Making My Perfect Early Season Jacket

[OneGunTex]

We'll see how this goes. I'll update as it progresses or maybe nuke the whole thing if it goes sideways.

This has been my favorite hunting jacket for many years. It is relatively light, fleece lined perfect for 35-65*F, water resistant. Great for early duck season, mobile/upland walking, spring bear or turkey, even early deer season with a good baselayer or vest. It's camo for bird hunting. Good pit zips and I like the chest phone pocket. I think I paid $60 for it.



But it's not perfect. For starters, faded realtree camo just turns into a dark blob. More importantly, the DWR coating is gone and re-waterproofing a polyester softshell never really works. And on that note, it doesn't have a hood. Typically I hate hoods. Love that this jacket doesn't have one.... until it starts raining and the jacket's good but your head is wet and it sucks. My favorite rain jacket has a tuckaway hood. It's awesome:


I started another thread asking about jackets with removable or roll-up hoods, and there aren't any good options. And most of the recommended jackets on the Slide cost $300. Yikes. But then I found it.....

 

[OneGunTex]

Dickies hooded flannel shirt jacket. Cost me all of $35. It's the right kind of "camo" that will do the job but i can still wear around town. Cotton shell, so I can wax it. Polyester lining for a little insulation. Has a hood, but it's sewn inside the collar. And the pockets suck. But we can fix that. Here is the plan:

1) Remove hood, add snaps, re-sew under the collar on the outside.
2) Remove the patch pockets and sew in a cellphone-sized welt pocket.
3) Add pit zips.
4) Wax the whole thing.

My wife runs the sewing machine. She's my secret weapon. Luckily, she needs a project right now. Will update soon.

 

[Wacko]

Sounds like a good plan. It looks like it has hand pockets on the seam as well.

I would leave the patch pockets and just add a cell pocket. Waxing adds weight remember that. It will also take a bit more wax than you think. It doesn't take as long as people make it out to I don't think. You can also just wax the more exposed areas and let the rest "breathe".

 

[OneGunTex]

!!UPDATE!!
Little by little we got the 3 major alterations done. Moved the hood to the outside and added a flap to cover it when it's rolled up. Whole thing snaps into place. The collar becomes a bit bulky, but it's not bad. Removed the left patch pocket and turned it into an inner cell phone pocket. Left the other patch pocket there for now, but might remove it later because it's ugly. Also added pit zips, with some scavenged jersey mesh inside. It's not a terribly long zip, but it will do the trick.

Will update once it's waxed.