Earlier this year, our family gathered at my Mom’s house to say Goodbye to my Grandparents before they headed home to California from their holiday vacation.
While there, my aunt said that she’d brought a coat that she had and could not longer wear. She asked if I’d like it to make something for Lily. Of course, I said “yes!” and got excited thinking about what i could do with it.
The piece, to start with, was a Style&Co (Macy’s brand) Off-White Suede outer, faux-sherpa inner button down coat. It was a size XL in womens.
Since the coat was constructed using a patchwork design, I decided that to salvage as much material as possible, I would disassemble it using only a seam ripper. It was surprisingly easy and fast, and it allowed me to really focus on how each element on the coat was completed, giving me ideas for how to reconstruct it later.
Once the coat was completely taken apart, I started piecing together a pattern. Since I knew in my head what I wanted it to look like, I took all of Lily’s measurements and wrote them on a piece of paper with a diagram of a body. This allowed me to keep better track of EXACTLY where each measurement started and stopped. I drew out each pattern piece i’d need on separate pieces of computer paper with a sharpie. With sweat on my brow and fear in my heart (was I going to trash this perfectly lovely jacket that didn’t NEED to be taken apart in the first place, and not even end up with something wearable in the end?!) I began cutting pieces of suede to match the pattern pieces.
I utilized the existing button holes and buttons, as well as later using the existing collar piece. Pretty much everything else was just cut using random shapes of fabric that didn’t apply to the new coat pattern.
As the project went on, I was more and more excited with the outcome. As I told a friend of mine, I NORMALLY like what I make. I’m RARELY proud of what I make. And I’m *really* proud of this jacket. It came out perfectly. More perfect than I’d even hoped for. And it was so easy to do (from disassembling the XL jacket to sewing the buttons on the final product, the project took me less than 1 day).
Since Lily’s 2nd birthday is coming up next week, it was time to take her out for some birthday photos anyways. So one of her outfits for the photos was her new homemade coat. *swoon*
Check them out below (Hat by beaniesbystacie.com)
I still can’t get over so totally cute that jacket is! You did such a good job you SHOULD be proud of that! <3 As always you make me jealous with all of your talent. tehehe
I loved following along with this one! TFS, it looks great!!
I am very impressed! And your model is beautiful
Great work!!
That’s amazing Jackie! I would have thought you bought that at a designer children’s clothing store. It’s perfect – good work!
Too cute for words!!
I love it !!
That is simply gorgeous!
Beautiful!
You totally rocked this one, Jackie! Great job!
As always, you do a great job, but this…whoa…so lovely! Did you have to use a special needle to sew this since it is suede or did you just use a regular one?
OMG! I cannot get over the fabulousness of this coat. AMAZING! Not to mention that your daughter is simply precious. Happy Birthday to her and kudos to you. She is lucky to have such a creative mother!
That coat is GORGEOUS and you should be *proud*! Your baby is darling, too! Hugs, Cindy
What an awesome refashion! You do such great work
Will you be my mommy?!?
I love the coat, you did such a great job. Can we talk about the hat – do you have that crochet pattern?
Thanks!
As linked in the blog post, the hat is actually from Stacie at http://www.beaniesbystacie.com
[...] you all can’t get enough of Stacie’s beanie from my Coat Recon post, she has graciously offered a discount of 25% to all readers of The Fabric [...]
WOW! I didn’t know you could do this!! I just bought some stuff for our vintage kids pics…. do you think you could make them smaller??
I didn’t know this could even be done:)