I’m looking at making two whitneys, one for me, and one for my girlie, and I’m wondering whether to order two kits, or to order one kit and then just order the materials separately for the second jacket. I guess it comes down to two things: 1) Does the kit include a pattern which can be used for both men’s M and women’s S to M, and 2) Would it be cheaper to purchase this way, or as two kits?

Thanks!

Hi Pietro-

The sizes correspond to men’s sizes.  If she will be happy wearing the same size jacket as you, then it might be cheaper to make a 2nd one using the same pattern after you have completed the 1st.  But it might not be cheaper if you have to round up to the next whole yard size when purchasing materials. 

If she needs a different size, then you should get a 2nd kit. 

It is difficult to modify apparel patterns in ways other than simple things like torso length or sleeve length, and even those are complicated somewhat by the fact that down items are hard to predict because of the way the dimensions change as the compartments bulge. 

I think you would be happiest buying two kits, and then making yours first.  If she wears yours and likes the way it fits, make the 2nd one using the same pattern.  If she wants it to be smaller, use the other pattern.

Hey Ayce,

I got my (first) Whitney kit this afternoon. I’ve had a look through the instructions and it seems pretty straightforward.

As we discussed on the phone, I am thinking about replacing the pocket panels—not with fleece, but with a lightweight down-proof microfiber fabric. I’m not looking for warmth here, I’m looking for softness. Somehow I think pockets feel warmer when they’re soft. It’s a strange haptic thing, I guess. I’m also thinking I’ll replace the inner collar with the same material. Since everything is black, color matching shouldn’t really be any problem.

Also, we took a look at the color swatches for the second kit, and didn’t get super excited about the colors. (We’re kinda picky on this point!) Is the blue swatch we got the same blue as the jacket in the pic on the website, or is that the other blue? The swatch almost looks like Audi blue in person.

I’ll let you know if I have any issues. Probably won’t get started until this weekend.

—pietro

I think your pocket/collar liner fabric replacement will work fine as long as the textile you choose is downproof.  Or, you could make a non-downproof textile work by layering it over the kit’s fabric.

The fabric swatches you received with your order were royal, purple, and red.  The remaining momentum options are black, brown, aegean blue (a dark blue, almost a navy), and gray green.  The Whitney in the kit picture is royal blue in a fabric that was an early prototype of Momentum.  I think there are still a few yards of that here, but it would be better to choose one of the momentum colors.

Pietro,

The black shell Gray liner made for a really nice color combo. Simple. . . classic.

JFF

Thanks for the suggestions. I’m thinking it’d be better to just use a down-proof fabric… probably good if it’s water-resistant, too, since the collar will get more wet under a shell than anything else in the (remotely possible) event of a downpour. We took a look at the swatches again this morning in the sunlight, and I think maybe something in our indoor lighting was pushing the blue towards that Audi blue I mentioned, and flattened the red out. They look better doubled up and in the sun.

JFF—the color options are for my girlie, and she’s pretty much set against black, since that’s what I’m doing. She’s going to think on it—she’ll have a bit, since I have to make mine first anyway.

Well then I’d recommend the red. It’s a very nice shade not over the top like Red can often be. Also think about using the gray as a liner over the Black. I think it softens the look and might work well.

Good luck.

JFF

Thanks for the suggestion… I’ll run it past her and see what she thinks.

Also:

I’m looking at the Remove Pocket Cut Out step. It seems to me that the stacking directions don’t make sense.

Here’s what the directions say:

Pattern, printing up
right shell, wrong side down
right outer pocket, wrong side up
left shell, right side down
left outer pocket, right side up.

I can’t get my pieces to line up this way. I think the trouble is that the pattern, printing up, is the left side of the jacket. At least, if I hold it up to my body, printing out to my front, it fits on my left. So stacking the pattern, printing up, doesn’t match the right side shell, wrong side down.

And one minor tweak:

On step “Assemble Liner and Shell” there’s a list of sewing order, which puts the collar after the sleeves, but the following couple steps seem to imply doing the sleeves after the collar, as shown in the pictures. I’m guessing it’s not really important, but it’s a little confusing.

I don’t have the directions in front of me so I cant’ say if they are off but I don’t remember having any issues there. Take a look a the picture a few pages past that where it shows all the pieces cut out. I found that really helpful and it should help keep things straight.

When I assemble things I normally do it.  1. back to Front at the shoulders 2. collar 3. Arms.

That said I don’t think changer the order of 2. and 3. is an issue. I just try to keep like things in the assemble process the same from project to project and most of the kits AYCE sell are done this way. That said the Whitney is one of his first kits and therefore not all process match his others.

When you get around to to to sewing the collar in. It doesn’t have it in these directions but if you want to add a hang loop like his other kits this would be the time.

JFF

I think it turns out that I keep getting left and right pieces confused without noticing until later in the construction of the jacket. That early step to lay everything out and make sure you’ve got the pieces labelled correctly is super important!

What I do rather then the notches is put dots using a metallic silver sharpie in the seam allowance. I put 2 dots for back and one for front. If you know front and back of the sleeves then you know left and right.  Also using dots rather then notches you don’t need to deal with them fraying.

Yeah, I have a silver pencil that makes marks I can understand, the problem I’m having is that when I cut the pieces, and try to sort out which pieces are which, I invariably end up marking left on the right and vice versa. Plus, this is really the very first thing I’ve sewed that’s any more complicated than a stuff sack.

Glutton for punishment?

I’ve finally got the liner and shell sewn together, and turned right side out, and now I’m working on stabilizing them. I’ve sewn the collar and one of the shoulders.

I spent a while on the phone with Ayce, who was kind enough to talk me through a few issues I was having, which was extremely helpful.

Well in that case Pietro you’ll find it’s all down hill from here!  The other thing you can do is pull out the traced pattern and lay it back over the cut pieces. I’ve done quite a bit of sewing and still do this all the time for the sleeves just to double check. As for screw up we all do it.  I’ve do silly things like frenched both seams backwards, yes I’ve got lots of practice with the seam ripper. That skill never goes away. ;-)