Jämä Blanket Shirt

A proper bushcrafty Blanket Shirt! Here's a primitive low-tech garment where the superior, natural qualities of wool combined with simple and clever details make for a very functional outdoors jacket. These are made from military surplus wool blankets and other interesting materials!

What's this bushcraft all about? In a nutshell, it's camping or hiking without modern cheating devices like Gore-Tex, gas stoves, or GPS.

The idea of the Blanket Shirt stems from very old outdoor garments. Wool jackets with this basic form have been used from around the middle ages. In more recent times, these have gained popularity among traditionalists.

A bag of old tricks

The Jämä Blanket Shirt is a simple and functional garment that doesn't throw that good and proper old stuff away. These were good back in the days and not the least bit worse in the days to come. We didn't reinvent the wheel, just made our variation of it with practical features.

The chest pocket is large and positioned a bit higher up on the chest as not to interfere with backpack hip belts or equipment belts worn over the shirt. Great for storage or warming your cold fingers. Inside the pocket is a smaller pocket, sewn onto the body side of the shirt. This little flat pocket is intended to safely store any important valuables such as mobile phones. Access slits on the sides to make rummaging through your trouser pockets or accessing equipment on your trouser belt easier.

The hood offers protection from wind and rain and keeps your head warm, an obvious necessity if there ever was one. The hem is way longer on the back, this will keep the crack of your arse covered in any squatting position and it also offers simple protection from wet or cold surfaces when sitting. Unbemazing! Update! From the end of 2020, the hood is less of a cultist model and more functional.

Raglan sleeves, these are a really neat thing! No seams anywhere on top of the shoulders mean no chafing when carrying backpacks. Mobility of the arms is better as well.

Materials and variations

These are made from proper quality military surplus blankets and other materials, depending on what we can source. This means that prices will vary, some stuff is more expensive, some cheaper.

You can see the latest materials below, and the older materials (possibly seen in product pictures) can be studied by expanding the box. Some of these might still be available.

Troll Brown and Almost Black

This fabric is from Italy. This leftover batch of fabric had been left unused and without a home so we decided to turn them into blanket shirts! The fabric is on the heavier side (650g/m²), nicely soft and airy. It has 20% of polyamide to strengthen the structure and the rest, 80%, is wool.

Stone Gray

This is 100% wool (630g/m²). It comes from the warehouse of one of our surplus providers. This East German wool is such a lovely thick and stiff fabric and was originally used for greatcoats. Perfect for winter use. In case you aren’t sure which size to get, get a bigger one of these. You will get it on without Irish jigs and Finnish cursing.

Alpen Gray

This fabric is 100% wool (430 g/m²). It comes from the warehouse of one of our surplus providers and the fabric is scavenged from here and there. Some are surplus from government auctions, some surplus from fabric manufacturers, and some surplus from the supplier’s own productions. It is a bit of everything.

Materials of Blanket Shirts past

Size info

Comes in three sizes with a loose fit. At each size, you'll see a recommended user height and chest circumference. Understand, that the fit is not like a parade dress or in any other way or form a socially normative choice.

The main thing to consider is the chest circumference, as a too-small shirt will be difficult to pull over your head. The length is generous and if the sleeves overshoot your hands, just fold them for a tailored fit.

The model with the sharp gaze and paintbrush beard is 178 cm tall with a 95 cm chest (5' 10" and 37.4"), wearing a size Small with a couple of shirts underneath. The septum-pierced model trying to look gentle is 188 cm tall with a 96 cm chest (6' 2" and 37.8"), also wearing a size Small.

Below are more detailed charts of the garment measurements as follows: chest width (pit to pit), front length from the collar to the hem, center back length from the bottom of the hood to the hem, sleeve length from the center of the neck to the cuff, and sleeve length from the armpit to the cuff. The tolerance is about 1 cm (0.4") either way.

Size chart (metric units)

Size chart (freedom units)