Today I have that quilted jacket tutorial I promised when sharing our makes for the Project Run & Play Pantone Party. This tutorial can be used in general to make any quilted jacket. Specifically, I made an English paper pieced quilted moto jacket for my daughter.
Quilted Jacket Tutorial step 1: Make a mini “quilt”
First comes the quilting! And with all quilting, there’s some math involved… You need to make a “quilt” that is an inch or two bigger than the length and width of each pattern piece. In the next photo, you can see that I have laid the front pattern piece over the fabric and cut around it in the same general shape, adding about 1 inch on every side.
I chose to use a paper pieced Goose Chase pattern centered on the back and just “plain” quilted fabric for the rest of the jacket body plus knit for the sleeves and collar. That means for the back a created a square quilt and then cut the back pattern piece from it later.
Quilted Jacket Tutorial step 2: Pressing and Batting
Once the mini “quilts” are created, press them really well. Then cut a piece of batting the same size (or 1-2 inches larger) as each mini quilt. (In the photo at the end of Step 1 you can see the batting underneath.) Pin each mini quilt and the batting together all over so they stay together while quilting.
Quilted Jacket Tutorial step 3: Quilting
Next comes the actual quilting part! Choose a pattern you want to use, and attach the mini quilt and the batting together. I chose to do a straight line quilting pattern about every 1 inch both horizontally and vertically across the fabric. I also chose to stop before crossing the yellow goose triangles so they could stand out even more.
Quilted Jacket Tutorial step 4: Resizing
Once the mini “quilt” and the batting are attached together by quilting, recut the pattern pieces to the right size. Above you can see I am cutting the back pattern piece from the square mini quilt. For the front and sleeve pieces, I once again laid the pattern piece over the mini quilt and cut off the extra 1 inch I had originally allowed. When you do this, you’ll discover just how much quilting in this way both shrinks AND stretches the fabric all out of it’s original shape, and you’ll be really thankful you used this method instead of cutting the pattern pieces to the right size originally.
Quilted Jacket Tutorial step 5: Jacket Construction
Now that the pattern pieces are quilted and cut back to the right size, go ahead and construct the jacket following the instructions. If the jacket is unlined, you will need to finish the inner seams in some manner. One of the nicest ways is to use a Hong Kong finish. If the jacket is lined, proceed to the next step.
Quilted Jacket Tutorial step 6: Lining
A lined jacket will enclose the underside of the quilted fabric and add an extra layer of warmth. The lining will need to be closed somewhere after attaching the lining and turning the jacket right sides out. Usually this is along the bottom hem when you topstitch or inside one or both of the armscye. The jacket we made used this second method and the seams are enclosed in bias tape, created such a clean finish on the inside.
Quilted moto jacket resources:
Moto Jacket pattern from the Project Run & Play shop
Magnolia Zest fabric for the lining
Main jacket fabric is Art Gallery Fabric Charcoal Powder denim
Jacket sleeves are Tin Tint knit fabric
On the back: paper pieced Goose Chase pattern from Jeliquilts in Art Gallery Fabrics Canary cotton fabric
Special thanks to Kalli June Photography for the breathtaking photos of my daughter in this post.
Affiliate links are used in this post to items we use, love and highly recommend! If you click on one of our affiliate links, we might make a few pennies at no extra cost to you! Thanks for supporting our small sewing business.
Skirt Fixation 