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Crochet Jackets for the “Real” You

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jackets.jpg

Here’s the blurb on Maggie’s Crochet site for a new crochet leaflet:

Jackets for the Real You
These crochet jackets from et you change your wardrobe whenever you change your mood. Is it a day for quick decisions and getting things done? Toss on Confident, a button-down coat with a hem that cruises below the hip (sizes 8, 10, 12). If being Serene is more your thing, then mix a playful puff stitch with shades of green to create a jacket as peaceful as a forest retreat (sizes S, M, L, XL). Hunting for a way to buck the trends? The Bold jacket is camo-inspired, but it won’t let you get lost in a crowd (sizes S, M, L). Romantic is a cropped hoodie that hugs your shoulders and frames your face with soft bobbles(sizes S, M, L, XL).
 Item #LA4261 $8.95

Here are some pictures of projects from the book:

jackets.jpg

bobble-jacket.jpg

Please note that in this designer’s ‘real world’ only half the bodies are worthy of being a size larger than about a 12!! How REAL is that? I especially find the ‘bauble’ jacket – that is designed up to XL is probably the least appropriate for a ‘zoftig’ body…..like we NEED more ‘wobbly bits’???

Okay, my REAL body has had three large babies and has seen better years. LOL. What about yours? Since the ‘average’ American female is now a size 14-16, these designs don’t seem very real to me.

Comments

  1. I’m with you on this one. These would look great on my 17 yo gd. My dd might even be able to pull off some of them, but my real body sounds more like your real body. Did you look at my blog? Short & plump would about cover it.

  2. Wow, I agree with both of you. For me 6 kids later no way would I ever be able to wear something like that. I know my dd’s would never fit in them either. Once you have had kids the figure won’t tolerate the baubles, bubbles, etc. Great for teen, or teeny boppers.

  3. I have that problem as well — I find very few patterns I can wear. My 23 year old daughter is already a size 14, and by no stretch of the imagination fat — her father is 6’5″. Statistics show that more than half the female population is a size 12 or larger, so where are the clothes and designs for the rest of us?

  4. Even after only having 2 “babies”?! now 35 & 36, my body has never returned to the slim trim one I had prepregnancy. My babies were quite large & I am quite petite, although a bit fluffy now, I had to have C sections. If you look around, there are very few bodies the size of those models unless they are quite young. when are designers going to realize that real women want workable, appropriate patterns? And I get quite tired of trying to adjust patterns to fit my REAL body!!

  5. I KNEW I would find sympathy with my view point here!! I was quite tall early on and my mother had to learn to sew so I could have appropriate clothing to wear – you know, a mature adult body on a 9 yr old! It was a challenge. My own daughter is quite petite, but it is unlikely that she always will be. Besides, being short (4’11”) has challenges of its own, even with crochet designs. I WISH the designers would pay attention to the REAL people out here who would like some REAL designs!!

  7. I don’t know if american sizes are bigger than ours or about the same but i don’t know many English girls that could wear that and look good i’m an english 16-18 and would never even contemplate wearing something like that it would make me twice as wide and more fluffy than i am already 🙁 why can’t they design something more appropriate for people like me that are fluffy

  8. Oh goody. More designs from the designers who live in La La Land and come up with designs for the skinny minnie anorexic fashion models. Do these designers ever venture out into the “real world” where the rest of us live? Or do they wear blindfolds or blinkers out there so they won’t have to see us “definitely NOT skinny minnies”. I take an Australian size XXL and not one of those designs would look good on me. And even if I was a skinny minnie, at my age they would still look ridiculous. As someone else said, only teenagers or teeny boppers could or would wear these.

  9. I like the terminology “fluffy”! I too am a fluffy mom of 2 small kids (3 1/2 yrs and today 1 yr old, how time flies, sigh). I was once able to wear those type of jackets but i have a rather fluffy middle which the doctor says i have to work on (weight around the midsection being unhealthy=heart attack). Cute stuff but you know!I like the spam prevention question.

  10. So sorry I’m not understand out US size standard. But in my country :
    S for body 90-95 cm around
    M for 95-110 cm around
    L for 120 cm around

    Is it the same??

    I make my design for M size…

  11. I’m a 77 yo pear shape and those styles would look ridiculous on me. As I look around my North Country world, most every woman/girl that I see is obese or at least overweight. That is sad but true. So why don’t designers recognize that fact? On the other hand, my 52 yo DD wears about a size 8 and is 5’5″ tall. But she is an exception.

