Make Laura's wholecloth jacket pattern in woven cloth or reverse-appliqued felt, both will follow the same tutorial, just have a different design scale. To do the applique, quilt both layers as rectangles, cut away one layer.
Start with a Laura Lee Fritz jacket pattern file, quilt onto your flat fabric, either wholecloth single layer, "sandwich", or patchwork sandwich. See the "wings" on the back shoulder blades? they drape quickly to fit the body, but the more body you quilt into the project (heavier batting, more seams in your patchwork), the longer these take to soften to mold to you.
Cut, but fold in quarters first, lining up underarm curves front center, neck curve, be sure you get the best match up that you can.
Now sew, I serge all outer edges, then sew the side seams, leaving a 6" gap for the pocket entrance, about 5" above the cut hem at side seam. Fiinish as shown in photo below:
Cut a rectangle to match jacket fabric, cut this about 11" tall by 8-9" wide, one rectangle per pocket. Cut a soft curve from the top corners, see photo below to see how this would look.
Add this pocket on inside, over the opening.
Have the bottom edge where the hem fold is, so that the hem will cover the serged bottom of pocket, or if you are making the jacket particularly longer than that, be sure the pocket covers the hand entry slot with room to spare at the bottom (about 3-4 inches) and at the top (at least 1").
Stitch along bottom edge, 1/4" from edge, along the rest of the pocket, not turning any edges, just clearing the serger stitches so you are using them as your guide. Stitch one more time across bottom edge, at 1/2" from edge this time.
Hem bottom edge. It will lie smoothly with a 1" hem, serged or bound with lightweight binding at the cut edge, before turning and topstitching to the inside of jacket.
Cut front band: twice the entire measured seamlength from front hem, across neck, and to front hem again. Add 4" for good measure. If you do this on the lengthwise grainline of the cloth, it will not stretch as you sew, and will work to keep the front edge of the jacket from stretching. I make this, usually, about a 6" wide cut, if you need to seam it, be sure to pin the seam to the center of the back neck when you do the next step.
You will make this binding like your normally do for a quilt, both raw edges caught in the seam together, about 3/8" seam allowance, then topstitched to the front, covering that seam.
Pin this band to the cut front edge, with the band on the wrong side of the jacket. If the fabric is not thick enough for your taste, then cut it wide enough for the second seam edge (which will be topstitched to the right side to cover seam) to reach all the way over to the fold at center front. The photo below shows this extra width.Do be careful to not stretch the bias of the jacket, and sew from the hem to the center neck, repeat.
Now trim and grade the bottom edge of the band, turn and fiddle a bit to get a perfectly beautiful (not necessarily sharp) corner. Pin or baste the folded edge to the right side over the jacket and stitch to hide the seamline...machine or hand stitch, your choice.
That red stitching line is part of the decorative quilting, not the jacket construction.
This tutorial is available with smaller photos for printing more efficiently, as a pdf file "product". Enter, in the search bar, the word tutorial, and put it in your shopping cart.
The tutorial has no price, it is complimentary for your pleasure.
The drop shoulder Old Time Cowboys style jacket tutorial will be a separate tutorial, coming soon.