DIY Bomber Jacket from a Crew Neck Sweatshirt!

Hello everybody! Welcome to Katherine Sews. Would you feast your eyes on this? I thrifted this incredible sweatshirt when I was in New York City with that student group last year, at least a year ago, maybe a year and a half. There was a block long garage sale right in Manhattan and they had some really cool things. It was so neat to see all the locals, like people who lived on this cute little street in Manhattan, all of them out on the street with racks of clothes and household goods. And I scored this amazing garment for about $8 American. I love it beyond words. But it's a lot. It is a lot. It's something that's pretty special. I want to turn it into something that I will wear a lot. It's obviously like too big, too long, but the embroidery is incredible so I want to turn it into a bomber jacket. Trim it down a little. Not too much. I can't take too much away because that'll pull the embroidery right under the... I don't know. We'll figure that part out. But I'll definitely be trimming it down somewhat, shorting the body, adding a zipper, making that bomber style collar, and maybe even adding a couple of welt pockets. So it's kind of a big project, but I think it's going to be so worth it. I think this is going to be really, really a treasured piece. So I'm pretty excited to get going on this. So if you're ready, let's get busy. Okay, so I've got it on inside out, but it is really hard to get on and off because it's just not very stretchy at all because the fabric itself is a knit, but it's not super stretchy and then the embroidery is quite restricting. So I know I want to take it in. So instead of pins, I've just marked with my soap line and I can feel that that's going to be fine even without actually pinning it. And then I want to add pockets. So I made marks as to where I wanted that welt pocket to be, but then I decided that it had to be shorter as well. So then I had to make more marks where the pockets are going to be. So I'll be using the highest mark for the pocket and I think I'll be shortening it by just the width of the ribbing. And the length of the sleeve is fine, but it is a bit too roomy in the sleeve. So I'll be tapering it in all the way along there, adding the zipper, adding the pockets. And then I wanted to make the classic bomber jacket collar. So I found a piece of black ribbing in my stash. I think that'll just work out great. And I don't think that's going to be too hard to do. So I think I have all the information I need. I'm going to take it off. First I'll make the adjustments to the fit and it'll be pockets, collar, zipper, done. So the first thing I'll do is cut off the bottom ribbing because I'm going to be making the whole thing shorter. It's cover stitched here, meaning that there's two lines of needle thread, kind of like a surging on the back. So rather than take all that out, I'm just going to cut above it and below it. Now I think I'll do the same on the sleeves. I'm not making the sleeves shorter, at least not by much, but I am going to make them a little bit narrower. Yes, I think I do need to remove that ribbing and then put it back on because I think I kind of want my seam to come right in about there. So yep, same thing on the sleeves. And if I lose this little bit of length in the sleeve, that is okay. I do have a bit of extra length, not too, too much though. I'm getting much closer to the embroidery than I wanted to. I'm going to have to be cautious of that. I'm just cutting the cover stitch off of the cuffs now so that I can get in there to narrow them. Okay. We'll come back to those cuffs. The sides of the body and the sleeves. Here I also have the problem of getting too close to that embroidery at the underarm here. I'm not bothered. I don't mind if I sew right through there, but this, this is the tail of the dragon and it comes right up against the side seam where I want to be sewing right about in here. So I think, do I worry about that if the side seam looks like that, is that something to worry about? What's the worst that could happen? No, it's fine. And I'm folding it in half and clipping just so I know I cut the whole thing symmetrically and I am going to cut before I sew, which is probably not the way I normally do things, but this is just a heavy and a little bit challenging to work with. So I think cutting it first is not going to be too much of a problem. I think that'll be fine. So I've marked my pockets on the outside and drawn a line. But before I can really try it on properly to check that I like that pocket placement, I think I need to sew the sides. And this fabric is heavy enough and stiff enough that I will sew first and then serge. And hopefully the dragon's tail looks okay coming right out of the corner like that. I think it'll be all right. Okay, let's go to the machine. Just two quick little seams like this, and then I'll be able to try it on. I'm going to try it on and see how I like it. So no, I don't like it. I love it. So I'm going to serge those seams. Okay, so I'm really happy with the fit now. That's working out great. So now it's all about pockets. I want to do a welt pocket and I've got a video out where I made a welt pocket all from one piece. It's a really, really nice, slick technique, but I have to change it a little bit here because my pocket has to fit into the front corner of this bomber jacket. I don't really want to do the guesswork on how to cut that. So what I'm going to do is use the same technique, but with two pieces. So I'll show you how I'm going to cut one piece to be the welt and the one