  12. Instead of using the birth of your kids for your being over weight, try doing something about it. After 5 kids, 12 grand kids (two more on the way) and 10 great-grand kids, I was streaching H out of size 14. I decided, at the age of 72, I was NOT going to buy size 16.. I did buy a size 8, and hung them where I could see them while eating… I would take my regular serving. Put half of it back, and after cleaning my plate, get up and leave the table. It worked! At the age of 76 I am still wearing a size 10 (some brands a size 8). I feel wonderful, all my descendents and dh are so proud of me. My Dr. said I had the body of a 55yr old. I have never had to take a long term medication. Happy? you better believe it!!

  13. I agree although I have the opposite problem, I have and always will be petite it’s in my genes. I wear a small or extra small not because I am that skinny but because after breastfeeding two babies one for 10 months and the last for 13 months I have almost nothing left up there! All the tanks or shirts I see are huge no matter what size they are in the chest area! I long to make myself a gorgeous tank top but just can’t bring myself to do it knowing I will just finish it only to frog it or give it away.

  14. Don’t these designers realize that it is we “zaftigs” who spend the most money on yarns and hooks? Surely they must know that once in a while we actually make something for ourselves? Why would we even bother to waste our precious crochet time on a pattern so inappropriate for us?

  15. I remember when I might (repeat might) have fit in one of those jackets-not that I would have ever felt that I fit in them. I recently found a photo of that time, showing off in my bathing suit, no less-half my age, half of me, half my inhibitions, and clearly a whole lot more self-confidence. And I don’t have kids to blame!!

  16. Sorry, question–DD? that’s a new one on me, except of course in ancient history when that was my bra size.

  17. I happen to wear a 3X. That said, there is a market for this type of pattern. Younger people that are in to crochet now, or a parent of a younger person, or those in society that stay thin (so I’ve heard!) lol. Actually, I have niece’s that are very, very slim, and they’d look good in these. All I’m saying is, no need to trash this, just don’t buy it if it doesn’t work for you. That doesn’t mean the designer shouldn’t design them. There are other patterns, buy them.

  19. I think Maggie should recall all those leaflets and market the designs for girls. No self-respecting woman I know would ever wear one of those jackets.Kinda leaves a bad taste for crochet in my mouth, too!

  20. These patterns look as if they were picked from a bunch of older unsuccessful ones from years back! Shame on Leisure Arts and Coats for being too slack to find a designer to to create original and imaginative garments that can be adapted to suit all sizes and tastes, particularly with the wealth of talented crocheters designing for the internet. That said, retro is in, so there may be a market for this among the young with more money than fashion sense – remember blue eye-shadow and shoulder pads?

  21. To Don and others,
    Hey Don – I agree with a lot of what you said, but the ‘blame’ of having kids is that gravity sucks and muscles and skin tone become stretched beyond a reasonable point for some of us. If you are a Don and not a Donna, you can’t really comment on that. Many women weigh the same number of pounds as before kids, but it’s been redistributed by nature.

    For myself, I lost 65 lbs 8 yrs ago (I’m now 58) and have kept more than 50 of it off, despite a couple surgeries since then, including a knee replacement and another in the offing.

    The point here is – look around. American women are NOT size 4! For whatever reason, including any ‘excuses’ they care to use, most American women are size 14 or larger. I have a 21 yr old daughter who is a size 00. I have never been that size and didn’t know it existed til I had this tiny young woman. She has different, but equally baffling, clothing issues.

    So, lighten up – no pun intended – and speak to the issue here which is DESIGN not weight.
    jd

  22. I am not overweight nor do I have a big butt. However I do not like waist length sweaters either.I dress for what I think is appropriate for my age.
    I am 54 size 10 but I look my age even if I don’t how young can I claim I am?, and who cares?
    Its a privilege not everyone gets to to hang around this long Lol!
    I don’t see too many young people crocheting,but Most crafter I know make everything for everybody BUT themselves. Maybe thats where they are drawing from. I make things for kids and for charities. I find sweaters too hot and heavy.
    Maybe they have done studies and found crocheters want to make things for young people they love.
    I want to make something that pleases
    I look in the library and on Ebay I don’t find too much current stuff to be of much interest.

  23. karen,
    thanks for your thoughts. you may be right about designers thinking that we all crochet things for others (younger people) in our lives. i can’t consider wearing sweaters either – except maybe as a winter coat!!
    jd

Have you read?

16 Big Halloween Crochet Projects You Need to Start Now

There are Halloween crochet projects you can start at 7pm and proudly photograph before bedtime.

These are not those projects.

These are the big Halloween crochet projects. The blankets that eat several skeins of yarn. The C2C graphs that slowly reveal a haunted house one square at a time. The giant Halloween totes that actually hold an impressive trick-or-treat haul.

