My husband and I enjoy music, a lot. We frequently go to concerts, and at the shows we go to we see a lot of the attendees wearing the grungy, patched up jean jackets. We deemed them the “cool guy jackets,” and promptly made fun of them. Until we realized, they’re actually pretty neat and kinda cool. It was only halfway through this project that I realized these jackets have an actual name, following, and even a subreddit. They’re called battle jackets.
We kept coming across jackets in store that could easily become “cool,” but ultimately Ian wanted something really dark green. A little more distinct, and more him. So I set off to find the perfect denim.
I bought this spruce green denim, but it wasn’t as dark as he wanted. I treated it to a little dark green Rit dye bath, and we were there. The pattern is a Mimi G Style Simplicity pattern. It has a lot of pieces, but it came together nicely. It helped that the medium fit Ian like a glove, right out of the envelope.
I started to do flat fell seaming, but struggled. I couldn’t manage to tuck the flat fell in nicely, and ended up struggling more than I wanted to. Instead, I finished all my seams with a cheating flat fell, aka serging them together and top stitching down like a flat fell. Still looks great and lends support to the seams, but much easier and faster.
I am so damn proud of the welt pockets. The last time I attempted a welt pocket was 6 years ago, and it didn’t end up welt-y. It was ragged, finished poorly, distorted, and hardly function. But look at this beauty! Top stitched, neat, and even. It’s in attempting sewing techniques like these that I see how much my sewing has improved.
The final touch that makes the jacket for me are the buttons. I found these on Amazon for quite cheap, but the little skull on them is perfect for this garment.
I’m so happy with this jacket. Here’s to seeing what patches Ian adds to make it his own!