side of the pocket. I'll get that situated and then I'll cut the piece for the back of the pocket to make a nice little shape that fits into that corner nicely. So I have marked my placement of where I want it. My opening here is five and a half inches. Six is probably closer to standard, but I think for the space I have and the size, I think five and a half would be nice here. So I had those pins in marking the ends and then I fused a piece of interfacing to the wrong side of the jacket surrounding where those pins are. Once that was ironed on, I still had my pins in place. And so I needed to remark those dots because the soap does disappear with the iron. Okay, the other thing I went ahead and did was cut my two pocket pieces. And this is just from some scrap black denim or black twill. That's a pretty good match, even though this is a knit and this is a woven. The match is pretty good. And the size that I cut these are that five and a half inch width of the opening, plus about an inch and a half. So for me, this piece is seven by ten. And that's just going to make one side of the pocket. On the back, I went ahead and ironed on a piece of interfacing about two and a half inches deep and the full width of the pocket. Now, I did mine in white so that you can see what I'm doing. Normally, I would do a dark interfacing. But you know what? This one's not going to show it all. So that's fine. And because this isn't going to show it all, I can draw on it using a pen. And what I want to do is draw a rectangle in this interface area. And I want to have my rectangle one inch down from the top. And then about three quarters, you can do narrower if you want. I'm going to do a three quarter inch. This is the width of the welt itself. So I'm going to do three quarters of an inch and then I want it to be five and a half inches. So I know I've got an inch and a half extra, three quarters of an inch on each side extra. There's my five and a half. The method I'm using is not the traditional welt pocket method. I prefer my method instead of just sewing two lines, we're going to be sewing around that whole rectangle. I think it really does make it easier. I've got a video just on this technique that I will link in the description. OK, so now I'm going to stick a pin through the bottom corner of my rectangle and make it connect with that dot. I can remove that pin now. The same here. I'm connecting that corner to that corner. I like just have my pins sort of following the direction that I'll be sewing in. I'll be kind of sewing around that whole rectangle like that with really nice, clean pivots on all four corners. It's really important that I've got this pocket piece going on to the right side of the garment. Now, when I'm sewing around a rectangle, when it's really important to have nice, clean pivots, I don't want to start at a corner. I want to start anywhere else. Really nail it right at that corner. So I'm just walking the wheel. That's a smidge far, so I'll back it up there and turn. That was good. You can see how thick and stiff this fabric is. It's a little bit of a wrestling match here. Walk to the corner and if it's too far, just scooch back a smidge. There. OK. OK, pretty good, pretty good. Both sides like that. That is quite nice. Now here comes the scary part. So now we need to cut here and we have to cut super close to those corners. So we want to cut in the middle and then kind of make a Y shape right to the corner. I don't normally draw this. I'm just drawing it so that you get a really clear idea what I'm doing and just start that cut. I think the easiest way is to start it with a rotary cutter. So these are my favorite scissors for precise things like this. So now I'm going from my line right to that corner. Don't cut your stitching, but come frighteningly close. Yes, scary. If you go past, you've got a bit of a problem to sort out. Basically, you have to make your pocket a little bit bigger if you go past. So that's why that step is a little scary. But we're good. By the way, be super certain that there's nothing, no parts laying underneath your layer when you use your rotary cutter. I taught in a high school long enough to know that that can happen. So if you don't get right to that corner, you're going to have a pucker when this turns. Now, I'd rather have to deal with that than having to deal with having cut too far. If you have a pucker, all you do is go back in and snip a little closer so you can kind of test it out. If you can open that right out straight, then you've cut far enough. If it doesn't open up straight without really pulling and binding in there. Then you need to snip a little bit more. I think we're OK. All right. Now we're going to go to the iron. So that's sewn and cut. And now we're ready to push the whole pocket through to the back. But I'm going to do a little pressing first. I'm going to bring this edge down and kind of push it right over and press it like that. And I'm going to bring this edge up, keep everything else flat and nice edge there and press that. And those two little presses before you turn it just make it so much easier to get those good edges once you flip it all the way through. OK, so now this whole pocket piece is going to come to the back. And you see how this is already nice and flat for us, right? It makes that so much easier. It's already all nicely arranged. What we don't want is to have this pocket piece showing on the outside. So if I can see a smidge of the outside from the inside, then I know I'm good on the outside. That makes sense. All right. So there's our nice looking rectangle. And