Y’all, I’ve been bugging the Coach since February to give me ideas about what to sew for him because I knew that I wanted to do Men’s Sewing in May. And the only idea he had was that he wanted a bike jersey – in fact, I was eyeing them looking to buy one for him for Christmas before this conversation. But the price tags – ouch! For something I knew I could sew with a few dollars worth of spandex that I picked up last tim I was warehouse shopping.
So, I set out to modify my Zinnia Jacket pattern to sew a bike jersey for the Coach. I started by having him try on my jacket – because my bust measurement and his chest measurement are within an inch of each other, and I knew he wanted the jersey to be very fitted.
That try on helped me see what modifications were needed. Namely, that though our chests are similar, he has much bigger arms/shoulders than I do. So the first modification I made was the drop the point of the armscye half an inch on the front and back, then make the corresponding change on the sleeve piece.
I also added length to the bottom of the front/back pieces since I knew I wouldn’t be sewing on the waistband, and I cut straight down the front at the side seam, since he didn’t want the pockets.
Next, I drew an elbow length line on the sleeve, making sure to leave myself extra for the hem, and then I slashed the sleeve up the middle and added an inch for his broader shoulders.
Then I stitched up as per the pattern instructions, except instead of doing the waistband I just folded the bottom edge of the shirt to the inside and stitched the hem. I did use my cover stitch machine for hems since I wanted to make sure they were really stretchy. But I used regular thread and he’s already popped some of the stitches at the hem, so I will probably redo them at some point using wooly nylon in the looper.
But other than that, I’m pretty happy with how this came together and so is the Coach.
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