I have never been on the jean jacket train because I have never owned a jean jacket that I loved. I had a couple of RTW ones when I was younger, but they were either gigantic on me or too short or the sleeves were too long (I am almost positive that I owned a severely cropped denim jacket in college whose hem ended at my ribs and no, I’m not proud of it). In the 90’s and early 2000’s the bulk of denim jackets in RTW seemed to be variations on a theme instead of just, you know, THE ACTUAL THEME, so I never had much of a connection to them. Now fast forward a couple of decades to today, where one of the few remaining RTW items in my closet is a black and white bomber jacket that I bought from Penguin a few years ago. It has a big felt P emblazoned on one side (which I love because that’s the first letter of my actual last name), and the fit is just PERFECTION. It’s the perfect length, hitting right above the curves of my hips and butt so you can see my figure, but it has enough structure in the shoulders to give my silhouette a really nice overall proportion. The sleeves are made of a white and black knit fabric which contrasts well with the stiffness of the jacket’s body, so I can push them up to my elbows, giving the whole look a bit of softness and comfort that is sometimes hard to find in a well made casual jacket. The jacket looks amazing with jeans, skirts and dresses, and it is a staple of my fall/winter wardrobe in LA. My only wish has been that I had another one in a different color and textile. The black can look a little heavy with certain outfits, weighing down pastels, which my closet is full of. It can also be a little too warm to pair with early spring/summer outfits that call for a little extra coverage on top. In short, I have needed another jacket for quite a while that is almost a replica of my beloved bomber jacket but with some tweaks.
Enter The Hampton Jacket by Alina Design Co.
Once I realized that a denim jacket would be the answer to the big gap in my wardrobe, I started googling patterns and this is one of the first ones that popped up. I was also introduced to a jean jacket pattern by Style Arc, but ultimately I chose the Hampton because 1. it seemed to have concise instructions and a thorough sew-along posted on their blog while Style Arc, from what I read from pattern reviews, has very sparse directions, more in line with Burda and 2. the completed Hampton jackets seemed to have a tighter, less boxy fit than the Style Arc patterns I saw online. I wasn’t planning on wearing my jean jacket layered over bulky sweaters so a slimmer fit would work best for me.
Alina Design Co. posted a terrific tutorial on how to bleach and distress denim to get a very worn-in look for your jacket, which I found fascinating. I had never bleached denim before and there were lot’s of interesting things I learned, like how bleaching stretch denim doesn’t look super great because the lycra threads in the fabric turn orange, and how much of the color change from bleaching happens in the first hour of the soak. Ultimately I was not all that interested in bleaching the denim myself, but I LOVED learning more about the process. I went the much easier route, which was to buy a denim that was bleached already. At The Fabric Store in LA, they had a bolt of bleached-denim that was such a perfect shade of faded blue jean that I’m not even sure if I could have replicated the effect on my own. What’s even better is that the denim, while a solid medium-weight, is still super soft, and it folded and scrunched up in my hand easily without crunching like cardboard, the way some brand new stiff denims will. I liked that using this denim would take out a lot of the grunt work from bleaching and distressing (you are advised to wash your jean jacket at least 3 times after construction to soften it up, but I didn’t need to- I only washed mine once to remove all the extra distressed denim fibers that were still clinging to the jacket).
In all honesty, I can’t tell you if the instructions for this pattern are good because I followed the sew along and only glanced back at the instructions to double check which pattern pieces I was using, which is the only issue I had with making it. There are a LOOOOT of pattern pieces for this little jacket (I think they were labeled A-S?) and the sewalong referred to them only by name instead of by the letter it coordinated with (‘front side panel’ instead of ‘piece D’), which got confusing for me pretty quickly. This is a small concern to be sure and I might be the only person who got confused by this, so this is just a tip for any of you who might have the same issue- keep your instruction booklet/window open to cross reference the pattern pieces if you are following the sewalong. Other than that, I thought the sewalong was terrific so I can only assume that the instructions are clear and concise as well. I only follow sewalongs for pattern designs that I have never tried before, like jeans or complicated bags, because the photos are usually clearer than the illustrated line drawings included in the instructions.
