Upcycled Men’s Jacket Fun

Project #6

Two weeks ago I went to a Crafts Fair with a friend and they were selling some cute jackets like this but nothing fit me. So I went on a hunt to my local thrift stores (now becoming my fav places to go) to find a men’s jacket to embellish. I bought two at $5.99 each, what a bargain. Beautiful wool, fully lined and in good condition.

First, the fun part…taking out all my antique buttons and trying to find ones to go with the jacket and make a pleasing pocket arrangement. It took a while.

It was fun to finally have a reason to use all the hundreds of buttons I’ve been collecting for years!

Then in my newly organized Embellishments drawer, I found a small bolt of black galloon lace, 5 inches wide. Who knows where it came from and how long I’ve had it! But now that I need it, it is handy.

I folded it in half and put it around the cuff. If the sleeves were too long, I would turn them up on the outside, stitch them down and then add lace over them, but these were a good length.

I zigzagged the scallop edge with matching black thread and you can’t see the stitching. It is folded so that the stitching caught the lace on the inside and holds it down.

For the collar, I pinned the scallop close to the edge and then folded the lace to match the lapel seam line. I folded the lace to the inside and cut it to match the collar seam where it is attached to the jacket.  The outer edge that you see in this picture was zigzagged but the inner edge I just hand basted down.

Last step, cut some lace, gather it and put it in the pocket.

One thing I will say is that it is not as easy as it looks to sew down these buttons in precision. I had to snip and redo some a few times to make them line up right.  That square button is supposed to be ‘on point’. I have a second blazer that I started but don’t like the button arrangement so I will work on that and show you when it is done.