How to prep patterns & quilt fabric for a Burda quilted jacket project

Yesterday, I shared the material list for making the Burda Easy 5941 Jacket & Coat pattern. It’s time to prep the pattern pieces. Gathering supplies can take time, but it’s so worth it to get everything you need BEFORE you start. We all know that getting stalled while waiting for supplies can be a showstopper in making any project.

This preparation step can be boring, but it’s necessary if you want to get a quality jacket at the end of the process.

Note: I want to remind everyone that we are making a structured jacket from quilted fabric, which is slightly different from a quilted jacket. The main difference is adding interfacing and using facing instead of only using quilted fabric.

If I have enough fabric, I’ll modify the pattern and make the jacket without the structured pieces, but I need to understand this pattern thoroughly before I proceed.

It’s also a good idea to make the jacket as initially intended, and then you can start to make modifications. If you are an experienced seamstress, then I say, go ahead and make all kinds of changes from the beginning. I’m a competent garment sewist, but I’m not a fashion designer, so I need to take this process slowly.

Ok – let’s get started with the pattern prep.

READ the pattern

I can’t emphasize this step enough. If you just plunge into cutting the fabric, you’ll run into trouble. In this Burda pattern, you’ll find some of the information on the tissue pattern pieces, and there’s a double-sided fold-out paper.

This document provides the instructions for sewing the pieces together, as well as information like the hem length and the seam allowance, which are essential to the process of assembling the jacket.

The sewing instructions start on the front and continue on the back.

If we look a bit closer at this document, half of page one relates to prepping the pattern. In the first section of the first page, we see a list of all the pattern pieces, which is essential as you need to know how many pieces are in the pattern and what they are. If there are several styles, you may not need all the pattern pieces.

This section also discusses how to lengthen or shorten the pattern pieces, as well as which pieces must be cut from interfacing.

At this point, we are NOT doing anything, but simply familiarizing ourselves with the steps involved.

The next part, which is also essential, is which pieces to cut from which fabric, especially if I’m using two colors, and how to transfer any markings, if necessary. More on that tomorrow.

As mentioned, we need to understand all that information before we start any of the process. I found the pattern symbols, which are essential to know before you begin the tracing, cutting, and marking process, on the tissue paper pattern.

I find these tissue pieces a bit on the flimsy side, so I put them in a page protector with a piece of paper to provide more support and make them easier to read.

Here are the fabric layout diagrams, which we’ll need when it comes time to cut the fabric.

And finally, there’s the one that we’ve been looking for – the size chart! There’s a nice diagram showing each of the measurements and the corresponding numbers in inches and cm. We should never get caught up in the size game. If you require a larger size than you usually wear, it’s just a number! That’s why I think it would be better if pattern sizes were not so focused on a number. Perhaps a symbol, a letter, or anything else would help us get over the fear of a size!

In choosing your size, this pattern recommends that for tops, including jackets, you use the bust measurement. And of course, you can check the circumference of the hips on the pattern back.

You need pattern ease for comfort, and it’s part of the pattern, so you don’t need to add extra. I didn’t see any indication of how much pattern ease there is for this jacket, but even if we had the number, what would it mean? This jacket is boxy, so there will be lots of ease to wear over a sweater, but you don’t want it to be so large that it hangs off you. More on that in a bit.

As mentioned yesterday, I want to trace the size of the pattern that I’m going to make, rather than destroying the master by cutting it up. To make this process easier, I roughly cut between each of the pattern pieces, but because of the folds, it was hard to get a flat layout of each piece. I lightly pressed them with a dry iron.

A wool mat happened to be on the ironing surface, but you don’t need that.

Then I cut the excess tissue paper from each piece. When possible, I used my rotary cutter and ruler. YES – I cut paper with the same blade as I use for fabric. It’s a small amount of paper, and I’ve never had any issues with that. Yes – it’s not my first time! I left ½” around all the edges. I free-handed the curves – it doesn’t have to be perfect, but being neat is just my thing!

Now it’s time to start tracing the patterns. Find a nice flat area and lay out the pattern piece. You can start with any pattern piece – it doesn’t make a difference. But familiarize yourself with the size markings. It can get a bit confusing in some spots, so find your size and make sure you check it from time to time to ensure you are tracing the correct size.

I use my ruler to trace any straight lines, and I use a ballpoint pen. It works for me! I also use pattern weights to ensure the pattern and my tracing paper do not shift.

Place the pattern beneath the tracing paper and start tracing.

