Getting ever closer to my dream jacket! I have a beloved Carhartt jacket that is wearing out, and current Carhartt offerings don't hit all of the points that I appreciate about this jacket, so attempting to recreate it. This journey started a year ago with this jacket which I still love and wear all the time. My new version is also based on the Avelia Bomber Jacket , with some additional modifications. I do not have enough sewing experience to just *know* what order of assembly makes sense, so I spent a lot of time on this project trying to mentally work through the the process to make sure I wasn't going to be painting myself into a corner. The zipper and hood installation, in particular, I suspect I did in a sub-optimal order. I made so many modifications and additions to the original pattern, I didn't have a single source of truth to rely on. It all seems simple enough *now*, looking at the finished jacket from the outside. But when putting it all together, all I could see was poly batting and underlining. I added a hood using a free pattern from Sew a Little Seam. I'm very happy with the shape and size of the hood (it works equally well whether my hair is down or up in a ponytail!). I do think the point where the center back of the hood joins the top of the jacket looks a little awkward. But honestly I rarely use the hood on my jackets so 90% of the time that awkwardness will be invisible. Wind-resistant underlining: Hoping to make the jacket a little wind-resistant, I added an underlining of very thin ripstop nylon membrane. This was a pain to work with, very staticky, sticking to my hands and shears, and the frayed edges produced super fine Halloween cobweb type fibers that ended up everywhere. It was perhaps a foolhardy idea to wed the nylon to the cotton canvas, because then I couldn't blithely use high heat when ironing. The nylon seemed to shrink up a bit in response to the heat. Nothing got ruined, but I was on edge about it. If I were to do it over, I might use the ripstop nylon as an underlining for the lining instead of the main fabric. Welt pockets: The Avelia pattern doesn't have any pockets, which is a non-starter for me. For the version I made last winter, I added in-seam pockets, which are pretty good although since I made the opening go almost all the way down to the waistband, stuff tends to fall out of the pockets. Also, pocket openings at the side seam puts them a bit farther back than I think would be optimal for my comfort. I debated doing kangaroo pockets on my new version, but was worried about my sewing machine handling the added bulk at the zipper. So I settled on welt pockets, and then didn't touch the project at all for two weeks because I was so intimidated by them. I'm really happy with how they turned out though! This is the tutorial I relied on. Interior zip pocket, using this tutorial . This pocket is big enough to hold my phone. In some situations (vigorous motorboats, rollercoasters...) I want to be able to really secure my stuff and know that it won't fall out. Adjustments: I did a broad shoulder or broad back adjustment (the pattern is put away now and I can't remember). I added a forward shoulder adjustment, which went smoothly. I wanted more spaciousness in the armpit area so I used the armscye from the next size up, and graded the sleeve from the larger size at the shoulder to the smaller size at the wrists. This didn't have as much of an effect as I'd hoped. The jacket is fine for wearing over a light layer, but a heavy sweater makes it feel too bunched up in my armpits. I don't feel very confident about drafting my own sleeves and armscyes so I think I'll just have to wait until my favorite jacket wears out, so that I can disassemble it and make pattern pieces. I added a bit of length to the torso, which I think was unnecessary. Bi-swing action back shoulder gussets. I'm super *duper* excited about these. Learning about this feature took off some of the pressure of determining the perfect combination of shoulder/back adjustments. There is a strip of elastic connecting the left gusset to the right one, so they tuck themselves back into place when I bring my shoulders back. I did not find a ton of information about adding this feature to a pattern, so I want to include several sources here as breadcrumbs for the next person to go down this path. These two pages were the ones most often mentioned: https://artisanry.blogspot.com/2017/02/motorcycle-jacket-accordion-gusset.html https://www.threadsmagazine.com/2016/06/22/how-to-draft-an-action-back-pattern-piece But actually this YouTube video was the most helpful. I don't even remember how I found it but it was circuitous. I think he calls the gussets "shoulder vents." The only guidance I could find on how to create ease in the lining to complement the main fabric gussets was this Reddit post , so I ran with that idea and added a pleat to each shoulder. That worked well. Fabric: Big Sur canvas for the main fabric. Ripstop nylon membrane for the underlining. Quilted nylon with polyester batting for the lining. More on reddit.com

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I'm sure many of you might recognise this jacket or are familiar with Guess products and similar garments from the time. This is a 1984 Guess denim jacket as seen worn, most famously by Marty Mcfly in Back to the Future. More on reddit.com

The inside. More on reddit.com