Basically, these are the projects that make you look at the calendar and realise that if you want them finished for Halloween, you probably need to start now.

And I rather like that.

There is something very satisfying about having one proper seasonal project sitting beside the sofa for a few weeks. You can work a few rows at night, tackle another square over the weekend and gradually watch the whole thing come together.

So save the tiny crochet ghosts for October.

These Halloween blankets, afghans, large bags and statement crochet projects deserve a head start.

Crochet Halloween Haunted House Blanket

If there was ever a Halloween blanket worth starting early, it is a haunted house.

This striking graph-style blanket features a spooky house silhouetted against the moon, and there are versions with either a full moon or crescent moon. You can work it using corner-to-corner crochet or follow the single crochet version, depending on the style of graph crochet you prefer.

This is exactly the sort of project I would keep in a basket beside the sofa and slowly work through during September.

The best part is watching that haunted house gradually appear.

Crochet Halloween C2C Blanket

Corner-to-corner crochet and Halloween really do belong together.

Pixel-style crochet makes it possible to build pumpkins, ghosts, bats, cats and all sorts of spooky shapes without having to crochet dozens of separate appliqués.

This free Halloween C2C design uses a downloadable pixel graph, making it a great project if you enjoy following charts and watching an image slowly emerge from your stitches.

It is also one of those wonderfully repetitive projects that works well when you want something to crochet while half-watching television.

Jack-O-Lantern Crochet Blanket

A giant pumpkin face on a blanket?

That is October sofa décor sorted.

This free Jack-O-Lantern blanket was designed in collaboration with Yarnspirations and uses classic pumpkin orange with black facial details.

I love that it is unmistakably Halloween without being covered in dozens of different motifs.

Make this one now and you have a blanket that can live permanently on your favourite chair for the whole of October.

Bats And Cats Afghan

Now we are talking proper Halloween afghans.

The Bats and Cats Afghan combines repeating Halloween motifs into a full crochet blanket and is rated intermediate. It uses smaller crocheted squares, so it is a particularly good long-term project if you prefer making individual components rather than dragging an ever-growing blanket around the house.

Make a few squares at a time and suddenly the pile starts looking suspiciously like an afghan.

This is also a brilliant stash-planning project because you can organise all your Halloween colours before you begin.

Spooky Spider Afghan

If your decorating philosophy is more spiderwebs, this free Lion Brand afghan should keep your hook busy.

The finished afghan is approximately 40 inches square and is made from individual spider-inspired squares before edging is added. Interestingly, Lion Brand rates this one easy rather than intermediate, so it gives you a substantial finished project without requiring extremely advanced crochet techniques.

It would make a fantastic Halloween lap blanket for the sofa.

Add horror movie. Add snacks.

Done.

C2C Death Head Moth & Skulls Afghan

This one is for the crocheters whose Halloween style leans more gothic than cute.

The design has a large death’s-head moth as the centrepiece surrounded by skull imagery, creating a blanket that feels almost like textile wall art.

There is a free crochet graph available for the design, and you can use it for C2C or another graph-based crochet technique.

I can see this one being made in black, cream and taupe rather than traditional Halloween orange.

It is spooky enough for October but cool enough that someone is probably leaving it on the sofa all year.

C2C Skulls In A Row Blanket

Sometimes one skull simply isn’t sufficient.

This blanket repeats pixel-style skulls across the entire design, creating a bold geometric pattern rather than one giant central image.

The crochet graph is available free on the designer’s site, making this a particularly tempting project if you already enjoy C2C crochet.

And because the design repeats, once you settle into the pattern it becomes one of those projects where you keep saying:

“I’ll just finish one more skull.”

An hour later you’re still crocheting.

C2C Black Cats Blanket

Black cats are practically compulsory in a Halloween crochet collection.

This free graph features repeating black cats and is 100 squares high by 80 squares wide, so this is definitely not something I would suggest starting on October 29.

Depending on your yarn, hook and crochet technique, the graph can be used to create anything from a smaller throw to a substantial blanket.

This would look particularly good in black and mustard, black and burnt orange, or black against a deep plum background.

Black Cat Jack-O-Lantern C2C Blanket

Can’t decide between black cats and pumpkins?

Have both.

This C2C Halloween blanket combines a black cat with a Jack-O-Lantern design in one large graph-style project. The pattern is designed as an intermediate C2C project, with a printable PDF option also available.

This is a lovely choice for a child’s Halloween blanket because it lands more on the spooky-cute side than genuinely frightening.

It is also exactly the sort of design that gets more exciting as the picture becomes recognisable.

Baby Boo Halloween Blanket

This one may technically be called Baby Boo, but I would make it purely because the construction looks fun.

