Jacket + Sweater = Cropped Jacket + Dress

A good quality but rather boring plaid jacket is spiced up by being cut under the bust into two pieces. The sleeves are cut at the same line. Trim is sewn around the cut edges. The bottom of the jacket is sewn on to the bottom of the sweater. The sleeve bottoms are opened up and sewn together in a square. Triangles are sewn at the side seams to create a bottom for the handbag. A stiff insert is fit into the bottom of the handbag. Eyelets are made at the top of the handbag seams. Split key rings insert into the eyelets, and the handle attaches to the rings.

Tools and Materials

Jacket
Sweater
2 yards trim
2 eyelets
2 split key rings
Stiff insert for handbag bottom
Handbag handle
Thread, scissors, pins, sewing machine

Cut the jacket, lining and sleeves under the bust, adding ½” seam allowance for the trim, and sew the trim on top. The bottom of the jacket and lining is sewn on to the bottom of the sweater just above the ribbing. Place right sides together and stitch.

The sleeve bottoms are opened up at the seam opposite the buttons, which will be at the top of the handbag. Pull the lining up out of the way, and sew the jacket sleeves together down the sides and across the bottom. Triangles are sewn at the inside bottom of the two side seams to create a flat bottom for the handbag. A stiff insert is fit into the bottom of the handbag. Then sew the lining together around three sides, add the triangles, and push the lining into the handbag. Eyelets are made at the top of the handbag seams according to the package directions. Split key rings insert into the eyelets, and the handle attaches to the rings.

The cropped jacket and handbag were shown in the 2009 Summer Issue of Altered Couture Magazine.

      Jacket and sweater before

   






      

Fringed Tweed Jacket

A thrift store tweed jacket gets a new look similar to a jackets seen on the current Chanel runway. The sleeves are cropped just below elbow length and fringed 1". The sleeve linings are turned under and sewn together with the coordinating braid attached just above the fringe.

The  bottom of the jacket is cropped at the waistline, fringed 1", lining turned under and sewn together with the braid around the bottom, front openings and neckline. Some of the cropped off material is cut 4" wide and pieced to about 48" long, and gathered to form the ruffle around the neckline.

Chest pockets are removed from the original jacket and replaced on the new design.

Because the tweed is busy and a loose weave, it turned out OK to zigzag stitch the buttonholes closed. They really don't show. I used 3 yards of upholstery braid. The one thing I would do differently is to taper the back a bit lower than the front.

Jacket Before

Stimulus Jacket

At my favorite thrift shop there is a long row of quality jackets which do not seem to sell that well. When most of them survived the semiannual $10 a bag sale, I decided to take action. Using the forest green plaid jacket as the base, I found two jackets and a vest to echo the accent colors in the plaid. I cut off the bottom of the plaid jacket and replaced with the bottom of the red jacket. Red scraps embellish the lapels. The blue jacket provides inserts in the sleeves and accent triangles at the bottom. Plaid scraps embellish the blue. The back is cut off the vest, and the front pieces are sewn onto the top of the jacket. Four pieces are cut from the sweater, sewn together the long way, and serged around the edges to make a coordinating scarf.

This is the base starting jacket.

The bottom of this jacket replaced the bottom of the plaid jacket. Pieces of the red jacket embellished the lapels.

This jacket supplied embellishments for the bottom of the new jacket and for the middle of the sleeves.

This vest goes over the jacket.

This sweater cut into strips made the long scarf.

















Tools and Materials

Three jackets about the same size
Vest large enough to fit over jacket
Sweater
Thread, scissors, pins, sewing machine

Playing with Houndstooth

A black and white houndstooth weave jacket was the inspiration for playing with the houndstooth design on the plain turquoise silk sheath.

To make the jacket a bit more playful, I removed the velvet color and slip stitched closed the neckline fabric. The jacket was cut off and refinished below the bust in front dipping down to just below the waistline in back to make more of a caplet. The lapels were closed in front with two buttonholes and two shell buttons added.

The sheath was shortened to knee length and spray painted with silver paint in an enlarged houndstooth design. The back of the stencil was sprayed with tack adhesive so that it would lie very flat on the fabric.

The Web site www.thescottishweaver.com has examples of several different types of houndstooth weaves. The one in the jacket is called Turnberry, so I enlarged and printed out a sample of that design. I used the enlargement as the template for cutting the stencil.








Tools and MaterialsDress
Jacket
Two buttons
Stencil paper
Heavy duty craft knife
Spray paint
Spray tack adhesive
Transparent tape

Sewing machine

Tips

Shake the spray paint and clean the nozzle frequently.

Wipe the stencil off front and back before each use.

Mask areas around the stencil so that overspray does not ruin the design.