Tuesday, February 25, 2014

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

8 comments:

Hawk3ye said...

The leather yoke is especially awesome!

Andrea said...

I'm so glad you went for it with the trim on the sweater, Amy! It looks exactly like your inspiration piece :) And I'm a big fan of the blazer...and leather...yep, you done good!

Clare said...

Likey likey!

Mary said...

I really like the way the sweater turned out with the black trim & I LOVE the blazer with the leather. Great job!

cfort82 said...

Nice job on your projects. I really like the blazer.

Cindy - EOD

Sandy said...

Amazing the difference of the leather on the sides of the zip!
and the blazer is so much more interesting.
Sandy in the UK

Andrea said...

Oh, and I love your braid in the final pic! :) So pretty!

jennifer elliott said...

I love the leather addition to the zippered sweater. Great job!