Rain Jacket

 I'm going to Oxford, UK to study abroad.  Because of the everyone says it only rains in the UK (stereotype), I thought i would be appropriate to make a rain jacket.

This project nearly killed me.  I thought it would be simple because this jacket was essentially just the rub-off sloper I made with a couple easy added elements: pockets and a hood.  Nope; the hood took me days to figure out, even though I did it before, and the plastic material was almost impossible to work with.  This jacket took me an extra week to make.  That's a little embarrassing.  I might not even take the jacket because it's so fragile (sewing the plastic basically just made it like perforated paper).  I'm not happy.

ELEMENTS:
Hood:
The hood was just frustrating.  It took me many appempts and days to get to something I really wanted.  I wanted a hood that covered the neck and still conformed to the head.  I did a bit of research, and the ARCTERYX company made jackets with the hood I desired (figure 2).  My first attempt (trial 1 in figure 1) was just off.  I was not too disapointed because it was my first trial and mistakes were bound to happen.  My second attempt (trial 2) was even more off.  This is when I started to get pissed.  I thought all of the mistakes from the first trial were corrected, but I made the situation worse.  Then I realized that I was going about the hood the wrong way.  I was just going off of the neckline.  However, I didn't realize that I needed to make a BUILT UP neckline.  So in my third attempt I built up the neckline a bit... and it still didn't work.  I was really upset because I still didn't have a good enough hood.  But, what kept me going was that I was going in the right direction.  I needed to build up the neckline more from the center front. In my fourth trial I was still a little off, but the hood was in the shape that I wanted (or close enough anyway).  All I had to do was make a few fitting adjustments (seen with the pins).  But alas, I had a hood that I was satisfied.

Figure 1: The four trials I needed to figure out the hood.  I was not happy throughout this process.

 Looking at the comparison between my hood and Arcteryx's hood (figure 2), I think I needed to add a bit more to the back (make it more scooped) and build up the neck more, but I'm satisfied for the time being.

Figure 2: Comparison of Arcteryx's hood and my hood.

Plastic:
Well, I wanted my jacket to be water-proof.  I was too cheap to buy water-proof fabric, so I just bought vinyl and put it over regular fabric.  This was a big mistake because sewing the vinyl made it unstable.  If I sit the wrong way, or stretch in an odd way, I'm afraid that I might pull the plastic out.

Figure 3: Putting vinyl over fabric

Pockets: 

I really like welt pockets, and I've never made them before, so I thought this was the right time to make them.   Note, I had to put paper over the plastic so that I could top stitch (otherwise the garment would get stuck on the foot).  Also, I had to take everything in place, NOT PIN.  Pinning would make permanent holes.

Figure 4: i had to put paper over the plastic so that I could top stitch.

I thought the pocket it would be a good place to add a little surprise with a pop of color (figure 5). I thought it turned out great!

Figure 5: The pop of color under the pocket flap.  My favorite part about this jacket.

Seam finishes:

I thought I would simplify my life by not adding a lining (the fabric under the plastic is an "underlining").  To finish the seams, I thought I would bind all of the edges.

Figure 6: The edges were bound before I attached them together.  This series made the process go a lot faster.

Vent:

I wanted to add a vent because they are classy.  However, I couldn't think of a way to make a neat vent with out lining . So I decided to line only the vent!  After making the vent, I stitched the lining to the underlining.  This way the vent remained classy and clean.

Figure 7: the vent lining pinned to the underlining.

Zipper shield:

I added a zipper shield so that the zipper would not get caught on my clothes.

Figure 8: Zipper shield under right hand.

RANDOM PICTURES:

Figure 9: The vent, pocket, an hood in action