'm thinking a kangaroo pocket might be nice. Maybe I'll use the pattern piece from the Hey June Halifax pattern to add one. I think I have enough fabric left.

My Amari is super cozy. Maybe a teensy bit bigger than I like, particularly in the sleeves, but that's pretty easily fixed. I love the bright color and soft fleece- I'll definitely be wearing it for lounging around the house, but potentially also as a winter hiking layer!