Leather Jacket: Layout & Cutting

When you purchase leather, no matter the cut, it’s going to come to you in an odd shape. You MUST take some time and lay out all your pattern pieces and rearrange them over and over to make sure that you can indeed cut them all out. Take in mind to avoid loose grain areas, thin areas, scars, harder/thicker and alternately, stretchy, areas around the edges. It takes time but will save you many sewing headaches.

When I finally have my plan, I sketch it out and label my pieces so that I can check them off as I trace and cut. 

The 10 square feet I purchased wasn’t enough to do the front, collar and sleeves so I decided to cut my 4 front pieces, 2 front facings and the undercollar. I will need to order more leather to get the sleeves and top collar cut out. 

 Next up: skiving and sewing the front together!