Biker jacket

FYI: I used pictures for this post to test out the collage features on Picnik, a site that Lindsay turned us on to in a recent post. It's a pretty cool site and much of it is free to use!

Pattern

BWOF 11-2005-117 This is a lined, princess-seam jacket with 2 part sleeves and an asymmetrical front zipper closing.



Fabric
Fashion fabric: Anna Sui coating, an impulse purchase from Emma One Sock during Summer 2008. It consists of two layers: a layer of shiny polyester quilted onto a layer of fleece. I used a Microtex 75 needle and it worked great.

Lining: Acetate (? I don't remember anymore) twill from my local fabric shop.

I didn't interface any part of this jacket - I don't know if it's standard practice to interface quilted fabrics/fleece, but BWOF didn't advise me to do so, so I didn't.

Notes on construction/alterations
A similar style of lined jacket was the "illustrated sewing course" for this issue, so reading over those instructions provided helpful insight to the construction of this jacket. There was only one step that I didn't understand (and was not included in the illustrated sewing course) which was their description of how to attach the left zipper to the left front bodice. I figured out my own way to attach the zipper using the long strip of fabric they have you cut, so no biggie. Speaking of zippers, I am indebted to the creator of Wonder Tape. I used it to baste all of the zippers in place before sewing. I love that stuff!


I used the lining fabric for the front of the pocket and fashion fabric for the back pocket piece.


In my last post, I mentioned that easing the sleeves was challenging and I had some ripping and resewing ahead of me. Well, I tried the good 'ol method of sewing two rows of basting stitches in the seam allowance & tugging the bobbin thread, and to my surprise this worked remarkably well for easing the fabric to fit the armhole.

When it came to the lining, I found two books to be helpful. For drafting, I used the Easy Guide to Sewing Linings by Connie Long. She shows how to make a lining pattern specifically for a jacket with princess seams, and for 2-pieces sleeves, including the adjustments to make to the shoulder area to accomodate a shoulder pad (I used 1/2" shoulder pads in this jacket). I had never completely bagged a lining by machine before, so this is where Easy Guide to Sewing Jackets by Cecelia Podolak came in handy. Both books described how to do this, but I felt the photographs in Podolak's book illustrated the process better, especially how to machine sew the sleeve lining to the sleeve hem.


I used a decorative stitch on the center back pleat of the lining; this type of stitching always reminds me of Tany as she includes this on all of her amazing jackets and coats. A small piece of ribbon will function as a coat hook.

Conclusion
When I bought this fabric from EOS, I had no clue what to do with it. Burda rescued me with this biker style jacket designed especially for quilted fabrics - the fabric wasn't hard to sew at all, and I won't shy away from it in the future (have you seen this awesome coat?). Winter arrived just this weekend (as you can see in the pictures) but the cold temperatures are not going to stop me from wearing my new jacket!