I sewed myself a bomber jacket in the softest of fabrics, a teddy bear fleece. And I'm really happy with it!
This fabric is great for snuggly jumpers and bomber jackets.
Most bomber jacket patterns use a raglan sleeve but for this fabric I really wanted a pattern with a regular sleeve and a collar.
So I was delighted when I discovered the Frida from Fibremood as it ticked all the boxes.... except that it is not lined.
A lined jacket just looks so much better and it seems many other makers feel the same as most examples I've seen on Instagram have lining added.
It's not hard to line the Frida bomber jacket so I thought I'd show you how I did it:
1. The front bodice has two small rectangular extensions at the bottom. These are the 2 pieces of outer fabric that form part of the waistband. Cut these off, we'll recut these to add later.
2. Cut the front, back and sleeve pieces in your lining fabric (again without those bottom rectangles)
3. Follow the instructions of the Frida jacket, up to the point where you add the zipper. When adding lining, you'll need to assemble the jacket before you add the zipper.
4. Re-cut those rectangular front pieces in your main fabric that form part of the waistband. You'll need to add seam allowance. The easiest way to determine the sizes of these 2 pieces is to make them the exact same height as the waistband ribbing piece (flat, not folded), and the same width as the pieces you cut off.
5. Sew the 2 rectangles to each end of the waistband ribbing, right sides together. (The ribbing is not folded.)
6. Attach the ribbing to the bottom of the jacket, the ribbing remains unfolded.
7. Now you can attach the zipper, lining the bottom of the zipper to the middle of the waistband.
8. Attach the collar as per the instructions.
9. Create the lining by sewing the bodice pieces and sleeves together just like the outer jacket, except for leaving an opening in the side of about 12cm. (we'll need this to turn the whole jacket right side out at the end)
10. Because this pattern was designed without lining, it comes with a facing instead. You can choose to simply not use the facing and have only lining visible on the inside (this way you can make your jacket reversible). But I like the look of the facing and wanted to use it. To make it easy to attach the facing to the lining, I "cheated" and simply sewed the facing onto the lining fabric rather than trying to work out how to adjust the pattern pieces to remove that material. (the shoulder seams of the facing do not match the seams of the bodice so this was just an easier option.) So I first sewed the facing pieces together (2 front and 1 neck piece), then I folded over the inside raw edge using double sided sewing tape, placed the facing on top of the lining, ( all right sides facing up) and stitched that on onto the lining.
11. Turn the lining with wrong sides out and slip it over the jacket so right sides are together. This photo just shows how this looks before I lined everything up nicely. You may see the vertical stitch lines where I attached the facing to the lining.
12. Now pin the bottom of the waistband ribbing to the bottom of the lining, right sides together, so you'll have to pull down the lining to make the edges meet. This may seem a bit strange but this will all come together later. (The lining will pull the ribbing up and fold it in half once you turn the jacket right side out). Sew the waistband to the lining.
13. Now line up the neckline of the lining to the neckline of outer jacket and sew. Then do the same along the front of the bodice along the zipper. (You can do this in one motion but I prefer to do this in 2 steps) Use a zipper foot to attach is along the side of the zipper.
I've tried to illustrate what this looks like in this picture: the collar is sandwiched between the lining (with facing attached) and the outer jacket.
14. Clip the corners at the top of the zipper and then turn the jacket right sides out through that opening you left in the lining. Tuck the sleeves of the lining into the sleeves of the jacket. Now it all starts to come together! You can top stitch along the neck under the collar and along the zipper if you like.
15. To keep the waistband folded in half and everything nicely in place, stitch in the ditch along the top of the waistband through all the layers.
16. Attach the cuffs to the sleeves, making sure to sew through both the outer and lining fabric.
17. Close the opening in the lining. And you are done!
I hope you found this helpful!
Happy Sewing!
x
Maaike
Project Summary:
Pattern: Frida Jacket by Fibremood, size Medium
Fabric:
-150 cm of Teddy Bear fleece for the outer jacket.
- 150 cm of cotton jersey for the lining.
- 50cm of matching ribbing (cream).
Pattern adjustments: 4cm length added to bodices and facing. (I do this to most patterns, and this design is quite short)
