Saturday, December 31, 2016

#36 Back to School Wardrobe: Grey Vest from Blazer

REFLECTIONS: This grey vest is for the Jan/Feb school wardrobe.
This is #2 of pre-retirement grey blazers / suit jackets re-fashioned into school days vests
to wear with winter pants and jeans. This is my first education job where jeans can be worn daily.

BEFORE: Much worn and now too small pre-retirement jacket from the closet.
Moths and wear left bare spots in the sleeves. Lining was ok.
Years ago shoulder pads were removed and oversized collar was trimmed down.

STEPS: This jacket will become an easy to wear vest.  
  • Use a seam ripper to remove and open the jacket sleeves and side seams.
  • Serge exposed seams to prevent additional fraying.
  • Use sleeves and sleeve lining to cut side inserts to enlarge the sides.
  • Trim shoulder seam to fit narrow shoulders. Slowly 1/4" at a time, trying on for fit.
  • Cut and insert bias armhole trim from the silk tie.
  • Hand stitch trim fron the stash, Machine stitching did not lay flat and gathered jacket fabric..
  • Change buttons found in the stash.

  AFTER:  Easy wear vest for a variety of grey, pink, black, white, purple tone turtlenecks. 
AFTER: Vest with top worn with original blazer.
Shoulders were trimmed back to fit narrow shoulders.
Pinterest search shows some vests shoulders trimmed very narrow. 


AFTER:
Handstitched stash trim was worth the time.


New button from the stash.
Note: true collers are dark grey and black
Bias trim cut from stash tie.


Auditioning trim.
Original double breasted buttons.

BEFORE:
Much worn: Pre-retirement blazer from the closet.

5 comments:

I Can Work With That said...

You are really getting a lot of "new" clothes from your old clothes. I love it. This jacket to vest is great. That black trim is really cute. t is a nice contrast on the gray. Very nice.
Chickie EOD

Heidi said...

I like the contrasting trim as well. It "kicks it up a notch".

RanchHouse said...

Chickie and Heidi, Thanks on the trim comments. I hoped it was good.
This no shopping for a year has really pushed me to re-fashion items I would not wear. I am really benefiting.

whatthesew said...

I think this is my favourite of your jacket transformations, its the trim that clinches it.

Amy Jo said...

That trim makes a huge difference. I really like the contrast!