Rather than sticking to one crochet technique, the free blanket pattern combines character granny squares, tapestry crochet, stripes, swirls and appliqué. The finished width is approximately 33½ inches.

That means you get plenty of variety while making it.

If endless rows of the same stitch make you lose enthusiasm halfway through a blanket, a sampler-style Halloween design like this could be the answer.

Halloween Granny Square Cardigan

A Halloween cardigan containing 45 eyeball granny squares is absolutely the sort of ridiculous seasonal project I can support.

The free pattern originally fits approximately XS–M, with instructions suggesting that additional squares can be added when adapting it for a larger size. Each eyeball square measures around five inches.

This is unquestionably a start-now project.

Make the squares gradually, stack them somewhere satisfying, then have one big joining session once you have enough.

Imagine wearing the finished cardigan to answer the door to trick-or-treaters.

Worth it.

Free Patchwork Halloween Bag

Now for the bigger bags.

This is not a tiny treat pouch. The Halloween Patchwork Bag is assembled from 13 crochet squares, featuring skull, ghost, candy corn and jack-o’-lantern designs.

The squares are joined into an hourglass-style arrangement, folded, seamed and finished with crocheted straps.

It is exactly the sort of project that looks incredibly impressive when finished because there is so much going on visually.

And if your children are serious trick-or-treaters, they will appreciate the extra carrying capacity.

Halloween Treats Tote

This free crochet tote gives you several options for personalising the finished bag, including Boo lettering, ghost, pumpkin and other Halloween appliqué details.

I would make the main tote first and then treat the embellishments as the reward.

You could also personalise several bags differently if you are making them for siblings.

One gets a ghost.

One gets a pumpkin.

Everyone knows which bag belongs to whom.

Much easier when everyone eventually dumps their sweets across the living-room floor.

Pumpkin Granny Square Tote

This is a slightly more autumnal option for anyone who wants a bag they can use beyond October 31.

The tote is constructed from 13 granny squares, and the designer specifically suggests using pumpkin granny squares to turn it into a seasonal fall or Halloween bag.

Burnt orange, mustard, olive, brown and cream would give it a lovely vintage harvest feel.

And unlike a tiny trick-or-treat bucket, this is the sort of roomy crochet bag you could use for yarn, shopping or farmers’ market trips afterwards.

Ghost And Skull Halloween Crochet Bag

I particularly like this one because you get two Halloween designs in one project.

The tote is double-sided, with a ghost C2C panel on one side and a skull on the other. The two pieces are joined and finished with a strap to create the completed bag.

That construction makes it a nice stepping stone if you want to practise graph crochet before committing to one of the enormous blankets above.

Though by the time you have finished the bag, there is every chance you’ll decide you need the matching blanket.

Free Spider Web Shawl

And finally, one project for anyone who wants their Halloween crochet to be wearable.

This spiderweb shawl uses open lacework to create a dramatic web-inspired shape that works beautifully as either a Halloween accessory or part of a costume.

This isn’t one of those three-row shawls that magically appears during your morning coffee.

Give yourself time.

Worked in black, charcoal, deep purple or even a moody variegated yarn, it could become one of those pieces you pull out every autumn.

Why You Should Start These Halloween Crochet Projects Now

The dangerous thing about Halloween crafting is how quickly September disappears.

You think you have loads of time.

Then suddenly pumpkins are appearing in shops, someone mentions costumes and the blanket you planned to crochet still consists of approximately six squares and an optimistic bag of yarn.

Larger crochet projects need breathing room.

Starting early means you can work on them when you actually feel like crocheting rather than turning the final week of October into some sort of competitive yarn event.

For a full Halloween afghan, I would give myself several weeks.

For a C2C graphgan, start early enough that you can work steadily without becoming thoroughly sick of colour changes.

For one of the large Halloween totes, you have a little more flexibility, but motif and granny-square bags still involve making, joining and finishing multiple pieces.

And that eyeball cardigan?

Start yesterday.

My Pick If You Only Start One

For sheer Halloween impact, I would choose the Haunted House Blanket.

For something darker and more grown-up, make the Death Head Moth & Skulls Afghan.

If you love traditional Halloween, the Black Cat Jack-O-Lantern Blanket is hard to beat.

And if the idea of committing to an entire afghan makes you quietly close the browser tab, start with the Patchwork Halloween Bag. You still get that wonderful motif-by-motif construction without having to cover an entire bed.

This is also the point in the year when I give myself permission to put the current sensible crochet project aside and bring out the orange and black yarn.

Halloween has a deadline.

The beige blanket doesn’t.

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