Men’s Shacket with CLUB Sweatshirt Fleece & Robert Kaufman Flannel with Chloe of No Idle Hands

November 23, 2021

Happy Thanksgiving Week to those who celebrate it! This is Chloe of @no.idle.hands and I’m on the blog today to share with you my new RCF make and an early Christmas gift to my husband 😉. 

Here in Virginia, we are now deep in the transition between Fall and Winter. Seems like overnight there are more leaves on the ground than on the trees, and warm jackets/coats are starting to make an appearance. I don’t know about you, but it seems like the “Shacket” (Shirt-Jacket) trend is really catching on this year. Although not a new concept, I do especially love the color-blocked ones mixing prints/solids and woven/knit fabrics. 

One of the things I enjoy most about sewing is the ability to pick out just the perfect color-blocking combo. With a shacket as a holiday gift for my husband in mind, I dived into candy-shop browsing mode on the RCF website. It just so happened RCF recently added a new selection of CLUB prints for the sweatshirt fleece  while also restocking the Robert Kaufman flannels . So I got all my sewing lucky stars lined up for a fun knit/woven color-blocked Shacket! After coming up with no less than two dozens of options, I ran them through my husband and he picked out this Olive/Black Herringbone Flannel as the main fabric and requested a camouflage print sweatshirt fleece for the sleeves. 

With the new selection of CLUB prints in the sweatshirt fleece base, there are not one, not two, but three gorgeous camo prints that go perfectly well with the dark olive flannel! We love them all but eventually decided on the Olive/Tan/Grey Heathered Camo. A tough choice indeed – which one I’m curious? I seriously wouldn’t mind one of each 😉. 

When the fabrics arrived, I was happily reassured of our combo choice. Shopping for coordinating fabrics online is not always risk-free, but I find RCF’s website photos very reliable in showing the true colors of the fabrics. They also include accurate and detailed color names in the description to make color matching easy-peasy. The olive and grey in the camo print matches the tones of the flannel perfectly while the heathered tan gives it a light contrast. 

I have sewn with the Robert Kaufman flannels before and know the quality is far superior than generic brands. This Olive Shetland flannel is even more gorgeous in person as the herringbone pattern is woven into the fabric instead of printed. It hangs and presses beautifully, almost with the supple and stable feel of a thinner wool suiting but a lot easier to handle! The sweatshirt knit on the other hand is buttery soft and the low-pile fleece on the inside feels soooooo good on the skin! For a knit fabric, it is quite low in stretch percentage (similar to a polar fleece). This is perfect for a shacket with positive ease and goes well with the non-stretch woven flannel. 

For the pattern I used the classic Mccall’s 7638 which comes in both men’s and boys’ sizes with lot of variations including collar/hood, contrast sleeves/yoke and inseam/patch pockets etc. It is perfect as shacket, with the style of a button-up shirt but the ease of a light jacket. My husband chose the collared view with the camo print as contrast for the sleeves and yoke. I also used the camo for the inside of the inseam side pockets so it peeks out just a little bit for added interest. 

• The original pattern is fully lined in the body but we skipped the lining for a slimmer fit and look. No changes are needed for the outer pattern pieces but it does change the finishing inside slightly. The button plackets and hem are finished like a shirt, and I used the camo knit as binding to finish the neckline inside.

• Since the sleeves are made in knit, I skipped the buttoned shirt cuff and just drafted a simple folded knit sleeve cuff and serged it on. Easy to sew and comfy to wear – win/win in every way!

• The contrast yoke is simply an overlay layer on the main body piece for this pattern, which I thought is very clever as it adds extra warmth for the shoulder area. The original pattern has separate pieces for the front and back yokes, but I removed the shoulder seam allowances and combined them into one continuous yoke. This eliminates SA bulk at the shoulder seam and gives it a sleeker look.

I am very happy how our shacket project turned out from vision to finish, and am glad to report the recipient absolutely loves it too! I even managed to convince him to go with these fun wooden buttons with deer motifs 😉 A perfect early Christmas gift and just in time for Thanksgiving gatherings.

And now surely I can’t let my other combo options go to waste and plan to make a dozen more of these well-received shackets! If you are interested in making one for the men and boys in your life for the holiday season, here are some of my top choices combining other wonderful RCF fleece sweatshirt knits and Robert Kaufman flannels. Which one is your favorite?

Burgundy flannels with camo/plaid fleece knits:

Grey tone flannels with plaid/denim-look fleece knits:

Plaid flannels with solid/minimal print fleece knits:

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful holiday season!

Chloe @no.idle.hands

Leave a comment

Comments will be approved before showing up.

Also in Raspberry Creek Fabric Blog