Leather details

Last month, I turned a silver cowl-necked sweater into a zippered cardigan. You can see that post here. At the time, I debated added some black leather strips to either side of the zipper to make it look more like my inspiration piece. Well, I finally got around to doing it. I used a very thin suede, sewing the right side down very close to the zipper, then folding it over and top-stitching the sides farther away from the zipper. I like the extra bit of edge it lends to the sweater.

Once I got brave enough to work with leather, I decided to tackle another project I'd been thinking about doing for a long time. I'd seen a sweater with elbow patches and a back panel across the yoke. I decided to try that idea on a blazer. Sadly, I forgot to take a before picture, but I used a nice wool blazer with a gray and navy herringbone pattern. Here's how it turned out:

I. used a dark navy leather and hand-stitched the elbow patches in place. I wanted a very even stitch, so I used a serrated pattern-tracing wheel to make little pinpricks at even intervals all the way around the edge of the patch, about a quarter of an inch from the edge. This also helped to get the needle through the blazer and the patch, though it was still difficult. I sewed a few inches along one side of the patch, then a few on the opposite side, to make sure it was laying flat on the blazer. The back panel was even trickier. I didn't want to hand-sew it, so I used a leather needle on my sewing machine. The top and bottom edges went pretty well, but the sides that curved around the sleeves were thick and made the thread break. It came out alright, though. I think it looks pretty awesome, and I might even be brave enough to try refashioning more leather items in the future.

Thanks for reading!

-Amy