#jacket tutorial

Hello friends!! I know its been so long since I’ve made a tutorial but- it is summer now and I decided to try out doing another tutorial but adding gifs and more pics. I now have a lot more knowledge of sewing and patterning from school so hopefully I can teach you some things too. Okay lets get right to it!

Note: I am putting my own flare on the sleeve. Instead of having the light pink diamond on the sleeve, I’m making it a cut out instead. You don’t have to do this as it is very complicated to sew and it’s not cannon! I am also adding a collar to the top for some flare.

If you have any questions, please dm me on instagram as I don’t check my tumblr inbox very often! @wwhatiss

Materials

·      Pink Fabric of your choosing (make sure it is jacket appropriate. You can also use a different fabric for the lining, but I am using the same fabric for both that and the shell.) I used Stretch Crepe Satin for mine that was $7/yd. I got 3 yards. And I had just Enough. Keep in mind I am also 5’10” and built like an amazon woman so you might not need as much or you may need more.

·      Matching Thread

·      Large sheets of paper to figure out the pattern (a pad of newsprint works great)

·      Ruler/measuring tape

·      Scissors

·      Sewing Machine

·      Hand Sewing Needle

Pattern Making

1.Front pattern

For starters with this, I took a jacket that already fits well and got the measurements of the pattern piece straight from that. Just traced right over it. Work Smarter Not Harder!! I started with the front pattern.

-Now that you have the base pattern of the front of the jacket, you can start altering it. First, I put on the jacket and looked to see where I wanted the hem to end and put a pin to mark it. Glimmer’s jacket ends a little higher than the hips. Then just keep shaping it to where it needs to be. This particular garment has a little flap off the hem at the top so you’re going to have to extend the top a bit like I have shown. I taped an extra piece of paper to the original and drew where I wanted it extended.

You can also see that I drew the line where there is going to be a seam for detail. Once you have a front piece that you like, cut it out. You can either wait to cut where the decorative seam is going to be or you can cut it now and just tape it together to get your final lining piece.

2.The Back

So you want to start off the same way you did the front and trace the back of the jacket. I only traced half of the back and just wrote on it to cut on the fold. It is very very important that you take your front pattern piece and match it up with the back. Make sure the side seams are the same length as well as the shoulder seams. Trim and extend where needed. You also want to align where the divided seam is located. Measure that from the bottom up because the back will always be different at the top. Below are all of my working patterns.

3.Making final patterns

Before we get to the sleeve pattern, you want to add Seam Allowance (SA) to the edges. I always add ½” SA to everything except the neckline at ¼”.

In the picture I have provided, I used both of the front pieces together to make the final lining pattern, but you will also need to do this with the separate pieces.

4. The Sleeve

Alrighty, so there is a lot going on with the sleeve. I will show how I am making this sleeve with the cut out. You do not have to cut out the diamond at all, but you will still need the middle seam because of the pleats.

The same thing as the front and back, we are going to get our information from the reference jacket. Lay it out so that the sleeve is completely flat. The bodice of the jacket will probably need to get bunched to do this. Now you should see a curve in this if done correctly. Get the shape and size of this as well as the length that you want the full arm. Now we will be adding a 1.5” cuff onto the end of this so please keep that in mind.  Trace this onto a folded sheet of paper so that you can then make the full sleeve.

You’ll notice that I have measurements on either side of my pattern. That’s relevant to the sizes of the arm holes of both the front and back bodices. You will want to measure those and adjust the curve to match the measurements. I know it’s a lot but I also know you can do it!!

Once you have that adjusted, If you are doing the arm cut out, you will need to cut out the diamond if you decide to go that route.

Mark where you want it on your jacket and then transfer the measurements. I didn’t want it too big, but also, I didn’t want it too small either. Go with your best judgement! Make sure it is even on both sides and cut down the middle of the sleeve as you will need a seam here whether you are doing the cut out or the applique. Cut the diamond out as well.

So now that you have your two base pieces for the sleeve, the outer part of the undersleeve is going to need to be extended for the pleats. This is a very chaotic process so just take your time.

