Bomber Jacket? Baseball Jacket? What is the difference? A review of Style Arc's Sharon Sweat Top.

What IS the difference between a baseball jacket and a bomber jacket in today's women's fashion? I don't profess to be a fashion expert but I kept seeing both terms used for what seemed to be the same or similar styles of jackets.

I did a little Pintrest search as "research" and came up with many similar jackets using both baseball and bomber jacket as search terms. Here are two very similar examples which were called different things.

This is listed as a "baseball jacket": (From here)

This one is a "bomber jacket": (From here)

I don't see much of a difference. Do you? After a lot of searching and looking at some really great jackets I've established that:

1. The terms "bomber jacket" and "baseball jacket" seem to be more or less interchangeable in women's fashion today
2. More "baseball jackets" than "bomber jackets" have snaps as opposed to zippers for the front closure
3. More "bomber jackets" than "baseball jackets" are made from or partially made from leather
4. "bomber jackets" sometimes have more pockets than "baseball jackets"

Some have raglan sleeves, some dropped or set in sleeves. Some use ribbing at the hem, sleeves and collar. Some use some other fabric (often with elastic inside at hem and sleeve cuffs). On some the bottom hem ribbing meets the front zipper and some have small panel of the fashion fabric on each side of the zipper at the bottom. There are many variations of the style above which are referred to sometimes as baseball jackets and sometimes as bomber jackets. 

In the sewing blogosphere I have mostly seen the style above referred to as a bomber jacket. There are many great patterns out there. I already sewed myself a lined version of Burda 7210 a few months ago as a Spring jacket. It's a great jacket which worked well for cool spring days and summer evenings but I wanted something different now. What I was looking to add to my fall/winter wardrobe was a fashion top version of the bomber jacket. I wanted something I could layer over a light top for indoors when it's cold out or even use as a very light jacket for days that aren't frigid (not too many of those unfortunately) Call it a more fashionable version of a sweatshirt.

 I found it in Style Arc's Sharon Sweat Top. It's not called a "bomber jacket" but it definitely fits the type of jacket I was finding in my Pintrest and Google searches. 

I made a few changes to the pattern. Most notably were the changes I did NOT have to make. I did not add any width to the waist or hip of the pattern which is very unusual for me being that I  am pear shaped and usually need to add to the hips and waist of tops. I normally use two pattern sizes larger for my skirts than I do for my tops. I measured the flat pattern and compared it to some sweatshirt type tops I own and decided to skip adding any width at all. It seems the pattern must be designed to fit loosely below the bust. It fit me perfectly without alteration! I did take about 2" of length off the bottom (moving the pockets higher when I did that) and a bit less than that off the sleeve length. My ribbing must have been stretchier than the ribbing the top was designed for because I had to take a bit of length off the sleeve and hem ribbing. I also adjusted the collar size slightly in this version, making it shorter and narrower as I didn't like how the larger collar lay on me. (It looked fine on my wearable muslin made out of french terry so it may just be the fabric I was using)

Speaking of fabric, the main body is what I am pretty sure is Neoprene/Scuba. It is a beautiful teal color. I bought it from Kashi at Metro Textiles a few weeks ago. He didn't call it that but it feels just like the "scuba" fabric I have bought from online fabric stores recently. The sleeves are black Siera Faux Leather" from fabric.com. The ribbing (black as well) is cotton "Heavy Rib Knit" from The Fabric Fairy. The zippers are from Wawak, I always stock up when they go on sale. I like the metal ones because I can easily adjust the size with my set of mini pliers.

All the pictures are indoors because all the outdoor pictures I tried to take made me look awful. I need to work on the photography thing a little more. Only a LITTLE more because part of what made me stop blogging all those months ago was frustration with photography. Photography is not my hobby. I'd so much rather sew!

Here's an outdoor photo. This is a quick snapshot my 10 year old took for me a few minutes after I finished it. I'm wearing it over a bulky sweater so the fit is a little snug. It's focus is fuzzy but it shows the color better.

I sewed the Style Arc label in the back neck facing :-)