Today I’m sharing my second make from the Building the Pattern book by Named Clothing: the Kuulas Bomber Jacket. My first make from the book was the Luova Tunic, you can read about that one here.

I’m living my Grease Pink Ladies fantasy with this one. I’ve been dreaming of a pink bomber jacket for quite a while and when I saw the Kuulas Bomber Jacket, I knew it could be the one!

My Kuulas Bomber Jacket

My Kuulas Bomber Jacket is a size 5. I note at the outset that Building the Pattern does not have an inclusive size range.

The main change that I have made to the Kuulas Bomber Jacket as designed is shortening it by two inches as I wanted something more cropped than as designed. In retrospect, I should perhaps have shortened another cm or so to make it work slightly better with highwaisted silhouettes.

I also made the pockets proportionally a tad smaller to account for the fact that I was shortening the jacket.

All the supplies for this Kuulas Bomber Jacket came from Meter Meter. Also, I used buttons rather than studs, as I can’t stand the latter. The fabric is the Sera Weighty Cotton Blend, which coordinated perfectly with the colour of the Fine Rib Jersey. The lining also comes from there, together with the cord and cord stoppers.

I had originally wanted to modify the pattern to use the jersey to make cuffs and possible a hem band. I was also tossing up the idea of making the bottom half of the sleeve in jersey for extra comfort – I have a RTW leather blazer which does this and it makes it so incredibly comfortable.

When the jersey arrived, however, while it was the perfect coordinating colour (which was the reason I had chosen it), it was a tad lighter in weight than I would have wanted it to be for either of these purposes. So I instead decided to stick with the pattern as designed and just use the jersey for the collar.

Sewing the Kuulas Bomber Jacket

I actually found it a little challenging to sew the Kuulas Bomber Jacket. It’s one that I had to be fully engaged and using my brain to be able to put together.

I noticed what I believe is an error in the cutting guide. For piece 6B (lower front), the table at the front of the chapter says to cut along lines 1, 3 and 6 but this appears to be the cutting lines for the Blazer version. For the Bomber jacket version, you actually need to cut along lines 2, 4 and 6.

I also found the instructions in the book for attaching the lining to the shell to be pretty useless. I was left entirely unsure how it was intended that I attach the two together along the hem. All-in-all, although I am familiar enough with the process that I understood the ball park of what the diagrams and instructions were wanting me to do, I honestly couldn’t follow them. I can’t put my finger on exactly why either, perhaps just something about how it’s set out that wasn’t speaking to me. I turned to instructions and the video from when I made my Jasika Blazer to give me the refresher that I needed to actually attach the lining and shell of my Kuulas Bomber Jacket.

I would also have appreciated a bit more detail in the instructions as to exactly how one is supposed to properly use cord stoppers and how to finish the end of a piece of cord so it doesn’t unravel over time? These are forms of haberdashery which are vert unfamiliar to me.

Any tips?

All in all, this Kuulas Bomber Jacket came out pretty much as I imagined so I have no complaints with the finished product. It did feel, at times, like it just required a little more concentration than it should have. But, who knows, maybe I was just having a bad day!!

If you want to see more of my sewing adventures, you can find me on Instagram here.