A little bit 80's

Now, I was born in the 80's, wore neon and animal print when I was a little girl, and love me some 80's rock...but the rewind on 80's fashion that has taken place (and perhaps hasn't ended?) never really caught my attention other than to remind me why certain things should be left well alone ;) BUT, this next refashion actually gives me a little of the 80's vibe!!! *gasp*

As soon as I'd removed the sleeves from this jacket refashion, I knew that I wanted to reuse them as sleeves somewhere else, and almost immediately decided it should be a black top. I had a black pocket t-shirt I could have used, but I wore it often and knew that I'd like to keep my basic black T a basic black T. Then I happened upon this Banana Republic long sleeved black t-shirt at the thrift store and bought it for $2 on half off day.

I started by seam ripping the sleeves off of the black T and proceeded to use them as a guide for pinning in the old jacket sleeves to fit the arm holes. The jacket sleeves had been a little puffed so I went with it, pinning them along the top into several folds that would give the same effect on the new shirt while making them smaller to fit.

I then sewed the new sleeves into the top (I left the sleeves right side out and turned the sleeveless top inside out, lined up my edges and simply ran it through my machine to close it up). Then, I turned the entire top inside out and proceeded to pin the sleeves where I had gauged they'd need to be taken in to give me the fitted look I desired. Ran that through my machine as well.

After trimming the excess, zigzagging (because I don't have a serger),  and picking out more loose threads from the seam ripping process (pesky buggers), I shortened the sleeves by folding over the portion to be removed and pinning them in place to preserve the cuff.

I cut away the excess fabric before running this through my machine slowly (for things like hems of pants they'll fit around the base of my machine and I can topstitch them down, but for this much smaller cuff, I laid it on my machine arranging the "bottom" of the cuff under the needle and slowly rotated as I sewed). Does that make sense? I'd never tried this before and I'm sure there is a name for it (always is). If you don't get what I'm saying, I know there are some amazing tutorials out there highlighting different sewing techniques (of which I should partake myself) that could explain/show this more accurately. Moving on.

Again, just had to zigzag the raw edges to avoid any fraying and that was that! Here is how it came out...

I am a bit undecided on this one mostly from a style perspective. I think it could work with a pencil skirt, for sure and with dark skinny jeans too, but is the nod to the 80's too much or not a problem? I'm leaning towards not a problem...I think ;)

Thanks for viewing and hope you like it! There will be no waste as I am making myself a headband for keeping my ears warm as I run with the leftover black sleeves. Time to tackle the next project! Christmas presents, it is...

Peace,

Andrea

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