Sweatshirt Refashion: Project #2

This is a project that has been on my list for a few months. In September Nordstrom sent out their Fall Preview Catalog and I saw this jacket. Kind of whimsical and different. Perfect for a clothing refashion. I finally got around to making it this week.

This is what I did:

I took this boxy sweatshirt.

Cut a line down the center. I took out a center section of the front to make it a little less boxy. Then I hemmed the center section and sewed them.

Then I made the leaves. I used an old skirt for the material. I cut one leaf and then used that as a template for the other petals. Then I sewed the petals on the sweatshirt. I left about 1/2 inch all around. I wrapped part of the flower around the back of the sweatshirt.

I took some thin, black satin ribbon and covered up the stitching with the ribbon. To make the ribbon stay smooth, I sewed both sides of the ribbon. I went around the petal sewing the ribbon on one side and then turned around and sewed the ribbon on the other side. Going around the curved part of the petal is a little tricky, but I went slow.

Then I took another skirt with some little raised dots and made a circle for the center of the flower. I folded the edges under and pinned the material. Then I went around the edges of the circle, leaving about 1/4 inch on the edges. I used a decorative stitch just for fun.

Once the flower was done, I measured the length of the sweatshirt and marked where the buttons would go. Let me just say — I am not a pro at putting buttons on! It took quite a while, but I got the buttonholes and buttons done. An easier way to do this would be do sew snaps on or hooks. Just keeping it real!

Then I make the stem. I used another old skirt. I love the material — kind of shiny. This is actually my favorite part of the sweater. I love the contrast of the shininess of the material here against the black cotton of the sweatshirt. I started the stem on one side of the sweater and had it go across the other side. So there were actually two stems. The shorter one, I measured from underneath one of the petals to the edge of the side of the jacket and added about 1 inch, so it could wrap inside the edge of the jacket. Then I took a section of material and wrapped it around a few times so it was cylindrical. Then I sewed both ends of the roll down at the lengths to hold it shut. I then used embroidery floss and hand-sewed the stem on . I wrapped it around the inside of the jacket and hand-sewed it down. I did the same thing on the other side of the jacket. I wrapped the stem across the shoulder and up to the back of the neck on the back and finished it off at the seam. I used my machine to secure the end of the stem at the back, using a sturdy finishing stitch.

Finally I cut out two leaves to go with the stem on the other side of the jacket. I used embroidery floss to attach those to the jacket. And I was done.