First, grab a piece of paper and figure out what size accordion style pleat you like the most. This is how I measured and folded it out. Also keep in mind that you will want the pleats facing down.

Alrighty! So do not look at the +6 on my image because I realized later that it was wrong! I’m here to make the mistakes you don’t have to haha. Okay so to figure out how much to add to the sleeve, unfold the paper pleats and measure what you have. Then, subtract that by the length of the pleats that was added. This is the length you will add to the sleeve.

Now, you are going to want the end of the sleeve to still be the same width as the end of the lining piece. From the bottom seam of the arm hole, drop a new line connecting to the extension. Mark the folds as I did with horizontal lines. (When cutting from fabric just make little tick marks within your given ½” seam allowance).

Add your SA of ½” all the way around for your final pattern. You should have a front sleeve final pattern, a back sleeve final lining pattern, and a back sleeve top pattern (the lining will not need to be pleated).

5. The waist band

Alrighty, pull out the original working pattern of the front and back bodice. Measure the bottom x2 and the back x2 to get the full length around the bottom of the jacket. I attached my exact measurements for how I did the little arrow at the bottom. This is added to the hem length that you just got since it sticks out.

6. Cuff

I decided to add a cuff to this jacket just to finish off the sleeve. I thought It would look nicer. To get the measurement of this, measure the circumference of the end for the length and for the width do which ever you would prefer. I originally measured it for a 1 ¼” extension which you need to multiply by two since its folded over. You may want it to be the same width of the pleats to allow it to flow more. Adjust as you’d like!

7. Added Collar

Okay so I know the show does not depict a collar on this jacket, but I honestly did not like the way the neckline looked without it. I decided to put this on at the end, but it would probably be easiest to sandwich it in between the inner and outer layer of the jacket. I measured from where the jacket folds back in the front, around to the other side where it folds to get my measurement. I went for a 1 ½” extension and then rounded the ends to be like a mandarin collar.

Sewing the Garment

1.The Bodice

Okay for the outer layer you have the panels with the seam going through them. Go ahead and sew those so that they then match the lining panels. Be sure to iron the seams!

Sew the side seams and shoulder seams of both the outer layer and the lining separately.

Then match up the two pieces so that you can put the layers together. The right sides are together and the wrong sides should be the only things visible. Sew the front panels all the way around the neck to the other side.

When it gets turned right side out it will look like the picture below. This can be fixed by adding top stitching around where you sewed. I also top stitched the front seams as well as the shoulder seams.

2. The Sleeves: Part 1

The sleeves themselves and attaching the sleeves are very difficult. I managed to have to re-do them 3 times. I am just glad that my fabric is very forgiving when it comes to mistakes.

I hope you still have the paper that you used to measure out the length of the pleats because it will make the next steps so much easier. With the markings on the fabric for measurements, fold out the pleats the same as you did the paper. The inside back piece should now be equal to the length of the folded piece.

You are going to want to stitch down the side to keep the pleats in place. My sleeve happens to have 4 pleats in this image instead of three because I measured out my sleeve wrong. If you followed the tutorial, it will be right. I later adjusted when I was putting the cuff on.

3. The Sleeves: Part 2

Alright If you do the cut out then you have to do this step. Put the wrong sides together of the front outer and front lining piece. Sew just the cut out at ½” SA. When you are done stitching it, snip at the corner until right up against the stitching.

Do the same for the back lining and the back-outer piece. Flip it out so it looks clean and iron.

Next we will be putting together the two pieces above. I have both a gif and image on how it will look. The top middle seam will be sewn together as well as the bottom middle seam.

I then added top stitching to my sleeve as well. Try to make the top stitching the same through out the whole piece unless it’s a designer choice.

Next to get the whole thing together and still have it be clean on the inside we have to sew each layer separately for the underside seam. Just match up the sides of the outer layer and the sides of the inner layer. Refer to the image and the gif below.

While it is in this state, I highly recommend you iron open the seams so that it lays nicely on the inside.

