Recycled Denim Jacket – Part 2

In part 1 of the Recycled Denim Jacket I outlined how I cut out a jacket from three pairs of my husbands jeans, using Kwik Sew 2895 pattern.

In this second part I share how I constructed the jacket. Unfortunately, I forgot to take many in progress photos, so I’ll try to describe it as best as I can.

Jacket Seams

From the outset, I knew that I didn’t want to overlock any seams and wanted to use flat felled seams. But using true flat felled seams wouldn’t work due to two reasons:

1. When I previously made this jacket in an equally thick red cotton drill, the flat felled seams were really difficult to sew in the bulky chest pocket area.
2. Quite a few pieces in the jacket have extra seams due to how it had to be cut out from the jeans, and would make them extremely hard to sew through all those layers.

So I combined flat felled seams with Hong Kong bias bound seams, which uses strips of bias fabric to enclose the raw edges.

I already had some red print cotton cut into 3.5cm or 1 1/3″ wide bias strips and after a trial of using it for this seam it was deemed perfect.

My custom process to do this seam was:

1. Pin the right sides of the fabric together. Then pin the bias strip to this seam too. (I wanted to do this in one step, but you can do it in two steps if you like).
2. Sew with a 1.5cm or 5/8″ seam as used in this pattern.
3. Press seam.
4. Trim seam to 1cm or 3/8″.
5. Press the bias fabric towards the seam allowance.
6. Press the denim seam open, while keeping seam allowance to one side.
7. Tuck under the raw edge of the bias fabric behind the denim seam so it’s snug. Press.
8. From the right side, pin the tucked under bias so the pin is parallel to the seam.
9. Sew the first line of top stitching close to the fold.
10. Sew second line of top stitching 6mm or 1/4″ from first line of top stitching. This will catch the bias fabric underneath.

Chest Pockets

For the flap of the chest pockets I sewed the bottom edge of two back jean pockets together. The original stitching had been removed so I stitched along the previous stitching lines as close as possible.

For the pocket itself, one side is the thin white lining of a jean pocket, and the other is from denim. I used a French seam to join the two layers as I didn’t want to use the overlocker, and this was a good way of finishing off the seam.

The pocket was cut 3cm wider than the pattern piece and then constructed by:

1. Sew pocket lining to the front panel of the jacket, as per pattern.
2. Pin denim pocket to wrong side of pocket lining and sew a 6mm or 1/4″ seam. Press.
3. Turn pocket so right sides are together. Press.
4. Sew with a 1cm or 3/8″ seam.
5. Continue pattern instructions for sewing the chest pocket.

There wasn’t a lot of bulk to this seam because the white lining was so thin. I wouldn’t use a French seam if I was sewing two denim pieces together, as it would be way too thick.

Waist Pocket

I really wanted to utilise the jeans pockets as a waist pocket. This did require sewing a few denim pieces together to make the entire side panel piece.

I didn’t want to unpick the jean belt loop near the pocket as this was sewn on quite securely and I didn’t want to risk leaving a hole. I did unpick the top of the belt loop from the waist band and in fact it did make a hole, so I’m glad I left it for the bottom section. The top of the belt loop was sewn with a small zig zag stitch.

I love how I could also utilise the sizing of the jeans in the pocket lining.

Jacket Waistband

As mentioned in part 1, I used the waistband of two pairs of jeans, as one wasn’t enough. I wanted to keep the top stitching on the waistband edge, and if these were sewn together it would be very bulky, so I joined them together with a denim scrap.

This did look a bit odd, so what better use of the jean leather patch than to sew it over this join. I have placed it on the back right of the jacket, the same place where it was on the pair of jeans – great synchronicity.

Collar

The collar was made from joining the back pockets together, resulting in an interesting pattern. Two lines of top stitching were sewn to the edge for a classic denim jacket look.

Cuffs

The cuffs used the waistband of a pair of jeans and were constructed as per the pattern instructions.

Jacket Review

This was a really fun jacket to cut out and then construct. It challenged how I looked at three pairs of jeans and how to cut them out to utilise all the interesting jean details.

I’m not really sure on the dark chest pocket section. It says – “Look at my boobs!” But that’s what experimenting is all about.

I do like the waist pockets. They aren’t very big, but are suitable for a tissue or to keep my hands warm. And the chest pockets, even though functional, are for decoration purposes and I don’t think I’ll ever use them – they are included for that classic denim jacket look.

It is actually quite a warm jacket, so perfect for those few cold days I experience in South Australia.

Royal Adelaide Show Result

This jacket was entered into the 2024 Royal Adelaide Show in the dressmaking category “Garment or outfit featuring recycled material.” and I was happy to receive a second place.