Jacket Tutorial, part 2 - Quilting

For all quilted portions of the jacket, you will need your walking/quilting foot and quilting needles. 

A universal foot will not work well for this; a sewing machine only has feed dogs (the things on the sewing plate, beneath the foot, that pull the fabric forward as you sew) on the bottom, so the uppermost layers of fabric will move at a slower speed than the bottom ones, and by the time you reach the end of the quilt line, your pieces will have slid slightly, no matter how well you pin them. 

(It's like trying to eat a burger while only holding the bottom half of the bun; you might get some of the top half in each bite, but it'll probably keep sliding back as you eat.)

Try it if you don't believe us! You'll just be like ... 

The pattern pieces to be quilted are the two front yokes (piece D), the back yoke (piece E), the two shoulder points (piece J), and the two bib pieces (piece B). 

To start, you should have three cuts for each pattern piece: shell (wool elastique/cavalry twill), batting, and backing (we recommend using the jacket body fabric - wool gabardine or cotton twill). 

Using your disappearing ink fabric marker, copy the quilt lines exactly from the printed pattern onto your backing fabric. They are precisely ¾" apart, so an easy way to do this is to mark the top and bottom of each piece then use a see-through quilter's ruler to mark them and ensure they're exactly parallel. 

We highly recommend reducing bulk in by cutting out the batting and backing in seam allowance of the following key areas:

* the bottom ¾" of the front and back yokes

* ½" at the upper and lower corners of the armscye on the front yokes, back yoke, and shoulder points

* ⅝" at the front yoke/bib seam

* ⅜" to ½" at the yoke/bib and collar seam allowances on the front yokes, back yokes, and bib pieces

* ⅜ at the bib's shoulder seam

Where the seam allowance is ⅜", we generally recommend reducing the bulk by ⅜", plus the height of your quilted assembly (for "turn of cloth") - ⅛" should be sufficient, resulting in a bulk reduction of about ½" in the aforementioned areas. 

We'll use a shoulder point (piece J) as a demonstration of this process.

We recommend marking the bulk-reducing area(s) on your backing pieces in addition to the quilt lines.

Stack the three layers of each piece on top of each other: shell, right side up, batting, and backing (so that the batting is sandwiched in the middle).

We highly recommend spraying some temporary fabric adhesive between the layers; even with pinning and the use of a walking foot, the layers can still slide around a bit, causing unsightly puckering and/or misalignment.

Once the layers are loosely secured together, cut away the backing and backing at the aforementioned areas as described above.

Pin the layers together, then baste the perimeter of the assembly ⅛" or ¼" from the outside edges to further secure them. 

Using your quilting/walking foot (and white thread), quilt along the lines indicated from the wrong side.

If you're using rib-knit as a substitute shell fabric for the yoke and/or bib, the seam allowances where you cut away the batting and backing may stretch somewhat while quilting. 

If you find this is the case, simply use a ruler or seam gauge to measure the seam allowance and cut it back down to the correct size.

Note that the shoulder point seam allowance above stretched past the original ¾"; we simply used our ruler to mark lower edges (measured from the bottom of the batting and backing).

Serge the armscye (upper, rounded) edge of the shoulder point.

The process is more or less the same for the other quilted pattern pieces; here is what the underside of the front yoke (piece D) looks like with the bulk reduced:

We also recommend cutting out some additional bulk in the lower corner of the armscye (in addition to the yoke/body seam allowances); about ½" square will do nicely.

The underside of the bib (piece B) should look like this at the top:

And the underside of the back yoke (piece E) should look like this:

TIP: The back yoke, and particularly the bib, will likely contract somewhat while quilting due to the compound effect of slightly curved quilt lines - i.e. the flat fabric curves slightly over the batting between the stitch lines, thus ultimately making the piece too small from one end to the other. The cumulative effect over the course of quilting these longer/wider pieces is that the finished piece is too short! 

You can easily observe this unfortunate effect below, with one of our earliest bib experiments: 

This might not seem like a huge deal - what's a half inch to an inch or so, right? - but aside from being inaccurate (as the bib quilt lines appear to be closer than ½") the contractions develop into several, more serious issues later.

Contractions? This is not a good time. 

First, it will not properly fit the jacket body and front yoke when attached later, nor will the front yoke/body seam properly align with the indicated quilt line. 

It will also be even more problematic if the left and right bib pieces contract at different rates and thus do not match each other in length or even general symmetry; the horizontal quilt lines should meet each other in the middle! 

Compare the quilt lines of our original formal jacket to those of our first muslin prototype test:

Furthermore, since the difference is likely to be most noticed (and detrimental) at the top, it will adversely affect the placement and attaching of the collar - almost a full inch too low in our first muslin prototype test! 

Many things about this are not good. 

To compensate for the "shrinkage," we offer the following tip, to be employed in this order as needed: 

First, as you quilt, keep a firm hold on each side of the bib and pull the two ends away from each other. This will minimize the amount of puckering between quilt lines.

Second, we recommend quilting every other, or perhaps even every third, quilt line, then going back and "filling them in later."

Third, a small strip of fusible interfacing - say, ⅜" - added to the long edges of the backing (center front edges of the bib, bottom edge of the back yoke) before quilting may help the piece remain more stable. 

Fourth, when it comes time to attach the bib assembly to the jacket's front yoke/body assembly, stretch the bib vertically as needed so it aligns properly at the points indicated on the printed pattern (yoke/body seam and bib bottom), then pin thoroughly. The bib/body seam will stabilize the outer edge of the bib to prevent contraction. 

Fifth, stretching the bib vertically as needed later whilst attaching the zipper trim helps a bit. 

Sixth, and lastly, a thin strip of fusible interfacing on the back of said zipper trim (or even interfacing the whole zipper trim, though we don't recommend it) will also help stabilize and maintain the bib's proper length. 

We've found that the first two tips above were all that was required to produce a properly-sized bib and back yoke, but the other tips above may also be used as needed to compensate for any shrinkage. 

TIP: when quilting, always begin from the same edge - preferably the bottom edge of the yokes, and the upper rounded edge of the shoulder points. Switching back and forth can result in some unattractive contortions and puckers, like these: 

TIP: The spray adhesive will likely leave your finished pieces feeling rather stiff, so spray or briefly soak them in water to dissolve and/or wash out the adhesive, then set them aside to dry.


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