Hello dears, especially now in spring, when you often don’t really know whether you should wear a sweater or not, I like to wear comfortable jackets – such as the Lumia zip jacket, which I would like to sew with you today.
The zip jacket comes with practical pockets and can be sewn with a collar or hood. Instead of a lining, the sweat jacket is only finished with a decorative bias tape on the inside, which allows you to set great little accents.
I sewed the jacket with the BERNINA 475 QE Kaffe Edition, with which you can sew very accurately and also sew zippers. I also used the BERNINA L 860 serger.
Sew the Lumia zip jacket — let’s get started
sewing pattern
First you need the pattern. You can find this on the American site “Greenstyle”. Click here for the pattern: Lumia Zip pattern
The pattern is only available in English so far, but the instructions contain many drawings so that you can understand them even with little knowledge of the language. In addition, I will accompany all work steps with pictures in this article in order to present everything as understandably as possible.
The pattern is suitable for advanced, but also for ambitious beginners.
The material
Cozy sweat fabrics, French terry, scuba are suitable … basically all fabrics that have at least a slight stretch (min. 25%) and some stability.
In the pattern you will find more detailed information on the material and consumption. Of course, this varies depending on the size. I used a cozy winter sweat for my variant and needed about 1.5 m in the smallest size (B). Be sure to check beforehand whether you no longer need them. If in doubt, use the information in the pattern or take the pattern pieces with you when you buy fabric.
In addition to the fabric, you also need a separable zipper, bias tape to bind the edges, seam tape from Vliesline and matching sewing thread.
Step 1: Cutting the zip jacket
Cut all parts of the pattern to your appropriate size. Decide beforehand whether you would rather have a collar or hood and whether you want to work with cuffs or a normal hem for the hems.
All seam allowances are already included in the pattern and are 1cm. Be sure to also transfer all pass marks in the form of snaps or markings with chalk.
Step 2: Sew on the back yoke
The back yoke of the zip jacket is now sewn on. Place them right sides together on the back piece and pin them in place using the snaps/markers. If you want to work in a piping, this is worked in directly in the middle between the two layers.
Then sew once along the edge with your overlocker.
If you like, you can then topstitch close to the edge, add a decorative seam (this should be elastic) or a cover seam.
Step 3: prepare center front pieces
First, iron the seam tape onto the front edge of the middle front pieces – this serves to stabilize the zipper.
Then place the pocket bags, right sides together, on a front part so that the sloping edge falls inwards.
Sew the rounded edge of the pocket bag with the overlocker.
Then stitch the seam allowance tightly onto the pocket bag. This way the pocket bag will later lie neatly on the inside.
Step 4: Sew on the side front piece
Now the lateral front part of the zip jacket is sewn to the front part that has just been prepared.
Unfold the pocket bag and place one front piece on the matching side piece. Pin everything using the pass marks. The straight edge of the side panel meets the straight edge of the pocket pouch.
Now sew this seam with your sewing machine. You can also use the overlocker directly, but the corner at the transition to the pocket bag is easier to work with the sewing machine.
You can then clean up the seams again with the overlocker if you wish. This is not absolutely necessary and is more for the optics.
The sewn together front part of the zip jacket should now look like this. Sew an auxiliary seam inside the seam allowance with a straight stitch to secure the pocket.
Step 5: Shoulder seams and sleeves of the zip jacket
In this step, the shoulder seams are sewn together. Lay the front pieces right sides together on the back piece and sew them together at the two shoulder seams. So that it doesn’t wear out too much later, I ironed on some seam tape here as well. This is slightly stretchy, but not as much as the fabric and should therefore offer a little more stability without making the garment too rigid at this point.
Now the sleeves are sewn on. These are placed right sides together using the matching marks on the spread out jacket and then sewn on with the overlocker.
Step 6: Close side seams
After the sleeves of the zip jacket have been sewn on, the side seams and sleeve seams can now be closed in one step. To do this, place the back piece on the front pieces, right sides together, and pin the side edges. The sleeves are also folded and pinned right sides together. Both sleeve seams meet directly under the armpit.
Sew these two long stretches again with your serger.
Step 7: Prepare the collar and hem
In this version I have chosen a collar and a cuffed hem. Before the zipper is sewn in, the outer collar and the hem band must be sewn on. Here, too, I reinforced the front edges where the zipper rests with seam tape.
Step 8: Sew in the zipper of the zip jacket
Now the zipper can be attached to the jacket right sides together. The teeth begin about 1 cm below the upper edge so that the seam allowance is free of the zipper. You end up in the bottom middle of the cuff, as this will later be folded in half.
Then sew the zipper with the zipper foot of your machine with a 1 cm seam allowance on the first side of the jacket. Then mark the significant points with chalk so that later the zipper on both sides hits all the seams at the same time. Then unzip the zipper and, using the markings, pin the zipper half right sides together on the other side of the jacket and sew it on.
Finally, the zipper is edged with bias tape on the open edge. Lay this on the front edge right sides together and sew it on with a 0.7 cm seam allowance.
Fold the bias tape over and then sew it tight, parallel to the zipper.
Step 9: Sew on collar and hem
Before you continue, you can, if you like, enclose the open edge of the hem and the lower edge of the collar with matching bias tape. This is only for the look and can also be replaced with an overlock seam to finish the edge.
At this point I also sewed a loop to the lower edge of the inner collar part for hanging.
Now sew the inner collar to the outer collar right sides together.
Then you fold over the short front edges at the hem so that they enclose the zipper – like the collar above. Then use the zipper foot to sew the edges together again. Turn the collar and cuffs around and work the corners neatly.
Then pin the edges of the collar and cuffs that have been trimmed with bias tape. I decided to sew in the seam shadow, but you can also sew with a 1 cm distance to the respective seam edge. The main thing is that the bound edges are evenly caught by this seam and thus attached to the zip jacket.
Step 10: Sew on the cuffs
Here you can either use ready-made cuffs (which was my plan at first, but the contrast was a bit too high for me when I put them on the almost finished zip jacket), or cut cuffs out of your jacket fabric. This should then be a bit stretchy.
Then fold the cuffs right sides together and sew the short edges together. Then fold the cuff so that you get a ring with the right sides on the outside.
Then the cuffs could be sewn to the sleeves of the zip jacket, right sides together, stretching slightly. The free arm function of the overlocker is very helpful here.
Now your zip jacket is ready.
I wish you a lot of fun sewing.
