ME -Jacket

Takki

Inspiration

The inspiration for this jacket came from one of the three Mass Effect -games. Specifically the third, which I just finished. :)
I quite like the look of the uniforms the Alliance people are wearing in ME3, especially the cut. So I figured I could use that to make a jacket for myself.

Screenshots of my Commander Shepard in ME3.

Sketch.

Materials

I had about 1m of the blue fabric left over from making the blue dress (bought the end of the bolt, plus I needed less fabric than in the instructions). It is a nice color and feel and since it doesn't stretch, it should work in a jacket too. To go with that I found a grey cotton fabric with a bit different texture (another end of the bolt, can do another project with it), but roughly the same weight. And some black corded piping to go between them as an accent. :)

Fabrics.

Puzzle

Since I've never made anything with this sort of a side cut, I went searching for a pattern I could use. Not enough skill to figure out how to make this from the top pattern I used in the blue dress. :)

I found a suitable pattern from Burda style: Cropped Jacket. It has the cut I want and is very short. I plan to add a strip of blue to the bottom.

I bought the pattern online and ended up with a pdf. I printed all 20 A4 pages and noticed the test square wasn't the right size because I didn't turn off scaling before printing. So I printed all the pages again. x) After that I was left with a puzzle: putting together those pages to form the pattern sheet. Tracing the pattern was easier than usual, since the sheet only has the jacket (two versions with minor differences) and nothing else.

Sewing

First thing to sew was putting together the grey side pieces to the blue center pieces of front and back. I have to say sewing the corded piping is a pain in the ass, but well worth the trouble. I tested pinning the pieces together both with and without the piping and the difference was clear: the piping brings a nice detail and accents both the colours. I basted the piping twice, first to the grey piece and then again adding the blue fabric too. Took some time, but this way it stayed nicely in place while I did the actual sewing.

Later while sewing the collars which also have some of the corded piping, I found an even better way to sew it: just pin it on the right side of one of the fabrics, sew right at the seam which keeps the cord inside. Add the other fabric, leaving the piping inbetween and sew from the reverse side along the seamline that was just sewn.

Another thing I remembered is that attaching the sleeves is a serious PITA! I had to try 4 times before I was satisfied with one sleeve. The other one only took one go...

For the front flap and the edges of the shoulder part, I used a thin black bias binding. I didn't have enough of the corded piping to use that there, plus I wanted the edges to be thinner.

The finished jacket looks very much like a uniform. A Starfury pilot's uniform from Babylon 5 according to Late... At least the genre is correct! I would have hoped for a bit more modern look than mid 90ies, but guess the scifi military fashion hasn't changed all that much. x)

I fail at taking pictures... :P

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