How I made a reclaimed material jacket

After reading several threads on the theme of how to design/make your own clothes, I thought it might be helpful to somebody if I shared my process for a jacket I made in 2021.

I don't typically wear lots of layers, but it does get cool enough inside during the winter that I wanted something light and wearable instead of fussing with a blanket and something I could also throw on quickly during fall/spring. Easily washable and not precious were good attributes as well.

A while ago, I'd found a vintage cotton blanket in an auction box lot. It had some holes, but was lovely and soft and washed up well. A bit later, at another auction, we got a large lot of plus-sized men's shirts for $5. They were mostly assorted flannels and a huge number of worn denim pieces.

I use Pinterest as a way to collect inspirational designs and a few years ago discovered the work of Greg Lauren. He does high fashion pieces using both vintage/antique salvage as well as scraps from other clothing manufacturers. His stuff is distinctive and can cross into bizarre but I really like some of it. I decided to take some inspiration from him to use the haul of denim and flannels as well as the blanket.

Making myself a set of Jedi robes has been on my "want" list for a while and I find the look of a crossed over tunic is comfortable and flattering for me. I used my body form, and a thrifted pattern in a style close to the look I wanted, and came up with a properly fitted pattern for that style of tunic. This was a case where I actually made a fabric "muslin" version since I planned on making multiple pieces from the same pattern.

The crossed over shirt, when open, is very much the same base as a kimono robe so I was able to use its pattern as the base for the jacket.
I laid out the blanket and then played around a bit with it and the pattern pieces to figure out how to get the stripes and the already finished edges in the best places and how to work with the damage.
I then cut the blanket up.
I did some math to figure out how much denim I would need to make the lapel and decided to use some flannel scraps to make sure I had enough. ( the bits in the lapel were mostly from the cuffs of a shirt that was cut apart and the width of those scraps is what determined the lapel width)
The holes in the blanket were patched with more scraps of the lapel flannel except for the large shoulder piece where I went with denim. To do the patching, I just did many crisscrossing runs of zigzag stitch on the machine with white and a matching grey thread.

Then it was just a matter of assembly. The only curved seams were the arm holes and the only ironing was on the lapel so it was a fast sew.

It is very comfortable and I love wearing it!

Well done!