then this is where if you have any puckers at the corners, just go in, do a tiny bit more snipping right there and then you're good. If you have a clapper, this is a wonderful time to use it. So before I form the welt, I want to press this seam allowance going down away from the pocket because I need access to the seam allowance after. And now I'm going to be folding down to form the welt. The welt is going to be formed with this section of fabric right here. We're going to come up. So now I want to press that seam allowance going up. And then I bring the pocket piece back down and I want to fold it right even with that opening. So that's my welt right there. See how it's just sort of telling me where to fold it. Nice. Now I want to be able to flip it over and see it from the outside. So I just want to hold this in place so that I don't lose my nice formation here. And when I flip it, I can just have a little look and make sure my pocket is looking awesome, which it is. Dang itty dang. That's nice. Give that a little press. So now I want to catch under this edge. So if I move the jacket out of the way, that's the seam allowance that I just pressed going down. And now I want to sew that to exactly where it's sitting on the pocket back here. So I'm going to be sewing right there. I'm just sewing basically on top of that exact same line that I've already sewn. Not bad, not bad. And now you breathe a sigh of relief because all the hard part is done. One more easy step and then we're done. So now the one layer of my pocket is sewn and pressed. The welt is looking good. Now I'm going to cut a piece that is the same size as what this pocket has turned into, which is seven by eight. And then that can create the back of my pocket. So I'm going to be sewing around all four sides now. But there's no point in having this bottom corner. It's definitely going to be chopped off. So I might as well plan for that right now. I'll leave an extra bit of seam allowance just so I'm not being skimpy. And I don't want it to come into the front edge here where the zipper is going to be. So if this is the opening, I think a comfortable shape might be like that. This corner, I think I will leave it even though it's crossing over the side seam. I don't think that's going to bother anybody. And twill does have a right side and a wrong side. If you can see that angle, that's the right side of the twill. Oh, so this is not the correct pocket piece. This one is so that they are right sides together. So this time it's around all four sides of the pocket. I can trim off this one to be the same as my new piece. Okay, back to the machine. It doesn't really matter where I start. I'm sewing around the whole thing. So here I'm catching that triangle, sewing right on top of the line that I've already sewn on. And then once I'm off the triangle, pivot. And this should all feel nice and flat. If it doesn't feel flat, just feel inside. Make sure you're not catching the welt or that there's a fold underneath. And I'm just going to sew right on top of that same line of stitching again. Straight across until I'm off the welt, pivot again. Catch the second corner. So that will do. Outside pocket just looks dynamite. No puckers. That looks beautiful. So I'll sew both like that and then serge all the way around all four sides. And when you're going around a corner with the serger, go until your needles are just off the edge. Lift. And that's how you pivot on a serger. I've got it clipped here because the bottom edge of the pocket is going to get set right into where the waistband goes on. And that is the next step. So let's look at that waistband. I'm very glad that I cut this off just going around instead of cutting through because there's just one seam on this. And so I'm actually going to cut right here right now on both sides of that seam. And so now I don't have any seams on here. This will be the center front opening. It was the side and now it's going to be the central front. I think I will also I think this was my intention to cut off that heavy edge as well. Good. So I'm just loving the pockets that just worked out so nicely. I am just super excited about this. I'm loving it. So this is the waistband. It kind of is perfect, but I want it to stretch a little bit. So I'll just see where it kind of comfortably stretches. And I don't think I need it to come in very much. I think just right there is going to be fine. So I'm just going to cut that little bit off on both ends. I'll cut them each separately so that I know I'm following the little rib. And I think I'll just quarter mark this. So I've got it in half. That's going to be the center back. I'll leave a little seam allowance at the front for the zipper. And then my two side seams will be there and one will be there. So this is already quarter mark except for the center back. So let's just find that. Here. Very good. I could sew that part down together first, but I don't think it's going to cause me too much trouble to just do that all in one. So this waistband is just going to stretch a little bit. And I'm catching the bottom of the pocket into this seam. Center back to center back and then in between. So I'll sew and serge the waistband back on. But you know what? It's the exact same process for the cuffs. So I might as well do that right now, too. So I'm folding that sleeve inside. I'm just going to take the original cuff. I'm not even going to change the width of it. That's fine. I'm going to take that cuff. Folded edge goes in first down into the circle in the sleeve and seam to seam all three raw edges together. So