How to Make a Quilted Jacket with a Pattern

Keep warm and cosy this Winter in a beautiful handmade quilted jacket. Adding this quilted jacket to any outfit elevates it, showing off your character and style. Made following a simple, beginner-friendly sewing pattern, anyone can give this sewing project a go.

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I recently embarked on this fun quilted jacket project with the ambition of creating a cosy quilted jacket. Having just recently moved to Christchurch, New Zealand, where it gets super chilly, this seemed like an appropriate project.

After seeing so many beautiful quilt coats from the likes of Julie O’roke and Sea, I needed to jump on the bandwagon and sew my own. 

The trouble with living in New Zealand is that finding a pre-loved vintage quilt is impossible. If you live in an area where vintage quilts are accessible, consider purchasing one to make your jacket if you don’t want to spend hours quilting. Some great places to look are eBay, Depop, and Facebook marketplace.

If you want to try quilting your jacket, have a look online for a quilt pattern, Suzy’s quilts is a great place to start. You can also find lots of great second-hand quilting books or magazines that are filled with fun patterns.

I love to jump onto Pinterest and Instagram to find inspiration when exploring a new craft. Check out my quilting mood board if you want to find some inspiration.

How To Make A Quilted Jacket With A Pattern

Sara from Farm and folk is an incredibly talented quilt maker. She inspired me to try out quilt making and to look into natural dyeing. Following her recommendations, I purchased the supplies below to make my quilted jacket.

Your supply list may be slightly different to mine, depending on whether you are making a quilt or not and what jacket pattern you choose to make. Use this as a guide.

Supplies List:

• 2m main fabric
• 1m contrasting main fabric
• 0.5m 2^nd contrasting fabric 
• 2m lining fabric
• Olympus 100% cotton Sashiko thread
• Olympus Sashiko needles 
• Jacket pattern – I used the All Well Cardigan Coat hacked into the Simple Collar version.

Notes on my Quilted Jacket Materials

I used beige linen for the primary material, and the contrasting fabrics are blue floral cotton and an old blue & white striped shirt that I found in a thrift shop for $2. 

I lined my quilted jacket with hand-dyed linen. I created my soy milk mordant to soak my linen fabric before naturally dyeing it with avocado pips and skin.

How to Sew a Quilted Jacket

Step 1: Choose a quilt pattern or find a Quilt

If you don’t want to sew a quilt, find a premade quilt that is either new or vintage.

I made my quilt using a book called The Patchwork Quilt Design & Colouring Book, which has lots of helpful quilting information. I settled on a traditional Saw Tooth pattern. 

Once the pattern is decided, begin planning where each fabric or print will go within the block.

I decided on using plain linen as the inner squares and the borders. Then I used the stripe and floral as the triangular shapes, and the outer border squares of the saw tooth pattern.

It would help if you also considered how big or small each quilt block is. The smaller they are, the more cutting and sewing that’s needed.

Take your time to plan and get things right before you start cutting out your materials.

I made four mini quilts to fit each sewing piece rather than an entire rectangle quilt because it would waste materials.

Draw a diagram of the quilt block pieces with dimensions and how many bits to cut out.

Step 2: Cut out the fabric

Following your quilt block diagram, begin cutting out all the pieces needed to sew the quilt up.

Step 3: Sew the quilt blocks together

Start sewing the quilt blocks together. I found it easiest to sew piles of the same block pieces together at once before moving on to the next. For example, a Saw Tooth can be sewn together starting with the flying geese method.

Sewing in batches will make this quilting process a lot quicker.

Step 4: Trim the quilt blocks

Before sewing the Saw Tooth blocks together, they must be squared up and trimmed. This is done by using a rotary cutter and quilters ruler. 

Trimming the blocks helps keep everything accurate. Seams can stretch once sewn to other fabrics, so don’t miss this step.

Step 5: Sew the quilt together

Begin joining the quilt blocks into a pattern layout you are happy with.

I used my sewing pattern pieces to help guide me on how many pieces to sew together.

I sewed linen borders around the Saw Tooth blocks to break up the pattern. 

Step 6: Sew the lining together

Find a flat, hard-surfaced area to lay the lining and batting fabrics on. I placed my lining right side down first and taped it to the tile floor using masking tape. I made sure to pull the fabric tight to keep it nice and flat.

Place the batting down on top of the lining and smooth it flat. 

Place the quilt top onto the batting and lining. Smooth this out, and tape it to the tiles like the lining. This holds everything in place for pinning.

Once all three layers of the quilt are in place, begin pinning the layers together with quilting safety pins. These will keep all the layers together so the quilt can be hand or machine stitched.

Try adding more pins than less so everything sits nicely. Pull the tape off the fabric and tiles.

Step 7: Quilt the fabrics together

Mark lines into the quilt top to quilt the fabric layers together. I used the back of a butter knife and a long ruler to mark mine. A Hera marker is the proper tool to mark the lines, but I don’t have one.

I chose to stitch my jacket together by hand because I prefer the finish. Sara has shared a helpful step-by-step hand sewing tutorial on her Instagram stories.

Begin stitching the fabric layers with a needle and thread, or use a sewing machine. Follow along the marked lines. (Follow Sara’s tutorial as linked above for this step).

Step 8: Cut out the quilt using a jacket pattern

I chose the All Well Cardigan Coat pattern because I loved the shape and style. This pattern comes with a pattern hack guide which I followed for the collar.

Chalk on the pattern pieces and cut the quilt out.

Step 9: Follow the sewing pattern to sew together the quilted jacket

Follow along with the sewing pattern instructions to construct your quilted jacket. The pattern I used had instructions to bind the outer jacket edges, which I like.

I decided to cut out binding strips and use them to finish the inside seams. 

To Sum Up

This is one of the longest sewing projects I have done so far. It was pretty challenging, but it was fun to make. I hope you have found some inspiration and helpful tips to make your quilted jacket. 

More sewing projects:

• How To Make A Wrap Skirt
• DIY Wrap Dress
• How To Make A Tiered Maxi Dress
• DIY Peplum Cami Top
• How To Make A Zero Waste Top