I made this with a base of a sweatshirt and the most of the fabric is from the Caterwauling line from RJR fabrics. I had a panel that I cut apart for the main body:
And used a bit of this for the front of one shoulder:
I used this for the main part of the sleeves:
Part of this was used for cuff trim and the band around the bottom.
I also had some Loralie fabric that I used for the bias binding:
...I did a lot of looking at ideas I found on the internet and this is what I finally did.
Buy a sweatshirt (regular, no hood, zipper or pockets) that is at least 1 size too big. Wash and dry it. Then, cut off the bottom, wrist and neck bands. I cut it apart at the shoulder seams (should be real shoulder seams, not raglan). I also cut the sleeve seam so they laid out flat. One idea I found said to cut up the sides so that it opens up really flat, but because I was using large designs from the Caterwauling panel I left the sides together. (Sorry, I didn't take pictures as I was making it!)
I laid the sweatshirt out flat and started cutting the panel apart and laying the various parts out. I tried to leave at least 1/4 inch border around each piece as I cut to either fold under or to lay another piece on top of, so all of the pieces had an overlap of some kind. I pinned and tried on at various points before I even thought about sewing it. The first layout had a LOT of the lime green on the front. YECH! It took lots of trial and error and visualizing to get the final layout.
If you are doing a more traditional type jacket, the suggestion was to basically make a small quilt (make your blocks and sew them together) and lay out on the sweatshirt. In either case, you will need to trim to fit the sweatshirt base, but I didn't do any of that until the fabric was all sewn on.
Once I pretty much had the layout I wanted, I carefully pinned it all on the sweatshirt and tried it on once again - carefully! There are lots of pins! When I was happy I started zigzagging the pieces together on the background, using a small zigzag (on my machine it was the default length and width). I did the front edges first which of course seems backwards, but it was what worked out for me. I wanted to fit the pieces on 'whole' particularly in the front. I had to do some adjustments along the way as I reanalyzed the layout as I went.
The sleeves are mainly 1 large piece of fabric with some of the border fabric for trim. I ended up cutting an inch plus off the length of the sleeves and what was going to be the edge of the sleeve on the outside ended up being turned inside and then folded outside to make a cuff.
Once all of the pieces are sewn on, it is now time to quilt it! Because of a variety of colors in the fabric I used a matching color on the top when the fabric design was primarily 1 color. When it was one of the multicolor prints, I used black. Because the sweatshirt was black, I used black on the bobbin throughout the quilting. I did stippling thoughout, but corralled the stippling to specific fabric designs/shapes.
Now it is time to put it back together. I used my serger to sew the shoulder seams and arm seams together and also to sew the arms back to the body. The biggest challenge I had in putting it back together was the sleeves were a bit larger than the arm holes, but I did a bit of easing on the body back.
I cut bias binding from the paw fabric and finished it with that. I had some flower buttons that complimented the fabric so made buttonholes and sewed on the buttons.
It was a challenging project just because you had to plan and try, and rearrange and try again. There is really no right or wrong as long as you are happy with the result!
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