sweatshirt turned into cute shirt

My favorite piece from the Comfy-Chic Anthro-Inspired Ensemble (my entry for Round One of Crafting with the Stars) was the jacket.

I took this large, shapeless sweatshirt from Goodwill

And turned it into this super cute jacket

My inspiration came (loosely) from Anthropologie’s Swept Swag Sweatshirt.

Wanna know how I made this comfy and cute top?

I liked how the Swept Swag Sweatshirt had the curve and connected at the shoulder. An asymmetrical front slit did the trick (look closely and you can see where I cut it).

I also cut rounded the corners both at the bottom and top. I just free-styled it, but you could use a CD to trace the rounded corners first.

Then there was a lot of trying it on, going to the mirror in the bathroom, back to the sewing machine, back to the bathroom, the sewing machine… you get the picture.

I wanted a fitted look, so the first step in achieving that was making the back smaller. I simply folded the back in half and ran it through my serger. Please note: you really, really, really don’t need a serger to do this. I just liked using mine because I don’t have to pin when using it and it rims the fabric as I go.

Later in the project, it seemed like the back stood up awkwardly off my shoulders/back (does that make sense?) so I cut in a bit (this time using my regular sewing machine because I was upstairs and my serger was downstairs and yes, I’m lazy). You can see in the picture below how my stitching was going straight and then sloped in. This slight adjustment made a HUGE difference in the fit of the jacket.

The next step was adjusting the sleeves and the sides. I really didn’t want to have a modified sweatshirt look, so I majorly took in the sleeves. They now fit tightly to my arms. I just started at the cuff and sewed up the sleeve, turned the corner at the arm pit and sewed down the side seam. I cut of a TON of fabric during this part. And I did it in small increments—trying it on, seeing I could go smaller, etc, etc. You can also see how I angled in under the arm—this allowed it to fit to the body higher up and then loosly fall around the hips.

When I tried it on at this point, the area around the shoulders fit funny—the shoulder seam sat in a weird spot and the sleeves looked almost puffy. All it took was sewing around the sleeve (be careful you don’t sew it closed). You can see in the picture how the grey serged stitch was the original sleeve seam, and I sewed below it. That did the trick!

The jacket was taking a nice shape, but it didn’t have the wow factor I was looking for. So, starting at the shoulder seam and going down to the side seam, I sewed 5 rows of straight stitching around the edges. I also serged the raw edges of the sweatshirt. Again, you don’t need a serger to have a polished look on this project. You could skip that part all together.

I also sewed five rows around the cuffs to help reduce the sweatshirt look.

At this point I liked how it was coming together, but it still lacked wow factor.

(Finally I can show you an “in process” picture!!!)

My star (Michelle from Someday Crafts) and I were stumped, so I asked my parents for input. My dad (go dad!) suggested that I needed a touch of red, like in the movie Sabrina when they’re doing the photo shoot and she put a red scarf on the ground to add a pop of color. My dad was so right!!!

I took a sweater that was in my Goodwill box and cut several strips of the ribbing. I then sewed it around the trim and it curled nicely to make it look almost like piping.

I liked how sewing that on also kind of ruffled the jacket. My last step (or so I thought) was sewing button holes on. At this point I was in a HUGE rush. I only had 5 minutes before I was supposed to leave to take the pictures with my model. When I went to try the jacket on to place the buttons, I discovered I had sewn them on the wrong side!!! Thankfully, that meant they would be covered up. But I didn’t have time to deal with both button holes and sewing on buttons. So the buttons when on the top corner instead, and snaps were sewn underneath. I like the clean look of the buttons just sitting there without the pull of a button hole. Yay for a mistake turning into a great solution!

When I tried this finished jacket on with the finished shirt (tutorial to come in a few days), I was so excited!!! The outfit finally had the wow factor I’d been trying and trying to find.

The tutorial for the shirt and purse will be coming this week! Happy sweatshirt adapting and I’d love to see what you make if you follow this tutorial!

http://madeitonmonday.blogspot.com/2011/01/tutorial-sweatshirt-turned-jacket.html