I'll sew and serge around both cuffs and the waistband. And yeah, I've been using a universal needle for this whole project. The sweatshirt knit, the woven, the ripping, it's all fine with this universal needle. And I'm also using just a regular straight stitch. But for this cuff and for the waistband as well, I need to have it in a stretched out position as I go, just so that it has the ability to stretch later. This little circle is way too small to fit on the free arm of my machine. So what I do instead, I always have the circle facing up. It's so much easier than having the circle down and sewing on the outside of the circle. Have the circle facing up and get your presser foot inside that circle. I very rarely use the free arm of my machine because you can just flip the circle up. That's it. Now the waistband. Pockets getting caught in there nicely. I want to make sure my edge isn't rolling. Knits love to roll. Ooh, looking good. Okay. Back to the serger. So again, the circle is facing up and the presser foot is going to go inside the circle. Right across the bottom of the waistband. Here we go. Okay. Fantastic. So next is the zipper. So now I'm going to serge right up that center front edge. And the seam allowance is going to go up toward the body. So let's do that. Okay. Let's tackle the zipper next. So I went to a fabric store and bought a zipper. That's exactly what I need here. So this is a 19 inch zipper and I bought the nylon coil one, just in case it's not the perfect length. I really dislike shortening metal zippers, but the nylon ones are no problem. If this one was too long, I would just let it stand up tall and it would get caught into the seam, no big problem. Alrighty. So now I think this knit is stable enough that I don't need to use anything like steam a seam. There is a video that I've got where I turned a pullover hoodie into a zipper hoodie. And in that one, I used steam a seam. I'll link that video and the pocket video in the description, in case you want more detail on either of those. But for right now, I think I'm just going to clip this on. And I've got the zipper right side together with the jacket. I definitely don't want this hanging down even by a smidge. If anything, it should be a smidge shorter, but because I've got barely any seam allowance at the top, I'm going to go equal shminkle. And it's nice on this. I don't have a kangaroo pocket to match up on the one with the hoodie I did. And I really wanted the pocket to match up. So there's a couple of nice tricks on that video that you might want to look at. Okay. So right now I'm just going right there. So the zipper is going to come around and be right side together with the other side. I always like to get one clip in there just so I know I'm not messing it up because it's easy to get the zipper flipped around or whatever. But now that I know I've got it situated right, I can unzip the whole thing and clip this side as well. I want to make sure I've got the top equal distance from the edge there. And that looks good. And I will also just make sure that the ribbing is landing in the same place. So this'll just be at the regular machine with a zipper foot. So there goes the zipper foot on there. And I think I'll just move my needle to the left, just a little closer to the zipper teeth. And here we go. Well, that side was easy. Beautiful. Move the slider out of my way a little bit. And then leave the needle down, lift the presser foot up and try to get that right out of my way. If I can't, then I'll just, yeah. If it's too much of a struggle, it's not worth it. So just break your thread. Then move the slider down and then just overlap where you were. Okay. I definitely want this to stay where it's clipped. Super easy to let things get shifted around. So I want to make sure that just stays put. So that is fantastic. I'm very happy, happy to be. So I am going to be doing a top stitch beside the zipper, but I want to get the collar on first so that I can do a nice little corner here and then do my top stitch. I just popped it on and I just could not love it more. Well, I guess I'll love it more once it has a collar, but I'm really, really happy with it. Okay. So I'm folding it in half to try to get an idea of the size of this neckline, which looks giant right now, doesn't it? Okay. This is the ribbing I'm going to use. And again, it just happened to be in my stash and it happens to be a really great match. So lucky, lucky. And the same way that I did with the waistband, I kind of want to do that with the ribbing for the collar as well. But this one, I probably want a little bit more stretch than on the waistband because this neckline does look very large. So I want this ribbing to have to stretch quite a bit so that it brings in that neck for me. There. Okay. I think that seems good. Okay. So this is marking my length. I'm going to go a smidgen bit shorter. I don't want the neckline to look stretched out. So I want this to be able to bring that stretch back in. So maybe I'll just make that my length. And now the width, I think I want the collar to be about two inches. So we'll go two inches on the fold. So that's four seam allowance on each side. So that is five inches. This edge is pretty darn straight already. So I'll just cut my five inches. So that's the collar, but now I want to get that taper. So I've marked the center of the collar, just using the lines on the table. There's the center. And then I think it's just the last four inches or so that needs a taper. So I've also marked four inches here and then I'll use my hip curve. I'll find a point