Moto Bike Jacket: part one

It's time: The mystery project is a mystery no more. I'm making a custom jacket for riding my bike. It's going to be moto-styled with some amazing seaming around the ribs for shaping. It's been my main project in my pattern making class and is definitely the most complicated thing I've ever made.

Inspiration pic and pattern front

Above you can see the inspiration photo. The inspiration is a leather moto-jacket with an asymmetrical zipper, and hood with wide neck. I will be making my version out of an olive green, waterproof, breathable fabric that is designed for outdoor use. The pattern piece on the right of the photo shows the seaming I put in place instead of a bust dart. This will look like a quilted patch over the ribs and will wrap into the back princess seam.

Close-up of seaming

This was intimidating before I got into it, but once I knew to hinge along the princess seam, it was simple. The bust dart is split equally into the four seams, then the darts are folded closed to redraw the side seam lines. I used my waist marking as a cardinal point to make sure the shaping seams would line up when I sew them. It's really important to me that it looks like continuous seams wrapping around the ribs.

Lower sleeve

The sleeve will be in three pieces: the outer sleeve, and the inner sleeve with a chevron quilted lower portion of the inner sleeve. For practice and fun (I know, I know) I decided to draft the lower sleeve portion to be seamed as a piece, instead of just cutting the rectangle out of pre-quilted fabric pieces. When it comes to final construction, I will be pre-quilting fabric and cutting the simple shape instead of making all those seams. You can see why, the pattern piece is incredibly complicated, and I want the chevron to line up perfectly.

Moto jacket full pattern

You can see the full pattern above, it's just a first draft. I'll be making a muslin to check fit and make sure all my seams line up. I'll post updates on the fit and second pattern steps with changes.