Akatsuki coat

One could print out the clouds on dark-T-shirt Transfer paper, but its important to use cotton material if one does this so it will transfer the best that it can, and also keep in mind that the clouds ARE different shapes and different sizes, so you probably don't want to use only one pattern for the cloud, modify it a bit. For the big clouds on the bottom, you'll also need to print out at least two peices of paper and overlap them in the ironing, since the bottom clouds are much larger than one sheet of paper. But I think, if done carefully, that'd give a very nice, clean look.

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Making the Coat

What you'll end up with is four pattern peices, two of each of the following

I figured, with the Akatsuki members being martial artists of sorts, I'd model the pattern after the Keikogi's (longer style Gi meant for Kendo) that I have lying around. But this can be done with a regular T-shirt or a favorite fitting shirt as follows:

Step 1 - Main body
Lay out the shirt on fabric, and mark along the outside of it to the desired length of the coat. Be sure to leave space for the seams! Then cut out this pattern. (Depending on how complicated you want to get...for the simplest pattern, use double thickness when you cut out around the shirt, and then you will have your front and back peices. If you prefer that there not be a seam in the back of the coat, use single thickness when you cut out the front, and then cut out the back on a fold line, like shown with the sleve, below). Cut everywhere that there is a green line.

If you used the easier method, your front and back will look the same, and thats fine. If you want to be a little more careful, cut the neck of the back shallower and the neck of the front deeper. It will sit on your shoulders better.

Step 2 - The Sleeves
For the sleve, take your shirt, once more, and lay it out so the top of the sleve is alligned with the fold line in the fabric

Then, again, cut along the green lines. ^.^

the sleeves

BEFORE sewing, you want to put on your cloud peices, as its REALLY hard to put those on after the jacket is put together.

For sewing, and for the collar, you basically follow along the same rules as you would for making any garmet:

To get the collar to stand up nicely, buy some fusible interfacing and fuse it to the black of the collar. For the lining of the coat, cut out the pattern again in red and sew it to the inside of the jacket. I used little clasps to close mine, but a zipper could be used, or buttons.