How to insulate a jacket for winter!

So I wanted to design and create a Jacket that could be worn in the Australian summers and winters. The first thing I thought of when I thought of warm jackets was titanium lined ski jackets. Not everyone has access to this material so I went through possible options, Tinfoil that lead to space blankets. Originally it was used in bathrooms, this craze soon died out but NASA thought it had good potential. So they developed it further (More on the history here). And what we have today is an innovative and simple lifesaving device.

So without further ado lets make a RMSJ (Reversible Multi-Season Jacket)!

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

Choosing your Jacket and space blanket should be easy. Here is what I used and some tips on choosing:

1. The Jacket

The Jacket should be of small thickness. I chose one of my old mountain biking fleeces as it was thin and if it got ruined it would not matter. Also the design was black helping absorb more heat from the sun on cold days.

2. The Space Blanket

The space blanket that I chose was from Kathmandu (one of the dominant camping suppliers in Australia). It was labeled as an "Emergency Survival Blanket". I chose one of the larger sizes as I could use the leftovers for prop making.

The overall cost for this project was $6:00, as the jacket was already in my possession.

Step 2: Dismantling the Jacket

To put in the space blanket effectively the most practical way is to sew it on (I thought about hot glue but it seemed too messy).

To be able to sew in the space blanket we need to take the Jacket apart, there are 2 ways of doing this:

Unpick the seams
Cut the seams.

Both have their disadvantages, unpicking the seams is harder and will take longer but you will retain the same fabric area. With scissors it will take a hundredth of the time but you may loose 2-3cm of fabric (This will make the jacket smaller, if I were to do this again I would get a jacket that was a few sizes to big)

Note: When dismantling the jacket, Label the sleeves and sides so that you don't mix them up.

Step 3: Cutting the Blanket

The Next step is to cut your blanket to the size of your jacket areas.

Simply trace your jumper pieces onto the space blanket. When cutting it out try to get more rather than less as when you sew it on you are bound to lose some area. I decided not to put any space blanket on the collar as I wanted to fold it back on itself for sun protection. To get the blanket on the sleeves right I needed to redo the seams to get the perfect stitch.

Step 4: Sewing the Blanket

Now onto the hard but fun part! Sewin the blanket was challenging, as the jumper that I was using was a fleece it stretched a lot leaving my space blanket looking a bit messed up. Start off by pinning your space blanket to your fabric. Try to get the blanket as tight as you can.

Note: When sewing on the blanket put the stitch on a higher setting so you have less holes in the space blanket. This will make the blanket more resistant to tearing.

Step 5: Spice It Up!

Spice it Up!

This step is to make the jumper more "Aesthetically Pleasing". I went along the seams with my sewing machine to make it look a bit nicer. This step is not compulsory but it will make your jacket look nicer when it is inside out.