Replace the Back of a Denim Jacket

 Hello Readers. This white denim jacket seemed perfect. It was soft and broken in a bit. It was the right size and it was a bargain at a neighbors yard sale. My friend E bought it and took it home and realized it had 2 large unicorns on it. The unicorns were attached with all the power of the universe it seemed. She was not loving the unicorns so... let's fix that by replacing the back of the jacket. 

Old jacket-new back panel.

Someone decorated this jacket with a couple unicorn patches and they were the most secure patches I have ever seen in my sewing career. I thought I could just remove them but I was wrong.

 

I worked on removing these patches for a while and it wasn't going well at all. There was some kind of adhesive as well as stitching and I could not remove it. 

 

After a while I had to give up. I moved on to Plan B because this was messy and sloppy looking. I never like to give up so if things don't work out the first time, there is always a Plan B.

 

 I decided to cut the back of the jacket out. I cut out the three back panels and shoulder/neck panel. You can see my cutting expertise here. I used my sharp scissors to get a clean cut edge. I cut out the fabric inside the seams, leaving the seams in place to keep the structure of the jacket intact.

 

This fabric was in my stash and it was very close to the weight and feel of the white denim. I pressed it nice and flat with a hot iron. I wanted it to be a smooth as possible before I cut it. 

 

I used the piece I cut of the jacket to cut out a new jacket back. I cut around the white denim piece and added about 1/4 inch all around the piece. That would give me enough room to sew it to the jacket. I did not want a big seam allowance because I didn't want to change the size of the jacket at all. 

 

Now I had a piece of the new fabric that was exact shape of the old back of the jacket. I could sew it into the jacket and it would fit right in. 

 

I used my serger to sew all the way around the piece to prevent fraying. If you do not have a serger that is OK. People sewed without sergers for decades. I also sewed without a serger for decades, you can too. Use a zigzag stitch on the edges to prevent the edges from fraying. It will work out just fine. 

 

I pinned the new piece into the jacket. You can see the blue pins here. This would hep keep everything in place while I sewed. 

 

I pinned all around the new piece for the jacket. I did stab myself with a pin, but I persevered.

 

I stitched the edges all around to sew it into the jacket. I tucked the new piece inside the opening I cut from the jacket and sewed right on the edge of the jacket seam with a small zigzag stitch to cover the cut edge of the jacket. It was easy to use the edge of the jacket as a guide for where my stitches should be. 

 

I stitched on the outside of the jacket so I could see where the edges of the jacket and the new back piece overlapped. I wanted to make sure the new piece was tucked into the jacket neatly.

 

The piece I cut out fit into the jacket well. The jacket came together quickly and easily. I liked how the new fabric looked too. 

 

I tried to make the design of the fabric well centered in the jacket, you might not have a design or pattern in your fabric to worry about, a solid block of contrasting color would be fun too. Use whatever fabric you like. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Heart Hoodie

 Hello Readers. Valentine's Day is coming soon. I love to make clothes with a theme. I don't know why but I do. Let's just go with it and have some fun with it. I had this plain sweat shirt on-hand and I decided to dress it up a little. 

New Sweatshirt! 

This was a plain sweatshirt jacket. It was simple and it had a zipper in front. That means I could open it up to sew the heart on it. 

 

I also had these sweatshirts that I could use for this project. 

 

I cut 3 hearts out of the sweatshirts. I wanted one in each color. 

 

I took the heart shapes and ironed on some fusible interfacing to give them more structure. I ironed the back of the hearts to the bumpy side of the interfacing. 

 

I played around with the placement of the hearts. I rearranged them until I liked how they looked. 

 

I pinned the hearts in place and sewed around the edges of the hearts to attach the hearts to my jacket. 

 

I sewed the hearts on the sweatshirt one at a time.

 

I used thread that matched each heart to keep the colors the same. 

 

My sweatshirt was ready for Valentine's Day. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simple Fabric Bag

 Hello Readers. I saw a bag online recently and loved it but I had similar fabric in my fabric stash. I thought I could make a similar bag for myself using what I already have. I used the directions from La Fabrique des Heart'istes below but this time I made a much bigger bag.

