Making Sweatshirt
Jackets -
The program at the January 16, 2017
meeting of the Lansing Chapter American Sewing Guild (ASG) will be on making
sweatshirt jackets. Joyce Savage is the
presenter and she asked those of us who have made a sweatshirt jacket to either
wear it or bring it to the meeting. I
have one I made years ago, but I decided to make a new one before the
meeting. There are many different ways
to convert a sweatshirt into a jacket.
You could just cut through the center front and add a zipper. You might decide to also remove the ribbing
and add a binding. You might decide to
then add some applique, decorative stitching, or embroidery to the jacket. You could also decide to quilt the entire
jacket or just a portion of it. I rarely
every use my Pfaff Creative Sensation Pro sewing machine to embroider anything,
but I decided this would be a good opportunity to use it for that purpose. I looked through my Anita Goodesign
Collections and chose the Lighthouses CD.
I browsed that CD and chose two designs, one for the front of the jacket
and one for the back.
I choose a sweatshirt that fit me
that had set in sleeves. Then I marked
the center front. I did that by folding
the front together at the shoulders and pinning along the shoulder seams. Next, I pinned the two side fronts together
at the seams. Then I pressed the front
together to get a crease down the center front.
That crease provided the mark for me to use to cut my center front opening. I did not think to take a picture of this
before I cut the opening, but I used another sweatshirt to demonstrate for
you. It is the same type of shirt I used
only a different color.
After cutting down the front, I
removed the ribbing from the bottom of the shirt and from the bottom of the
sleeves. You can also remove the ribbing
around the neckline, but it may be beneficial to wait until later because the
neckline may stretch and become larger than you want. I will tell you how to rectify that situation
when I discuss sewing the binding on the neckline. The following picture shows what the
sweatshirt looks like after you cut down the center and remove all the ribbing.
I purchased some striped fabric that
had some of the colors I planned to use in the embroidery and used that fabric
to make strips for the binding around the bottom of the shirt, the sleeves and
the neckline. For the binding for the
bottom of the jacket and the sleeves, I cut the across the fabric with the
selvedge edges together. The stripes on
the binding were then vertical. I also
cut 2 ½ inch strips of lightweight iron-on interfacing and pressed the
interfacing to the binding. Then I
folded the binding in half lengthwise and pressed. I placed the raw edge of the binding along
the right side of the bottom of the jacket and serged. If you do not have a serger, you can use your
sewing machine to attach the binding to the jacket and then finish the edge
with a zigzag stitch. Press the binding with the seam facing towards
the body of the jacket and then top stitch on the right side of the jacket close
to the seam.
Apply the binding to the sleeves in
the same manner as above.
Then I inserted the zipper. I used a 2-way zipper simply because that is
what I had on hand and I did not want to make a trip into town just to buy a
zipper. A regular jacket zipper is what
you need and a light weight one works best for a regular weight
sweatshirt. My zipper was a little too
long for the jacket so I cut the excess off at the top. I tried to leave a little to tuck into the
binding at the neckline to keep the zipper pull from coming off.
Remember I told you I would explain
what to do if the neckline stretched and was a little larger than you
wanted. Well, that is what happened to
me. To rectify the situation, I ran a
basting stitch around the neckline and pulled it together to the size I wanted
before I applied the binding around the neckline. I cut this binding on the bias because I knew
it would be sewn on the curved neckline and binding cut on the grain would not
lie flat around the neck. I did not
use interfacing on this binding. I
folded the 2 ½ inch bias strip lengthwise and then pressed it. I placed the raw edge on the right side of
the neckline leaving a little at both ends to fold over at the center front to
make a clean edge. I pressed the binding
with the seam facing down towards the jacket and then folded the binding over
to the wrong side of the jacket just covering the edge of the pressed
seam. Then I top stitched from the right
side of the jacket close to the seam.
Did you notice what I did wrong with the neck binding? I cut a single piece on the bias and sewed from the right center front around to the back and then around to the left center front. The stripes all go in the same direction. I should have cut 2 pieces with the stripes going in opposite directions from the center back. Then when you look at the jacket from the front, the two fronts would be mirror images of each other. At first, I thought I would just leave it the way it is, but I just can't do it! I am sure I will try to remove the binding and sew a new one before our ASG meeting Monday night.
The last thing I did was embroider the design on the back and front of the jacket.
Did you notice what I did wrong with the neck binding? I cut a single piece on the bias and sewed from the right center front around to the back and then around to the left center front. The stripes all go in the same direction. I should have cut 2 pieces with the stripes going in opposite directions from the center back. Then when you look at the jacket from the front, the two fronts would be mirror images of each other. At first, I thought I would just leave it the way it is, but I just can't do it! I am sure I will try to remove the binding and sew a new one before our ASG meeting Monday night.
The last thing I did was embroider the design on the back and front of the jacket.
Okay, I just could not hit the publish button for this blog without correcting the neck binding on this sweatshirt jacket. So, I ripped out the stitching on the binding and cut another one. This time I cut 2 pieces going in opposite directions on the bias of the fabric. I attached the new binding and it looks much better. I hope you can see the difference in the 2 photos below.
Making a jacket from a sweatshirt is fairly quick if you are familiar with the embellishing techniques you plan to use. If not, you may want to practice the technique before attempting to apply it to your jacket. For example, if you want to use applique but have never done it, make a practice applique on a scrap of fabric before sewing it to your jacket.
I made a quilted sweatshirt jacket
several years ago. I am not a quilter so
I knew I had to proceed cautiously. I ripped
off the ribbing and then ripped out all the seams. I made an adjustment to the shoulders and
basted the seam back together to check the fit.
Once satisfied, I ripped the seams apart and started sewing strips of
fabrics together. Then I cut them apart
and put them back together in a different pattern under the watchful eyes of a
quilter friend, Stoney Bretz. As I got
a piece of fabric sewn together that was large enough, I cut out the two fronts
and then made more fabric to cut out the back and then did the same for each
sleeve. I laid each piece of fabric
with the wrong side to the right side of each sweatshirt piece and did some
free motion quilting to attach the pieces together.
Before I quilted the 2 layers of the
fronts together, I attached pockets to the inside. I wanted pockets with zippers on the inside
of the jacket, so they would not interfere with the quilting on the
outside. I made the pockets and then
attached them to the inside of the sweatshirt front by sewing across the top
only. I call them hanging pockets. They are large enough to carry money, credit cards and car
keys. That way, no purse is necessary
for shopping trips. You have your hands
free to examine fabric or other purchases and your valuables are safe in the
zippered pockets.
When I quilted the fronts, I was
careful not to quilt over the pockets. I
quilted from the top of the fronts down to the line where the pockets were
attached and lifted the pockets and folded them up until the quilting was done
in the pocket area. I hope you can see
how they are constructed by viewing the pictures below.
I hope this has given you some ideas for making a sweatshirt jacket. Get your supplies together and start one for yourself. It is always more fun to sew with friends. So, gather your friends and have a sweatshirt jacket sew-in!
Judy
https://websitebuilder.godaddy.com/builder/edit/desktop/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000010738875https://websitebuilder.godaddy.com/builder/edit/desktop/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000010738875