As far as sizing, I tried to model it off the measurements of my beloved bomber jacket. I wanted it to have the same overall length, but more importantly, I wanted the sleeves to actually fit me- shortening sleeves is probably my most frequent adjustment. I took out about an inch in the body to match up with the length of my bomber jacket, and I took about the same amount from the sleeve length, if not a titch more.
I made this jacket over a period of three days off and on, and the construction was a breeze- it starts coming together fairly quickly, which feels very satisfying. The most time consuming parts are the distressing (if you are doing it) and the flat fell seams, and they have to be done in that order (distress, then sew) at each part of the construction process so that you don’t end up ruining your topstitching. Based on the tutorial provided in the sew along, I used two methods of sanding to distress the denim: some I did with a Dremel tool and some I did with 150 grit sandpaper. I liked the Dremel for sanding the corners and the edges of the flat felled seams because it was easy to navigate a smaller surface area with the tool. But for getting worn-looking patches on the overall fabric, the 150 grit sandpaper did the job great, and I alternated the direction of my sanding so that it wouldn’t look too precise. Since my fabric was already bleached, the distressing was a breeze and I had less distance to travel between the light blue of the denim and white patchy areas I was going for.
I also followed the suggested advice of using double sided wash-away tape to hold down my flat felled seams right before I topstitched them- this was helpful to keep everything in place while topstitching, but it also allows you to distress the edges of the seams while they are in the proper place without, as mentioned before, ruining the topstitching thread. I had a bit of trouble doing the keyhole buttonhole shapes with my topstitching thread, not sure why, so about halfway through I switched to regular rectangular shapes and you can’t tell at all. I used buttonhole glue, or whatever it’s called, to put on the back of my buttonholes to keep them nice and sharp and safe from unraveling, used a big back of jeans buttons that I got for like $5 at a store downtown that the lovely and always helpful Beth of SewDIY recommended to me, and I was set!
I COULD NOT BE MORE IN LOVE WITH THIS JACKET, Y’ALL. The fit is so spot on for everything I wanted and needed in a lightweight jacket. The sleeves are the perfect length, and the denim is soft enough that I can roll them up easily and not feel like my elbows are weighted down with fabric. The length of the overall jacket is perfect, too- it hits right at the top of my butt/bottom of my back, which is very comfortable for me. It’s a little too short for wearing long shirts underneath because it changes the proportions in a way that is not appealing to me, but I’m fine with that because I am rarely an untucked shirt kind of girl. So far it pairs well with fitted trousers, dresses, and skirts: YOU NAME IT!!!! (greens, beans, potatoes, lamb, ram, ham!) I put this make in my fall/winter queue because it’s a jacket and that makes sense, but you BEST BELIEVE this thing is gonna follow me into the spring and summer- LA summers are certainly not mild enough to merit needing a jacket all the time, but most buildings are always air conditioned and therefore FREEZING and I never want to lug around a full on sweater with me on hot days, so I usually just suffer til I’m outside again. This jacket is the PERFECT accessory for keeping warm but not burning up- I can’t tell you how good it looks with summer dresses! Very, very happy with how it came out, and I enjoyed the process all the way through! If you have made jeans before, this pattern will be a CINCH to get through- but even if you haven’t, you’ll probably want to try a pair after you complete this piece of art!
Lastly, I just want to give a shout out to Claire who took these pictures for me since I was too sick and tired of doing my normal backdrop photos. I needed to mix it up a bit and I love how these came out, although I think it’s apparent how uncomfortable I am taking photos in public spaces lol! I can be surrounded by a film crew and have no problem posing for the camera, but as soon as you take me out of the realm of “work” and make it just me in the middle of the street, I would rather melt into a puddle and evaporate into the desert air than model me-made garments in front of curious eyes. Sigh. I’m working on it. Also, this is the Fumeterre skirt paired with my favorite Archer shirt by Grainline Studios.
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