The next pattern we sewed up from Project Street Style is the Senpai Bomber Jacket. And to be totally honest, it’s the one we were dreading! But we had in mind the most epic look, and so sewing the Senpai Bomber Jacket was a must.
Now to be clear, the Senpai is not a difficult pattern…we’d suggest an intermediate sewist. But it’s not as fast and easy as the rest of the patterns in the Project Street Style collection. And normally we love a good challenge, but we were on a deadline and had plans for sewing up 12 (or was it 13?) garments for this collection! Nevertheless, we sewed the Senpai in one day (and added the snaps the next day) so it’s not really all that bad!
Let’s start with the back of this jacket. That glittery star is the part I’m the most pleased with. As a kid, I was tickled with hand drawn stars and spent hours drawing star after star! So it’s no coincidence that I included a hand drawn star in the digital design package that goes with Project Street Style. The hand drawn star on the back of this Senpai Bomber Jacket is made with Glitter Iron On vinyl.
The main fabric of this Senpai Bomber Jacket is french terry with stars on it. It follows the glitter-star-cool vibe of the jacket totally! (It’s sold out now, but here’s a similarly cool one!) This jacket can be made with stretch or non stretch fabrics, which really makes if versatile.
For the sleeves, we used some faux leather from our stash. It has a little bit of stretch, and brings just the right level of bad-biker-dude to this jacket. But seriously, what other little kid has a jacket this cool? You can’t see it, but this Senpai Bomber Jacket is fully lined with black super soft french terry fabric.
Ummm, yeah…total bad-biker-boy attitude going on here! The ribbing on the sleeves and hem is exactly what I was looking for a couple of years ago when I made this jacket. And this jacket. It’s the PERFECT ribbing for cuffs and hem bands on jackets. It is heavy weight and comes in a tubular form. If you’re sewing jackets, you need this. Find it at CaliFabrics in both black and tan.
Are you ready for the bloopers reel on the Senpai Bomber Jacket? Maybe because I was in a hurry, this one had quite a few mistakes. First of all, I decided to add an inch in length, but didn’t lower the welt pockets an inch also, and they look funny to me. Do they to you? Next, I feel like the hem where the band meets the jacket is wavy even though I steamed it like crazy! In retrospect, this extra heavyweight ribbing is probably better suited to a non stretch fabric instead of french terry with stretch. And speaking of steaming it like crazy, when I was steaming the collar (also made with that extra heavyweight ribbing) I accidentally bumped the faux leather sleeve, and melted a patch!!! (Black shoe polish to the rescue, but it’s there. Invisible, but there.) And finally, those sleeves ended up being just a little too long for Lowell, my 5 year old (who I’d intended the jacket to be for) and the faux leather is a little stiff, so it just didn’t look great. Originally I didn’t intend for David, my 8 year old, to be in the pictures at all, but the jacket fit him so much better than his younger brother that we changed up plans at the last minute! It was a good think I hadn’t sewn up all the remaining fabric yet, but more on that to come.
Oh well, all’s well that ends well, right? And Lowell will get to wear it eventually.
Can’t get enough of Project Street Style?
Buy the whole Project Street Style Collection here.
Enter the Project Street Style lookbook here.
Read our review of the Stoplight Skirt here.
Read our review of the Indigo Dress here.
Read our review of the City Lights Cape here.
Skirt Fixation 