Turned an old quilt into a reversible jacket and it actually worked

I did basically the same thing last winter with a worn-out double bed quilt my aunt left me. Turned it into a chore coat using a tracing of a work jacket I already owned, and I remember that same battle with the thick spots. I ended up hand-basting the pocket edges flat first, then machine stitching them, which saved me a lot of broken needles compared to my first attempt on the collar.

One thing that helped me was pressing the binding open with a clapper before topstitching it down. It flattens the layers enough that the machine can actually feed them evenly. Also, if you ever do another one, basting spray between the batting and backing stops the layers from shifting while you sew, which was the source of half my wonky seams the first time. My version is not reversible because I lined mine with an old sheet and forgot about that trick untill it was too late, but yours makes me want to try it properly. The dog walk angle rings true too, mine gets worn every morning in the yard and it has held up better than a store-bought quilted jacket I paid real money for a few years back.

I went a slightly diffrent road with mine. Found two sleeping bags at a garage sale for a few bucks each and split them open for the batting, since the synthetic fill was still fluffy even though the shells were stained. Stitched diagonal lines through my own fabric and the fill before cutting any pattern pieces, and that made everything behave. Once the sandwich is quilted down it stops sliding around under the presser foot and you can cut it like regular cloth.

The one thing I'd flag from expirience is washing. My first version had loose batting inside that migrated to one sleeve after a trip through the machine and stayed lumpy forever. If the original quilt you cut up was only stitched every few inches, it might be worth adding a few lines of your own quilting in the big open areas before you assemble the jacket, just so the fill stays put through future washes. I also skipped the reversible idea entirely because I knew my topstitching was too sloppy to show on both sides. Ended up binding all the raw edges with double fold binding cut from an old pillowcase, wich gave it a kind of intentionally scrappy look that hides my wobbly seams. Yours sounds cleaner than mine turned out, and the hood traced from a fitting hoodie is a trick I'm stealing for the next one.

That reversibility trick is clever, I wish I'd thought of it on mine. I made a vest from an old comforter last fall and the thing that saved my sanity was a walking foot. Before I got one the layers kept creeping and every seam had little tucks in it, swapped feet and it just fed everything through evenly like it was nothing. Do you find the jacket bulk annoying around the shoulders when you're moving, or is it fine once it's on? Mine rides up a bit when I reach for stuff.

The one thing I'd add is to reinforce the shoulder seams before you wear it hard. I've turned three old quilts into outerwear over the years and the shoulders are always the first failure point, all that weight hanging off a seam line through batting. On my last one I stitched a strip of twill tape over each shoulder seam and it's outlasted the two before it. Also lengthen your stitch to about 3.5 when you're crossing bulky joins, short stitches just punch holes in the batting and weaken it.

That flannel side showing at the hood and opening is a nice touch. I did one of these back in the 90s from my mother's old tied comforter and learned the hard way to check every inch of the quilt before cutting. Old quilts can have sun rot or weak spots you can't see till you tug them, and mine tore right at the elbow the first winter. Now I give the fabric a good pull test all over first and cut my pieces around anything that feels thin. Also, back then we just tied these things with yarn every few inches instead of stitching lines, and it goes thru a home machine a lot easier if you ever make a second one.