Hi, guys! I’m sure you’re all busy as bees, sewing up a storm! I’m really enjoying Rigel Bomber Jacket January so far- there are already so many cute jackets popping up on Flickr and Instagram! Can’t wait to see what else you guys make! Yay! So today I have collected a few of the helpful tutorials I’ve seen around as well as a few tips of my own that helped me get good results when sewing the bomber. Forgive me if this post is kinda scattered… it was hard to organize a lot of information in a clear and concise way!

Before I forget, if you can, please upload your photos to the Flickr group. If you don’t have an account, you can totally share your photos on Instagram using #rigelbomberjanuary. It’s just nice to be able to look at bigger pics, so that’s why we like Flickr! 🙂

Katy & Laney’s Rigel… how’s that for inspiration?!

OK, here are some tutorials that recently popped up online that might help you out!

• Kat‘s post on how to line the Rigel
• Katy & Laney‘s post on how to line the Rigel
• Carly‘s post on how to add zippered pockets (!)
• Katie‘s post showing how she quilted her bomber

Katie quilting her Rigel

Hopefully these are helpful to you! But let’s say that you, like me, are a little bit lazy and the thought of drafting new lining pieces is making you drag your feet a little. Don’t drag your feet… quick-line your bomber, dude!

How to Quick-Line the Rigel Bomber:

Cut your fronts and sleeves using the original pattern pieces. Cut your lining back, using the original pattern piece, but slide the pattern piece over from the fold to give yourself some ease to create a pleat. I cut mine 2″ from the fold for a total of 4″ of ease. Then, clip a notch right next to the pattern piece at the top and the bottom (so you know where to stitch your pleat!).

Measure where you want your pleat to end and mark it with chalk. At the bottom I marked a line 2″ up, and on the top, about 3.5″ down (your pleat just needs to be long enough that the facing can fit on top of it). Now, stitch from the notch to the chalk mark and press it to one side. Easy!

Assemble your lining just like your shell: stitch sleeve fronts to front, and sleeve backs to back, then stitch the side seams from hem to sleeve hem. Stitch your facing seam and press it open. Next, stitch a line along the outside of the facing (not the neck edge) from end to end with a 1cm seam allowance. Press the seam allowance under along the stitched line.

Now, lay your facing on top of your lining with right sides up on BOTH pieces (not right sides together!). Baste together along the neck edge.

Edgstitch the facing down on top of the lining to keep it in place, leaving about 2″ unstitched right above the lining hem line. That’s it!

How to Bag Your Lining:

If the concept of bagging your lining is confusing or new to you, check out Jen’s amazing tutorial here. The idea is to sew the whole thing right sides together, and then make an opening in the lining to pull the jacket out. It might not make sense at first to do this, but it’s really pretty easy. To start, have your lining/facing unit sewed and the zipper and ribbing in your jacket, but don’t topstitch the hem ribbing.

1. Pin and stitch the facing to the jacket (right sides together) along the neck edge from hem to hem. I used my zipper foot to stitch close to the zipper teeth on the jacket front. Understitch the seam allowance to the facing, leaving a few cms free at the very edge.
2. Next, match the lining hem to the ribbing seam allowance and stitch it together. You’ll want to position and sew it the same way that you sewed your jacket to the ribbing (with it extending 2cm past the corner).
3. Stitch the jacket front to the facing at the bottom of the little rectangle (next to the ribbing).
4. Stitch the sleeve linings to the seam allowance of the cuffs.
5. Open up one sleeve seam to turn the jacket right side out, and close it up when you’re done! You’ll also need to slip stitch the 2″ or so where you didn’t edgestitch the facing to the lining. Now you can topstitch the little bit where the facing meets the ribbing, too, or you can slip stitch it closed. Whatevs!

From the Flickr group, here’s Rose’s Liberty bomber! Whoa!

Applying the Neck Ribbing:

I’ve noticed in a few of the Rigels I’ve seen online that the ribbing sometimes stands away from the wearer’s neck. This could be because the amount of stretch varies in different fabrics, but one thing that helped me get good results was to apply the ribbing without stretching it (at a 1:1 ratio to the fashion fabric) on the jacket fronts, and then to only stretch it on the back neckline. That should help it to hug your neck (as would shortening it).

Sewing the Zipper:

OK, I know some people aren’t going to like this advice, but in a garment like this where you want your zipper to be really even, it can really help to hand baste your zipper. Pins shift, scotch tape isn’t always strong enough to do the trick, and the whole zipper can get scooched down and out of place no matter how careful you are! I just remind myself that, yeah, hand basting is a little slow, but seam ripping is way, WAY slower. 🙂 I baste one side in place, pin the other to check that both sides are properly aligned, and then baste the second side. Easy! Also, interfacing the zipper edge is probably a good idea unless your fabric is super stable. 🙂

Alright, hope this was helpful and not too confusing! How are your bombers going? Any helpful tips or tricks?

Hey, dudes! Are you excited to cut out your Rigel? Yay! OK, I’m not going to post every step of the way or anything, but I wanted to share a few tips I’ve collected over the years to help make this process easier. These are really basic, so are probably obvious to a lot of people, but I thought they might be helpful for newer stitchers. 🙂

First things first, if you don’t know what size to cut (or even if you think you do!), I totally recommend measuring your pattern pieces. I picked up this tip on another blog about a year ago (wish I could remember which one!) and it’s really helped me. Some pattern companies give you lots of finished measurements, but if not, it’s worth it to do a quick check of things like sleeve length to make sure you’ll be happy with the size you’ve chosen. Even if you plan to make a muslin, you’re saving yourself future work by being able to make some basic adjustments before you even cut things out! Now, what I usually do is compare the finished measurements to a similar garment in my closet (in this case, a jacket with a relaxed fit) to make sure they’re in the right ballpark. Just don’t forget to subtract seam allowances from your measurements and to account for things like cuffs and ribbing.

Now, with the Rigel, I’m not going to make a muslin. I don’t want to use ribbing in my muslin, and I probably won’t get very good information about the final fit without the ribbing, so I’m going to skip that step. A jacket with a raglan sleeve is easy to take in, and since we’re finishing the neckline with ribbing, it won’t be a big deal if you need to add a small dart at the back neckline or anything like that. So I’ll just baste together the side/sleeve seam and make sure I’m happy before stitching it.

I’ve heard from a few taller bloggers that the Rigel’s sleeves run short. Since I like my sleeves on the long side, I decided to add 2″ to them. If that ends up being too much, I’ll just shorten the cuff for a super easy fix.

Another thing- I will be basting in my ribbing on the neckline, too. Since different kinds of ribbing can have really different levels of stretch and recovery, it’s not a bad idea to make sure that you like the way yours looks before committing to it. If it needs to be stretched tighter, it will be easy to remove the basting and shorten the ribbing before reapplying it.

If you need to shorten your ribbing, all you need to do is shift the pattern piece over by HALF of the total amount (since you’re cutting on the fold), and cut off the excess. So if you want it 2″ shorter, you just move the pattern piece over by 1″. Easy!

Hopefully this will save you some time and effort! Anyone else have any favorite tips or tricks that they’d like to share?