Be sure to trace ALL lines and markings. If you know for sure that you’ll never make the long jacket, then you don’t need to trace the extra lengths, but I trace the entire pattern just in case. An old habit! Ensure you write the size, the pattern number, the name of the piece, the number of pieces to cut, and from which material (fabric, interfacing, lining) each piece is cut. Remember, you are creating the pattern you’ll use to cut your jacket, so it needs to be complete!

And before you know it, you’ll have all the pattern pieces traced.

It’s not a long process to trace the pattern pieces, and when you want to remake the jacket, you don’t need to do this step! Your master pattern is still intact, so if you want to make a different size, then you can easily do so.

Here’s something else that I think is a smart thing to do, and you can do this in conjunction with tracing. Make a muslin!! What is that? It’s a mock-up of your jacket, usually made from muslin, to check the fit. I would only use the two fronts and the back when making the muslin. If you want to trace those pieces first in your size, and then if you need to select a different size, you’ll only need to retrace those pieces and not the entire pattern.

When making the muslin, watch the front. There might be a placket that overlaps that could add extra width to the front, or there’s a facing attached to the front, which would also add additional width. Determine where the jacket fronts end and use that line for your muslin. Sew with the correct seam allowance, which in this case is ⅝”.

I’ve made jackets in the past without making a muslin, and each one has been much larger than I needed. I was going to skip this step because I have a deadline, but then I told myself that not making the muslin is an accident waiting to happen. What’s the point of making a jacket that I won’t wear?

Also, keep in mind that the quilted fabric will make the jacket a bit bulkier than the muslin, but this step gives you a great idea of the fit. Case in point – I had to retrace my pattern pieces in a size TWO sizes smaller than I initially chose. I have a body image perception that is not correct!

One other thing about this pattern. As I  mentioned, there are no darts to this pattern,  which is excellent for working with the quilted fabric. And my initial thought was to join the two front, back, and sleeve sections together so I could cut them as one. Well, as I was examining the pattern, I discovered that those seams are NOT straight lines. To provide the jacket with a bit of shaping, the seams that join the sections are slightly curved! I thought that was a brilliant idea!

Since I’ll be cutting out the fabric tomorrow, I need to prepare my fabric. If I were not using quilted fabric, then I would prep the fabric as per the washing instructions. I would never make a garment without prewashing the fabric. You don’t need to wash to test for colorfastness, but you need to wash for shrinkage! If you intend to wash the jacket in the washing machine with hot water, then prewash the fabric in that same manner. Will you throw the coat in the dryer? Then throw your fabric in the dryer!

However, before I wash this fabric, I’m quilting it, and then washing it.

I quilted it on the long arm, using an edge-to-edge pattern. It’s dense, but not overly so.

There are multiple ways to quilt these pieces. I could have separately joined the front and back fabrics into pieces large enough to match the batting and quilted them as one piece. I would have had a seam in the center, which I could easily have cut around when cutting the jacket pieces. OR I could have quilted two separate pieces, so they are smaller and easier to deal with. I chose the latter.

Since the fabric widths were pretty much the same, the bottom couple of inches are not quilted, as I needed that space to attach the fabric to the long arm leaders.

Alternatively, you could cut out a basic shape for the pieces and quilt each separately on your domestic sewing machine. You decide!

I use Gütermann MCT Sew-all Thread 500m on my domestic sewing machine all the time for quilting, topstitching, and attaching binding. I love how it quilts, and I love the massive variety of colors. You can get cotton or polyester. As I mentioned the other day, I’m using the Gütermann thread in the top and bobbin to quilt this fabric, and I’ve never used it on the long arm before. Well, I have to say, it quilted up like a dream!

The colors blended in beautifully, and the tension was spot on! I was thrilled with the results. I made no adjustments to my long arm!

The batting was also super easy to quilt, and I had zero issues with it.

I had to quilt two pieces as I’ll need a bit extra, and maybe I can squeeze an extra jacket or a vest out of the remainder. I’ll see how that goes.

The last step in the fabric preparation process was to throw it all into the washer. I wash things in cold water, so that’s what I did, and then I threw the pieces in the dryer.

Unfortunately, you can’t see or feel the texture that resulted from this process. I LOVE it and I love the weight. I can’t wait to get started!

I’ll also need some unquilted fabric for the facing, so that piece just needs to be washed and dried in the same manner as the quilted fabric.

As you have probably guessed by now, making a jacket or a quilt or anything, gathering the supplies, prepping the pieces, and cutting is what takes so much time. The sewing process won’t take long.

Tomorrow, I’ll cut and prep all the fabric pieces. Be sure to follow along and get working on that Burda jacket pattern 5941 made with quilted fabric.

It’s exciting!

Have a great day!

Ciao!

This is part 2 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 1: 5 essential supplies for sewing your first quilted jacket this fall