that blends nicely from one point to the other, and I'll make a note of those numbers. So I'm going from one centimeter to 14. And so that I can do the same on this side, one to 14 seems pretty good. While I've got it folded in half, I'll just give myself a little notch at the center back on both sides. I'm just going to run that to the iron and press that in half. There we go. Okay. So now the collar goes right side together with the jacket, all of the raw edges together. And I want these two points to meet. I want the zipper to just bump up against the seam allowance or the sewing line, I guess, of the collar. And I need to find the center back of the jacket, tiny little snip or a notch, whatever you're more comfortable with. And so then I'm going notch to notch at the center back and then clip in between. And this is a little bit more of a stretch. That seems good. Oh yeah, that's going to look so good. Sewing line of the collar just bumps up against the zipper and then stretch in between. Even though I'm super excited, I'm not just going to go straight to the serger. I am going to sew that, try it on, check it. And then if it's good, then I will serge. Back to the regular presser foot. And now I do need to be very cautious that I don't hit that metal stopper of the zipper. I want to be coming in right beside it. My needle is still over to the left, but it's okay as long as I'm aware. So again, I'm stretching as I sew just to make those edges all coming together evenly. So see, I'm picking up the collar and stretching it over right to that corner so that it's giving me a nice corner there. So that is super slickety. This corner is going to be all cleaned up like that momentarily, but right now I'm just going to try it on and make sure that it's as fabulous as I think it is. So the next part of the video came out really blurry. And so I don't think you'll be able to see what I did, but you know what? This step isn't that difficult to understand. So I've just opened it up a bit so that you can see. So I've got the collar here and I put it right side together with the jacket. So I just sewed and then serged straight across the collar. But this is the bit I wanted to make sure you could see that the zipper gets folded back around the collar. Can you see that? The collar is just sandwiched in between the zipper and the front, like just in this fold and you sew right through it. And then when you flip out that corner, it just gives you such a nice little corner, like inside and out looks really nice and clean. And then I top stitch just beside the zipper and up and around. So that's what I've removed is the top stitch there at the top so that I could just show you that. And now I will replace the top stitch. I'm just connecting to where I left off with a tiny back tack. And so this toe of the presser foot is just hanging over the edge, kind of riding right on top of the zipper teeth. And I want to do a pivot. Once I pivot, I still want that toe of the presser foot hanging over the edge of this seam. And pivot again and still that toe hanging over the edge. And then connect to where I left off with a tiny back tack again. OK, so that corner of the collar just came out so nice. I'll give that a little bit of a press, but it hardly needs anything. That just worked out super great. Oh, my gosh. I could not love this more. OK, I'm in love. I'm in love. I just had to run upstairs and show my 22-year-old son. And he said, yeah, that's cool. So, yeah, I'm so happy with this jacket. And you know what? It just makes me like doubly in love with upcycling, because if I had wandered through that super cool garage sale in Manhattan and seen this garment hanging there for $8, if I didn't have sewing skills, if I wasn't into upcycling, I would just have to say that's cool for somebody else, right? But when you have those skills and just a little bit of confidence to cut into something, it just opens up the whole world of thrifting and garage selling. So I hope that you enjoyed this process watching me do this. I have loved this one so much. I I actually feel deeply moved at how much I love this jacket and how much where I know I'm going to get out of it. This is something I'm going to reach for going out for dinner. I'm going to a play in a couple of days with friends here in Vancouver. I'm going to wear this because it's just easy. It's just easy to throw on and feels amazing. And I think it looks incredible. So this is one of my favorites of all time. I hope that that pocket treatment works well for you. I think that's a really good adaptation of the original video, how I showed doing the pocket with one piece. This worked out to be a really nice way of taking that same super slick, easy technique, just sandwiching with another piece of fabric to create the same effect, but in a different kind of situation. So that was good. The collar. Oh my gosh. I kind of had been thinking, well, baseball collar. I don't know. And really like you just do the simple math and there it is. It just worked out a hundred percent. Like awesome. The zipper, no problem. And again, if you want more detail on doing that, using that steam a seam, which can be really helpful, then both the pocket and that hoodie video are going to be linked in the description below. So in just a little while, I've got a live call with my online sewing community. I can't wait to show this to them. They will love it. And if you want to join our community, just click that very first link in the description below. We'd love to have you join us. So until next time, I'm Katherine Selz, you take care.