After riding a motorcycle (Honda CB700 Nighthawk) for 10 years, I wanted to make a moto jacket. I wanted something more feminine than the vintage men’s leather jacket that I wore. Inspired by Karen Dolan of @intostitches makes, I chose StyleArc’s Ziggi Moto Jacket pattern.

I harvested white denim from a ten-year-old sofa cover as the main fabric for a practice version. The heavyweight of upholstery denim was a great approximation of the stiffness and weight of leather not only when you’re wearing it but as you wrestle the fabric through the machines. It looks so nice I wear it as a final garment! And it was selected for a show!

Look at those flirty zippered sleeves giving you a glimpse of the lining!

The Show

While my jacket was still a Work In Progress, I took it to a Bay Area Sewists Meetup where we shared our makes. Mine was a bit premature but we all had a good laugh anyway when @csews noticed the pins in my hem!

Kim Marinucci from Hidden Villa was there also. She suggested I submit my jacket for the upcoming HV Makers Fair focused on sustainability. Thankfully, it was selected for the show! Here it is alongside other makers’ work.

Construction Challenges and Learnings

Getting this jacket finished required me to learn things! Here are the main ones:

3-part sleeve

This 3-part sleeve was new. To construct, I aligned the notches on the top sleeve pattern pieces with the bottom sleeve pattern pieces and then did the same with the cut pieces. The stitch lines helped as well.

Quilting

The quilted shoulder yoke and upper sleeves give the jacket a yummy texture. But I had never quilted before.

I learned how to draw, transfer, and machine stitch a diagonal quilting pattern.

I did several experiments with the sandwich contents to determine how to create the right texture.

Core Couture’s post Ziggi Biker Jacket Tips also helped me with quilting insights for this jacket.

Keeping Track of Pattern Pieces

When I first made the lining, it was way too small. Wrongly assessing the cause, I made another bigger lining. Somehow I discovered I had omitted the lining shoulder yoke pieces. Once I added them to the original size, the lining fit.

In the future, I will double-check that I have all the pattern pieces before and after cutting.

Bagging the lining

I have already bagged one lining for the Jasika Blazer but getting the lining sewn into the sleeve zipper on the Ziggi was a brain twist. It required some maneuvers that are hard to convey in a photograph. I benefited greatly from TomKat Stitchery’s binder clip idea in Ziggi Moto Jacket Sew Along Part 7: Bagging the Lining and Finishing the Jacket. I highly recommend her series if you plan to make this jacket.

Offset Zipper

Although StyleArc’s drawing of the Ziggi shows offset front pockets, the pattern doesn’t include those offsets. Communing with Fabric’s tutorial on Near-Seam Zippered Pockets helped me construct these.

Sleeve Zipper Gusset

I created the pattern piece for a sleeve zipper gusset aided by Communing with Fabric’s tutorial Sleeve Hem with Zipper and Gusset and sewed it in. But, I decided to leave out the gusset for two reasons: I wanted the lining to show and the jacket was too warm. I needed some air con.

I’d love to hear about your experience making this jacket. Let me know in the comments!

How I Work

There is art not only in the things made but also in how we make them. There are two analog tools that I started using this year that have helped my making process.

Sewing Specific Project Planner

Pinterest is the place where people usually collect ideas. I print photos of those ideas and put them in my Garment Maker’s Project Planner purchased from Style Maker Fabrics along with the project steps, materials, and rough timeline. Everything is in one place.

Archive

When I finished the project, I archived all my pattern pieces, instructions, fabric scrap samples, and the extra lining in a Pattern Archive Storage Envelop purchased from Style Maker Fabrics. It’s a breadcrumb trail for when I make the next version.

I’d love to hear what helps you make things. Grab a comment and let me know what you think!

DETAILS

In case, you are interested in more construction details, here’s a list of everything I could think of. Enjoy!

Fabric

• Lining: Cotton lawn “Solstice” by Windham Fabrics, Style #51929L-X
• Outer: white denim harvested from sofa cover
• Sleeve zipper: Wawak YKK #5 6” brass jean zipper army green BZ56AG color 566
• Jacket zipper: Wawak YKK #10 20” brass jacket zipper army green BZ1020AG color 566
• Padding: 1 layer of cotton batting, 1 layer of hair canvas, 1 layer of polyfil (I think)

Pattern

• Ziggi Moto Jacket by StyleArc, size 10, no changes
• Printed by Needles in Los Altos, CA

Machines

• Singer Industrial Sewing Machine
• Brother Serger

Organization

• Garment Maker’s Project Planner by @stashbooks from StyleMakerFabrics SKU: 90609
• Pattern Archive storage envelope by @patterntrace from StyleMakerFabrics SKU: 90278