Beat It Jacket

Well, I have always said I wanted to sew along with the Sew In Tune series (see the 2014 series wrap up here) but I've never had my act together at the right time to get a project done!  I might have to think about the next King of Pop outfit to sew for Christian..... because this was epic!

It all started about a year ago when Christian obsessed about playing the Michael Jackson Experience game on the Wii!  My mom had it over at her house and every time he spent the night with Mimi they would play the game.  "Beat It" became his favorite dance! 

Several times he would ask me if I would make him a "Beat It Jacket" and I always told him "yes", but I never was proactive about getting fabric and figuring out what I would do! 

Finally, I could tell that he really was serious and started obsessing a bit about what he wanted it to look like!  We started playing it at home through some youtube videos because our Wii doesn't work.  He developed his own ideas on what his jacket should, and should not have!

 Most importantly, NO ZIPPER!  I asked him if I could put snaps on it, but that was a no-no too.  He said it needed to be like a "vest with short sleeves!" (smart boy!) 

I showed him some pictures online of the real jacket (zipper details, etc.) and he specified that he wanted there to be 3 stripes on each side and white shoulders.

 

We went to the fabric store and I showed him several fabrics and he picked out the red vinyl tablecloth material!  I already had some white vinyl in my stash so I knew that I could use that for the shoulder detail and stripes!

 

So, like any mom that loves their child and knows how to sew.... I made his dream "Beat It Jacket!" 

I didn't want to draft anything since I have plenty of patterns that I could alter.  I ended up using the Blank Slate Prepster Pullover in a size 6. (Affiliate link.)

I cut the front in 2 pieces instead of on the fold.  I colorblocked the white shoulder with the red front by cutting the pattern piece at an angle and adding a seam allowance to join it together.  I didn't modify the collar at all - I remember from sewing the pattern HERE that the collar stood up pretty high - a perfect detail for this jacket!  And the short sleeve length of the pattern piece was perfect - I just folded it under once at 3/4" to hem.  The three stripes on each side are just topstitched on to the jacket front!

The biggest difference in the pattern and my version is that I used clear elastic to act as a facing.  It created a narrow hem and enclosed the seam allowance along the neck.  I hemmed the bottom of the jacket by just turning under 3/4."  Since it's vinyl there's no fray and I don't think it will be put in the washer.... I can just wipe it down with some wet paper towel! Ha!

As a bonus for reading my whole post, you can watch my sweet boy and his cool dance moves over on my Facebook Page!