Stitchin' in My Kitchen

 I love to travel, and I love to use an upcoming trip as an excuse to sew something new!   Next month I’m headed back to Seattle, one of my favorite American cities, and I decided I should make some outerwear for the trip.   I’d had the Jalie 2680 Stretch City Coat pattern in my “to sew” pile for a while and decided the hooded version would be perfect.     I also had 3 yards of this black perforated windblock fleece in my stash that I bought last year from Califabrics.com .   It is medium weight, has nice stretch, and a soft fleecy interior. Since I anticipated rain, I decided on the hooded view. I cut a size U based on my measurements.   There are a lot of pieces, with seaming and topstitiching details, but the construction is quite simple.   I made this on a Saturday while battling a cold and it was still easy!! I used a 90/14 ballpoint needle and had no problems sewing it with the machine (hand-tacking was a bit difficult which I chalk up to not having t