I made my own bag. 

My finished bag. This is a great project because you can use any piece of fabric. The process is folding the fabric together so it can be any size. Below is the first bag I made from about a year ago. This piece of fabric started at approximately 48' by 42', but all the steps were exactly the same as below.

 

  I made a fun little bag recently. This was really simple to make and the shape was straight-forward. There is a information on this and other projects from the maker La Fabrique des Heart'istes on

My fun new bag!

I wanted to use this fabric sample that I had on hand so I did not follow the recommended measurements very closely. The bag still turned out great. 

I folded my fabric square in half with the right sides facing each other. I sewed around the outer edge and left a small opening to turn it right-side out. I turned it right side out like this.

I ironed the fabric so that it would be flat and straight. 

I gathered the fabric together like this. 

I used a small piece of fabric to wrap around the center. It is going to be a sort of handle. The edges of the faux suede are folded in so there are no cut edges showing. 

I sewed the "handle" together so that it wrapped around the large piece of fabric.

The bag needed to be sewn together. I stitched the 2 sides together along the edges, where I was pointing. I only sewed the lower half. The top needs to stay open, that is how I will put things in and out of the bag.

I folded the bag so that the seams were in the middle. I had to sew these 2 sides and the bottom seams together. 

I was done sewing all the edges together. You can see all the seams. 

I flipped the bag right-side out to hide all those seams inside. 

When all the seams are inside the bag looks cleaner and the openings at the top make it easy to tuck items inside. The way the fabric is folded, the inside has the same fabric as the outside. It looks nicely lined. 

 

I made a second larger tote bag from some fun dog fabric. Thanks for reading along, go check La Fabrique des Heart'istes on YouTube or Facebook for more sewing ideas.

***Year End Update***- These bags are so fun. This was a great project.

Decorate Your Blazer

 Hello Readers. I think the best refashion project is the easiest one that makes the most impact. So, let's do a quick and easy "no-sew" refashion that can change our whole look. I wanted to change the look of this simple blazer. (Similar available here.) Let me show you how I did it, it only took a few minutes.

Let's have fun with pins, brooches, and more. 

Here is the blazer I started with. It's great, it's classic, and it goes with everything. It can obviously be worn just like this but it can also be a little more exciting. I wanted to jazz it up just a little with some pins and broaches. 

 

I dug around in my jewelry box and gathered all the pins I could find. (Similar available here.) You could borrow from a friend, your mom, your sister or your grandma. None of these pins really match or go together at all. That's the idea. The grouping is not meant to be matchy-matchy, it is meant to be a little chaotic and varied. I didn't really have that many pins but I had an idea. 

 

I had some earrings I could use. These are going to look like pins when I stick them in my blazer lapels. When they are mixed with all the other pins it will fill in space and add to the whole look. It doesn't really matter what they look like or where they came from. They will look great when they are mixed into the pins on the lapels.

 

I started pinning all my pins on the lapels of the blazer. I didn't have a really set plan. I tried to put different sizes together so that there was a variation of sizes all over. I didn't want all the larger pins next to each other or all the smaller pins all together. I thought it would look much better if they were sort of scattered around. 

 

I pinned on the pins and then I added a few earrings in between the pins. I didn't want two matching earrings right next to each other. Spacing them out made for a much better look. I used the earring backs to hold the earring on the jacket lapel. I pushed the earring post through the fabric of the jacket and put the earring back on the earring post just like I would on my ears. 

 

I kept adding pins and earrings to both lapels until the lapels were full and I was out of pins and earrings. I liked how they all looked together. It was slightly chaotic but lots of fun. (That sounds like life goals doesn't it? Slightly chaotic but lots of fun.)

 

I think the best part of this was how fast and easy it was. This took no time, no tools and anyone can do it. It is also temporary. You can easily undo all of these pins and wear the blazer again without the pins and earrings whenever you want. 

 

I had fun with this look. It really added a little something to my t-shirt and jeans. So, grab a blazer or even a jacket and all the pins you can find. Add some earrings and you will have a new fun look in no time. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.