Many thanks to Ayce for such great patterns! I modified the pattern from my size L Whitney to make a down sweater style jacket for my girlfriend. I probably spent 15 minutes in the local shop with a tape measure getting dimensions from a size XS patagonia down sweater! I’m jealous of smaller people, this jacket clocks in at 7.2 ounces. Anyway, I thought I’d post it to show a couple things I did to accomodate the smaller baffle size if anyone else wants a down jacket that isn’t as warm as the Whitney, just buy the Whitney kit anyway and experiment a little!
One added complication was trying to fill all of the outer pocket chambers from below, and getting the down past multiple small seams into the upper chambers (If you’ve seen the Whitney instructions you’ll know what I mean). To compensate for this I left the pocket open on the end (basically skipped the first step of making the jacket) until the very end. Then, after filling the outer pocket from this open raw edge, I finished it off with lycra binding. Not only does it add a nice accent, it is nice and soft on the wrists.
Another thing that gave me trouble when I made my whitney was filling the collar. Again, I solved this by not closing the top of the zipper where the collar is. Essentially, when you are finished assembling the shell and liner and go to sew the liner to the shell, sew across the top of the collar, up the draft tube, but on the right hand zipper, only sew up to the start of the collar. When you turn the jacket right side out you can see a little opening between the zipper and the liner of the collar. This is easily sealed by extending the double row of stitching up the collar after the down has been stuffed.
Also, with the small baffle size I didn’t want a big drop tail, so I made a separate compartment at the bottom of the back. When sewing the baffle line, just don’t go all the way to the end so you leave a hole to stuff from above (from within the chamber above it) then close it up and continue filling the upper chambers.
This was meant to be an under-shell layer for skiing and hiking, so it was cut trim and kept thin. 2.5” baffles in the body and 2” in the arms.
