Crown Royal Jacket

Here is the Crown Royal Jacket in all it's glory!

I altered a bag and attached it as a breast pocket.

I was able to finish the jacket just in time for Mardi Gras.

Kirk and I waiting for the next parade to roll.

Here is how I made the jacket:

I would say that I am an intermediate sewer and by no means a seamstress so please bear with me.

Start collecting Crown Royal bags!  For this jacket, I only used fabric from the bags and the satin I used for the lining.  I used approximately 160 (750 ml) bags for a 42 Regular sized jacket.  No, we did not personally drink that many bottles!  I bought most off of eBay in lots of 25 or more for about $0.30 to 0.50 a bag with shipping.  If you have a friend that is a bartender, not in California, ask if they can save bags for you.  For some reason, liquor distributors in California sell Crown Royal without the bags.

Pick a pattern that you like and find one in the size you need.  I choose McCall Pattern V8988 40-42-44-4-Vogue Pattern.

I cut out the pattern in my husband's size in gold satin and sewed the darts per the directions.  Theses pieces will become the actual pattern.  The pattern I choose did not have a lining, so I used these pieces later for that purpose as well.

I decided not to wash the bags because this will be a dry clean only item and you do not need to worry about the fabric shrinking.  I also wanted to keep that royal purple color.  A few of the bags I bought ended up being washed and the texture was not the same as the "virgin" bags.

Cutting the bags.  Start with cutting off the top right below the seam where the drawstring is.  Then cut out the front and back of the bags leaving the gold edging on the side strip.  Continue going through the bags creating piles of the front, back and sides of the bags.

Let me just start with flannel is not the easiest fabric to work with.  I decided to fold the fabric in half with the logo centered as my quilting block.  Doubling up the fabric gave the jacket more stability since the bags are pretty thin.  Remember to press each block before sewing, press each seam, and press flat.  The metallic gold threading on the side pieces will melt if touched directly with an iron so be sure to use a pressing cloth.

At this point in the process, I was psyching myself out.  I had only sewn one jacket before and I have never quilted.  A sleeve seemed like the easiest place to start.  The back of the sleeve is solid purple so you can use the "back" pieces of the bag.  You can use larger blocks of fabric since you do not need to worry about the logo.  The front of the sleeves feature 8 logo blocks and two sides.  This is the only place on the jacket that I used the sides.  I hope to make a dress for me someday with those pieces.

Here you can see some of the bags that were washed and how the color does not match.

The back of the jacket has 60 logo blocks and a few blank back blocks.  I chose a common bond, or staggered bond, layout for the blocks.  It was easier to keep it symmetrical with layout.  If a logo would end up in a seam or cut off I used a back block instead.

One sleeve attached and one to go.

The hardest part of the jacket was the lapel and getting the lining into the jacket.  I ended up adding a thicker interfacing in the label then what the pattern called for and in the end I tacked it down. Flannel is not the ideal weight for a blazer but the lining did help with that.  Since the jacket did not call for a lining I used some creative licensing when it came to front facing pieces to showcase more of the gold lining.

He was quite the photo opp with the Crown Royal Jacket on.  I received quite a few offers for people to buy it or for custom orders.  It's a one of kind creation!  He is now asking for pants and a vest for our next trip to New Orleans and I think it would be fun to use some of the new Crown Royal Apple green bags mixed in.

Even though I made the jacket with just Mardi Gras in mind, Kirk wears to our local wine walks, New Year's Eve and other festive drinking events.  It makes me so happy that he is proud to wear something that I made.

Cheers!

Amy