RED JACKET CHRONICLES PART TWO

HI DARLINGS! Okay here is part two of the red jacket chronicles (part one can be found HERE) I thought I would talk a bit about the modifications. Now, remember for those asking about a tutorial… this is my SIMPLICITY PATTERN, so there is a sew-along already for this pattern. The only thing you would be changing is the collar addition and the zippers on the sleeves. You can sew this jacket by using that sew-along below and some of the tips I added in this post.

So one the things I added was another smaller zipper pocket in the chest area. This is easy to do since I show you in the sew-along how to make the two front pockets and the process is the same, I simply made the bounding box smaller and the pocket bag smaller.

 The front zippers are added exactly like in the sew-along and I decided to add a belt vs the tabs in the original jacket. I cut a belt 2″ wide and used 1/4″ seam allowance, created the belt loops and added the buckle. I used eyelets for the belt which you can get at any Joann and it comes with a tool to attach them. I decided I wanted the belt to come from the sides so I attached them to the side seam at the bands before sewing front to back at the sides.

 I added the shoulder tabs the same as in the video.

 The sleeve zipper was a new addition completely. I simply added the zipper to the underarm seam of the sleeve and created a facing that I attached to the side of each zipper once the zipper was attached. I will probably do this specific step as a tutorial for adding it to any sleeve pattern.

 As far as the collar goes, I simply measured the neckline of my jacket after attaching the shoulders and chose where I wanted the collar to end. I copied the collar shape from another jacket I had and adjusted it to size.

 This was a really fun project and I can’t wait to show you the finished pics tomorrow! The one thing I want you to take away is that patterns are guides, you can make a lot of modifications if you just take a chance and get creative. I hack my own patterns all the time as you can see, it’s fun to see something you like and know that with a few tweaks and a base pattern you can make it.