Okay, then you have to turn it right side in. to do that, put your arm through the opening with the pleats. Hold onto the end closest to your hand and use your other arm to pull it back over the sleeve until its completely turned right side in. Gif for Reference.

BAM! SLEEVES.

4. The Sleeves: Part 3

Okay so there are a few things going on when attaching the sleeve. A) You don’t want to have an unfinished edge in your jacket so I did a french seam. Here is a good video reference to how to do that. And instead of each at ½ SA, you will do ¼ both ways https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYa86gQbN6c

B) We are working with a Set in Sleeve so there are a few steps to that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E1_NcRrDB8

Here is another good video reference for further help. For this project you will want to use the first suggestion used.

You have to ease the arm whole which means along the top of the sleeve you will baste it and then when you are connecting the sleeve to the bodice you can pull the stitching tighter to bunch the fabric to fit. BE CAREFUL AS YOU DO NOT WANT FOLDS AT ALL. Don’t worry, It will work. Another tip is to try to get as much fullness in at the top by the shoulder seam rather than the sides because it lays nicer and gives some extra space.

Now we gotta combine these two things. I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY suggest testing this out first before using the actual sleeves. The number of times that I had to seam rip the whole thing apart will haunt me. I do tests all the time and it usually saves me the headache later, but I decided that I would be fine and went for it. A mistAKE. Your fabric may not be as forgiving as mine either. It doesn’t have to be a whole sleeve either. Just practicing being able to ease the arm hole while also french seaming serves the purpose!

The image below is pinned to do the second run of the French Seam.

Bam. Progress pic

5. The Cuffs

For the cuffs, I apologize but at the end here I neglected to take photos. In a lot of ways though putting some videos on here will probably help you much more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0V1jpvxC0c

The picture below shows the inside of the cuffs and the arrows show where I hand sewed the inside together so that the outside looked clean. Add the topstitch then as well.

6. The Bottom Arrow Addition

Sorry its not directly on the jacket. I made a sample to make up for it. It would be very hard to understand otherwise.

Now when you go to attach the bottom be sure to off set it by a half inch. You are going to “pillow case” it later. The part of the jacket that is going to be seen from the outside should have the clean machine stitching.

This is where the pillow casing comes in. since you offset it by a half inch you can do the usual half inch seam with the good sides facing each other. The image above is what the bottom end of your jacket should look like currently.

Okay now the most chaotic thing to do now is what we call burritoing to get a good clean finish on the ends. You are going to fold the jacket inside the addition to where you end up in 3 being able to machine stitch it at half inch SA. You will not get the whole jacket done this way, only a few inches but it does look nice. The rest of the middle will have to be hand stitched but it’s worth it. I promise.

This is what the finished end looks like.

Below is a perspective of the inside before it gets hand sewn

Do the same with the Arrow end but it is just a bit more complicated

You can see above where I hand stitched the inside before I top stitched it.

7. The Collar

Alrighty. Admittedly I hated the way my neckline turned out. I decided to add a little mandarin collar around the top to cover it up. It was a very good decision in my opinion. I’ll show how I did it but IF YOU DECIDE YOU WANT THE COLLAR FROM THE BEGINNING THEN SANDWHICH IT BETWEEN THE LINING AND OUTTER LAYER.

You will need to fuse the collar pieces if you want them stable to stand up. Cut out 2 pieces, one of them being mirrored.

When I added the collar on top, I sewed the basic collar, leaving about a half inch along the bottom unsewn on the sides. Much like the cuffs and bottom of this jacket, you want to sew the whole outward facing layer with the machine and then unfortunately, it may be best to hand stitch the inside collar to the rest of the jacket. I then added Top Stitch.

8. The Buttons

I used my Singer sewing machine function for my button holes. Since I did that, I first laid out the buttons to where they were even and marked with pins where the middle of the button was and where the top and bottom ended so I knew where to turn my machine.

Congratulations if you made it though this tutorial. I know it was a LOT but the ending product is pretty rad.