You can’t defend the galaxy in just anything. To celebrate Superhero Day, as well as the upcoming release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2., I recreated Star-Lord’s newest jacket. The best part? There’s a free template, so you can make your own, look fabulous, and start kicking some alien butt!

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(The template is roughly a men’s large, with a 40″ chest.)

Fabrics & materials used:

• 2.5 yards Black Stretch Faux Leather with Gray Suede Backing
• 2 bottles Angelus Fire Red Leather Paint
• 1 bottle Angelus Black Leather Paint
• Dritz Heavy Duty Snap Plier Kit
• 1 pkg Silver/Brass Heavy Duty Snaps
• 21″ Back Metal Separating Zipper

1. Paint Mixing

Once all of the pattern pieces are cut out, you can start painting. Be sure to have everything in one place, sorted for light red and dark red. Also, don’t be stingy with your paint mixing. You don’t want to run out and risk making a slightly different shade with your next batch.

Light Red

• 1 – Sleeve Top
• 3 – Sleeve Bottom
• 4 – Back Yoke
• 5 – Center Back
• 7 – Center Front Top
• 8 – Center Front Bottom
• 10 – Front Yoke
• 11 – Front Zipper Flap (1)
• 13 – Jacket Waistband
• All belts

Dark Red

• 2 – Elbow Band
• 6 – Side Back
• 9 – Side Front
• 11 – Front Zipper Flap (1)
• 12 – Shoulder Armor
• 14 – Jacket Collar
• 15 – Forearm Armor

I did a lot of mix testing and found that a good ratio for the light red was one entire bottle of Fire Red, mixed with about 2 teaspoons of Black.

The paint will look a lot brighter and more saturated while it’s still wet. It will also show a lot of brush strokes, but after only two coats, I couldn’t even tell the faux leather had been painted. The color was smooth and even.

2. Sleeve Ribbing

Before painting the elbow bands, I tried to decide how I wanted to imitate the ribbing on Star-Lord’s jacket. My first test was encasing some cording withing the faux leather using an invisible zipper foot.

The results ended up being fairly similar to simple pintucks, so I decided to go the pintuck route and skip the extra steps.

To make your own pintucks without a special sewing machine foot, simply fold over your faux leather 1/4″, keep the left side of your foot aligned with the last tuck and the right side aligned with the edge of your fabric.

I put 18″ pintucks on either of my panels, and then gave it a coat of paint.

3. Decorative Stitching

Star-Lord’s jacket has decorate stitching in a few areas, namely pattern pieces 5, 7, and 10, as well as the upper and lower shoulder armor. Before beginning to construct your jacket, follow the stitching lines on each of these pattern pieces.

4. Inserting Snaps

Before getting into the construction details, I wanted to take a minute to discuss adding snaps. The plier kit from Dritz makes it super easy. The black rubber side has a sharp extender that can puncture your fabric for you.

For some of the thicker layers, you can also use an awl or a seam ripper to make the puncture a little larger if need be.

The flat side of the snap gets inserted through the puncture in your fabric and the other side is inserted into the rubber part of the pliers.

Once the pliers are shut, the extender bends the metal of the snap to secure both pieces into place. Super quick, and incredibly easy!

6. Jacket Construction

A. The Torso

I added an extra 1/8″ of seam allowance in order to sew French seams when I cut out my pattern pieces. If you’re not familiar with how to do them, sew your pieces wrong sides together and trim your seam allowances, like you see above, and then sew the same pieces with the right sides together as you normally would. This encases any raw edges within the seam and sometimes eliminates the need for a lining.

To start constructing your jacket, sew the CENTER FRONT TOP (7) to the FRONT YOKE (10). After completing a French seam, I chose to top-stitch them down, like you see in the photo above. Repeat with your CENTER FRONT TOP (7) and CENTER FRONT BOTTOM (8).

The next step is a little tricky, since you’ll need to do a few things at once.

Ultimately, you’ll want to sew the SIDE FRONT (9) to the CENTER FRONT TOP and BOTTOM (7 & 8). I recommend clipping the corner of (7), like you see above, and folding the fabric under. Temporarily secure it with wonder clips.

The reason you don’t want to attach it to your SIDE FRONT (9) yet, is that you’ll need to add two snaps and side belts to the CENTER FRONT BOTTOM (8).

Sew the belts into place first, keeping the fabric folded over. Add in your snaps, and then you can attach everything to your SIDE FRONT (9) using a tucked seam.

The backside of the jacket is much easier to assemble. Sew your two CENTER BACK (5) pieces together before attaching them to the BACK YOKE (4). The SIDE BACK (6) panels go on much easier than their counterparts in the front, since there are no more belts in the back.

Sew the back of your jacket to front at either shoulder, and at each of the side seams. Be sure to sew the front side belts securely into the side seams, like above.

B. The Sleeves

The sleeves have a whole lot of detail – armor at the shoulders, quilted armor on the forearm, and of course the ribbing at the elbows. Before putting everything together, make sure these individual pieces have all of their stitching complete. For the forearm patch, I spaced my stitches 3/4″ apart. Once the stitching is complete, insert the it onto the SLEEVE BOTTOM (3).

Sew two SHOULDER ARMOR (12) pieces, right sides together, leaving the top open to turn right-side out. Top-stitch around the perimeter and stay-stitch it into place on the SLEEVE TOP (1). Sew your SLEEVE TOP (1), ELBOW BAND (2), and SLEEVE BOTTOM (3) together respectively.

Once all the details are done, the sleeves can be attached to the torso. Be sure to clip your seam allowances before completing your seams.

C. Collar & Waistband

Insert one of your waistband pieces to the bottom of your jacket and one of your collar pieces along the neckline. Clip both seam allowances.

Sew the second collar piece to the first, only along the top seam. Do the same with the second waistband piece, but along the very bottom seam.

Pin your zipper along the center front seam, aligning it with the bottom of the waistband first. It should just reach the bottom of your collar, but if it’s a little too long be sure to shorten it from the top.

Sew your zipper into place, flip it inward along the waistband and collar linings, and top-stitch.

I personally stay-stitched the rest of the waistband and collar linings before top-stitching, but the could also be just be pinned.

D. The Details

At this point you should have your jacket almost completely constructed. Add your two arm belts to the bottom of the shoulder armor. Here is where you can also attach the second should armor pieces.

I personally chose to leave mine off so the jacket can be (a little) more suitable for everyday wear, but I did include the pieces in the template!

Last, you’ll need to add the FRONT ZIPPER FLAP (11). The darker red should go on the inside so it’s seen when it’s flipped open. This is also the side where the flat part of the snaps should go. You can see in the image below that I accidentally placed them facing the opposite way (oops!).

Stay-stitch the flap in place, flip it over the zipper, and top-stitch. Your jacket should now be complete to protect you as you guard our galaxy!

There are a couple details that could be added to make it a little more screen accurate. For example, I know there are sleeve belts along the wrists, as well as a zipper under the arm.

I’m sure I’ll notice more things to add when I see the movie, but for that we’ll need to wait until next week!