Still on the theme of casual clothes

 Jalie 2679 has been around for a while - since before Jalie started giving name identifiers to its patterns. (I don't know about you, but I find "Stretch Softshell Jacket" a more useful moniker than ... say ... Monika.) It was in my pattern stash for years before I got around to making it.

Why did I wait? This is such a comfortable and useful jacket!

I made it up with zero adjustments, out of some inexpensive softshell purchased at the local Fabricland. The fabric is naturally water-resistant rather than waterproof, but it is serviceable both in wet snow conditions and in rain. 

And in cold. I wore it cross-country skiing - a lot - this winter. 

Here I am after a strenuous outing at -30 something C in January. I was toasty warm!

Yes I realize that you can't really see the jacket. 

For some reason I didn't take modeled photos. 

Here's another action shot - a photo taken on a hike in March, after most of the snow was gone. Again, this jacket performed like a champ in much less frigid conditions. 

The zipped pockets are very big - the size of the entire front below the yoke and above the lower band. I used some miscellaneous mesh fabric from stash for the backing of the pockets. 

The sleeves are nice and long so the jacket is great for biking. 

The shape of the collar is perfect. I often find that stand collars jab me in the chin, but this one starts with a low enough scoop to be truly comfortable even when the jacket is zipped up to the top. 

Almost as good as a modeled photo, no?

I'm going to try to figure out a good fabric combo for a windproof/water-resistant running jacket.