Wednesday Edit: Yay! Can include pictures – had to go another way to do it.

This was before:  (Hi Readers, I apologize for not including photographs of this refashion — because I can’t. Because the blogging software won’t let me. Rather than not post anything, I’ll direct you to my Facebook page where I’m posting images. So sorry :(.)

——————————————————————

It was a wondrous moment when I looked at the insides of Ann Taylor Loft’s lined, grey silk dupionni boxy jacket from many seasons ago.  The fabric is great, it had all the structure inside that a well-made jacket should have.  But it missed the mark on design. This is just my opinion; to a great extent “design” is subjective.

I’ve said it before, but family closets are my favorite refashion material resources. This Loft jacket belonged to a daughter, which she bought but did not particularly like after the purchase, the wearing and the push to the closet back. We know why.

Assess:

The sleeves are taking away goodness from this otherwise good looking cropped jacket. They’re tailored into the armhole, but gathered into a cuffed band at elbow level. The band actually buttons into a real buttonhole. The above-elbow length doesn’t do it justice.

The back has pleats falling down from a back yolk; I can easily remove them by ripping out and gathering the excess into a center back seam, to follow the natural back curve.  I’m on the fence about them, and will leave well alone for now. What do you think?

I really like the welt pockets, and most of all, I love the side pieces of the jacket (there is no conventional side seam). The side pieces are such a good way to shape the jacket some more if needed.

The peter-pan collar and the buttons and buttonhole form the perfect union on the jacket front

Jacket insides:

I discovered that the jacket and lining armhole seam were not anchored to each other, except by a strip of lining loosely sewn to each side inside the seamline at the top (left photo.

The armhole seam was well stabilized on the fashion fabric with a fused interfacing strip, plus a stabilizing tape sewn into it. The entire front was interfaced with a good fusible, as was the yoke and the side pieces. Right photo, above.

 

Refashion:

Couple of “outtakes” and case of the giggles……

First, I tried a trick which I’d heard of but never used:  cutting the sleeve off and leaving just enough fabric to turn back inside to form a facing.  But it didn’t work for me; it looked weird and began to look “refashioned”. I think a good refashioned piece should look as if it was originally made that way.

So, the sleeves were removed, then the edges of the armhole basted together – to keep them together.

I used the sleeves to create bias strips which were sewn to the armhole sleeves, right sides together, then turned back inside. Turn in the raw edge of the bias again; pin down, baste to make sure everything is good. Hand sew with a slip stitch to the lining; every few stitches you should catch a thread of the fashion fabric.

Press (using a press cloth) and we’re done!

Happy sewing!

Samina