Black Leather Rocker Jacket!

This is one summit-climax kind of project, haha! I have the feeling of having conquered the seamstress top of the pops! And I also finally have the rocker jacket I've always wanted to have. Pity I am a bit old now, but this has required quite a bit of learning!

One of the reasons I am proud is the method I got this pattern. I used an old red leather jacket of mine that was just perfect. Following the rub-off method, I copied all the pieces of the jacket.

 

I did a toile with felt to check the sleeve, becouse having measured the armscye and seeing they were just the same, I used the sleeve of my Chanel Jacket Pattern.

 I proceeded then to draw the pieces in the wrong side of the skins, and cutting it with an exact 2cm seam allowance all around, since I'd be using it as a sewing reference all along. That is why I used a marker to cut them as accurately as possible.

 

After applying jersey fusible interfacing all along the bottom, the front panels and the front facings, I started by assembling the back. I sewed some seams following this technique I saw online, specially the curved ones, and some others, like the straight center back seam, I stitched with the right sides together, hammered the allowances first open, and then to the side, and topstitching them with the machine. I was very pleased with the result of the double stitching.

After attaching both sides of the zip, I proceeded with the pocket openings, zips, and bags.

 

I used textile glue, double sided tape and paper tape, to hold allowances open, and putting pieces together.

This is the completed torso. I tried the thing on at every step, and I was feeling more confident with the pattern and with my technique to sew leather. It looked so nice!!

 

I made the collar, ensembled it to the bodice, and stitched and topstitched the front facings. For the zip side, I practiced using tape with a bit of leather, and it turned out OK!

 

I put the lining pieces together, sewed it to the bottom first (which I turned, glued, and topstitched afterwads), and to the front facing pieces after. I put it on the mannequin, and used double sided tape to hold it in place over the facings before machine-sewing it.

Then I made the sleeves, with their zips and lining.  I applied interfacing to the bottoms as well.

 

I put the sleeve caps around the armscyes, using small metal claps to hold it together before machine stitching it. 

 

For the bottom and armscyes' topstitching, I accepted my neighbour Delfina's offering to use her industrial machine for leather, because my Bernina (in a little disappointing note) is not reliable with more than 4 layers.

 

I polished all the threads, passing them to the wrong side, knotting and burning them together.

I stitched the bodice and the sleeves lining at the armscyes by hand.

 

After finishing it, I sprayed it with a product to make it less porous. The next day, I applied some animal grease onto it as well.

 

The jacket is amazing, good looking and very comfortable to wear.

 

Leather Jacket Reconstruction

Carlos with his biker jacket in 1999 (Dinamo Open Air Festival). It was too baggy, sleeves too roomy and caps too low.

 




My love has had this jacket for more than 25 years. It was custom made when he was an adolescent, and he has been complaining about it since.

He never liked its excess of ease and its dropped shoulder seams.We even took it to a leather tailor to ask for a repair, but he told us it was impossible to repair.

The Ramones made the biker jacket popular in the rock and punk scene in the US.

With time, I've been learning how to work with leather. Read some books, done Don Morin's Craftsy course, and finally I felt ready and up to the task.
Fortunately Carlos has another old leather jacket, also a biker version, that I could use as a model.
I approached the beast by three different areas.

The jacket repaired, narrower body and sleeves, attached at shoulder points.

First, sleeves. I took the sleeve-caps zipper off, and unstitched the lining. I elongated the sleeve length at the bottom and reduced their width along both seams, to the same measure of the model. 

 
When sewing leather, seams have to be hammered open and glued. I restitched the lining, reducing it the same as the sleeve, and finally I stitched the zipper again at the top.
The second area to remodel was the side seams. After some calculation, I reduced both sides to replicate the model. First I had to remove armscyes' zippers, unstitch the lining and the waist piece. After redoing the side seams, stitch it all up again, not without trying it on and fitting it properly.
The final and most complicated problem were the armscyes themselves. For these, no even the model jacket was right, they were also too low. 

Classic leather biker jacket has set in sleeves at shoulder points, so I had to set them way way up. 
The first scye took me five attempts to finally nail it. Zippers were of aid, because I could pin them (not without stabbing myself with needles several times, ouch ouch!!) for fitting. The second scye was a simple replica to the first.

I am very glad with the result. Karlos complains of wrinkles in the wrong places, he says it feels 80% good. Very useful as a fitting person for me (and the BEST boyfriend EVER), he sees even the smallest flaw, but in this case, he is verging on mania. After he wore it this weekend though, he was happier with it, I think we are more than 90% good now!