A Quilted Bomber Jacket

 Hello Readers. I made a bomber jacket from what I would call a "Grandma in Boca Raton" jacket. (If you have ever lived in south Florida, you know what I am saying!) Anyway. This jacket was light weight and I like the blue and white color scheme. And the quilting looked really good.

  Bomber jacket.

I forgot to take a before picture! What was I thinking??? This little jacket had no front closures, no pockets, no waistband, and no cuffs. I thought that would make it easy to transform this jacket because there was nothing in my way. Look at the quilting, it was nicely done.

I accidentally bought one gigantic piece of navy blue ribbing and I had to cut strips and make my own cuffs, waistband and collar. This is the collar piece right here. Measuring, cutting and ironing it myself took extra time but it wasn't difficult. 

I stitched the waistband on first. I think the navy blue color makes those big flowers really pop.

The next step was to add the wrist cuffs. 

I cut the original collar off and added the new navy blue collar piece. 

When I added all these pieces I used my serger so that it would keep the ribbing from fraying all over the place. It was a mess and there is navy blue lint all over my sewing room. Was this easy to sew using the serger? No. Was it a pain in the &$$%? Yes. The thread kept breaking and I had to re-thread the serger at least a dozen times. The needles broke a few times too. I do not know why this was so difficult to sew through. I even stopped to oil the whole machine. I got it done but the inside seams are not my best and I am never doing this again!

The last step was the zipper. I waited for this to arrive from Amazon because I really wanted a navy blue zipper to go with the navy blue ribbing I had already added to the jacket. The zipper wasn't that easy to sew on either. I was using a different sewing machine and a straight stitch at this point. My needle broke and it was difficult to get my bobbin tension correct. I still don't know why it was giving me so much trouble. Maybe the fluff of the jacket was unusually tough to sew through? I have no idea. I got the zipper in and top stitched every seam so they would lay as flat and smooth as possible. 

I really did like how it looked though. It is just a smidge big on me but that was perfect because it was actually for my daughter. She is taller than I am so this jacket will be a great length on her. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

***Year End Update- My daughter still likes and wears this jacket and is glad I made it for her.