Refashion Sweater to Jacket

My love of refashioning started 20+ years ago.  I attended a lot of formal events and refused or more likely didn’t want to be caught wearing the same garment as someone else.   I would go to the garment district and purchase one of their sample sale suits,  gowns or dresses.  Make a pit stop at M&J trimming and with my loot of trims, headed home to refashion.

I've continued my love of refashioning and love looking in my closet and admiring the new life that I have created with an old garment or a basic rtw piece.  Of course, over the years some garments have become a casualty of war, retired or donated.

My refashioning also spilled over when my daughter was a wee-one and growing faster than I could blink my eyes.  With that, I quickly took a stance that her old uniforms and some of her garments could work not only for school, but weekends and summertime too.  Most of her growing & sprouting was height wise, so her uniform blouses/top were cut to short sleeves and her pants/jeans to shorts.

Fast forward and I am still at it.  My refashions are minimal, and like to think they pack a punch when done.   Let’s take my most recent refashion.

I must admit that when I initially purchased this $3.00 sweater it was for hats and guess in my haste actually thought the print were flowers.  However, once it was laid out my mind started ticking... and tick it did.

I like the heftiness of the sweater and thought a cute jacket would make a better refashion.  I tried the sweater on and marked where I wanted to cut, then proceeded to cut at the waist and center front.  To give the jacket a lil varsity style I added navy blue stretch faux leather (Spandex World)  

Had to give the faux leather a lil press with a pressing cloth to knock out the wrinkles

Cut two 1-1/2" strips for the front raw edges and a 6" band for the bottom.  Straight stitched the faux leather strips to the raw edges with right sides together and folded to the inside and final stitched.  The bottom band was fold and serged to the raw hem of the sweater.  

Wrong side out

  Sweater is a Marisa Christina - Hand knitted

Right side of Sweater

For the closures went with black gunmetal heavy duty dritz snaps (Joanns).

This jacket worked up beautifully, however, in need of sleep, but compelled to push on with the refashion, the snaps are on the wrong side.  Buuuuut, it works even with that hiccup... and call this jacket.. the fruits of my labor...lol

I also made a matching skirt from the leftover stretch faux leather with McCalls 6654.  Modified the skirt by adding inseam pockets from New Look 6351 and also added a yoga waistband.

This is my continued love of twin sets....

Nothing like a refashion that is easy and adds variety to my work wear.

Until then,

Have a Great Week !!