Ugly Coat Refashion: Part One
Well, here it is folks, the moment you’ve all been waiting for.
I finally got the nerve to make the first chop on the ugly coat refashion I’ve been telling you about.
You guys gave me a ton of great ideas on how to refashion the coat, and to be honest, some of the ideas intimidated me a bit.
I was like, “I don’t know if I can do it!,” but I’m glad you have so much confidence in me!
Although it’s not finished yet, I got quite a bit accomplished today, and I’d like to share my progress with you!
The first thing that desperately needed to be done…was removing those hideous buttons!
pick pick pick
Whew! That’s better!
This coat has a zip-out jacket-liner along with regular lining. I started by unzipping the first liner, and then I used my seam-ripper to take out the zipper (which also took out the other lining with it).
zip-out liner removed
ripping out that zipper
After deconstructing the coat, I was left with all of these…
Look at all those parts!
Next, I chopped off some of that length…
big chop
Do you notice those black things hanging out of the top part of the coat? They’re the pockets! I made the cut right underneath the pockets, so I could keep them. I have to have pockets, otherwise that would just bug me. : )
After trying on the coat again, I realized it needed to be taken in quite a bit! So I took it in from the back.
pinning the back
And also from the sides…
pinning the sides
After making sure the back and sides were pinned right where they needed to be, I put them through my machine…
whirrrrr
The overwhelming bit of advice I received from readers of this blog and also from the MadMama Facebook page, was to change out the buttons to some black ones…
Much better huh?
Here’s a closer look…
Anchors! These buttons came off an old pea coat that I thrifted a long time ago! 
What do you think?
Now that the coat isn’t so baggy on me and has some new and improved buttons, I got busy cutting strips from the bottom (cut off) part of the coat.
3″ wide strips
I ended up getting 4 – 3″ wide strips out of all of the leftovers.
Guess what I’m using these for?
I decided to add on a ruffle along the bottom of my new coat, so I started with the strip that already had a finished edge, and pinned it around the bottom of the coat to make a ruffle.
like this in the front…
…and this in the back
Since I took the coat in so much, the strip was longer than the coat, so i just folded the strip over here and there as I pinned it along the edge to make a pleated ruffle. If my explanation did nothing to help you visualize what the heck I’m talking about, here’s a ruffle tutorial via Bandy Canyon. (The tutorial shows much more uniform pleated ruffles, my pleats were spread out a bit more.)
Once it was pinned all the way around the way I wanted it, I sewed it all together.
Woohoo! More than halfway done!
Well, that’s as far as I got tonight. I plan on adding ruffles onto the cuffs to lengthen the sleeves (as they’re too short on my long arms).
I also plan on adding some detail to the back of the coat, perhaps another ruffle or two, and adding the lining back into the coat.
I’m still not sure if I should leave the collar on or remove it.
What do you think?
Stay tuned to see what happens in 49-Cent Friday: Ugly Coat Refashion: Part Two!
~Jen
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I’m so glad you left it as a coat! Hideous or not, I was a fan (except for the buttons). Bigger fan of the anchors. Can’t wait to see the end result!
Thanks! I’m glad you like the anchors too!
Holy crap!! I thought there was no hope for that jacket and now I want it!! LOL – you’ve got serious skills. You should remake old clothes into new ones (like above) and open a shop…..seriously!
Thanks! I just might do that!
Can’t wait to see how the ruffles turn out!
Thanks! So far so good!
I love the ruffles idea and am excited to see how that turns out. A question?
How did you do the pinning on the back of the coat ? Did someone help? I would like to take in a couple tops but I am scared that I will mess them up??
There was an existing seam down the middle of the back, so after putting the coat on my dress form (inside out) I just pinched the seam to where it needed to be taken in, and then pinned. After I did that to the back, I realized that the coat was still a bit baggy in the front, so that’s why I took the side seams in the same way a little bit too. If you don’t have a dress form, I would suggest just putting the tops on inside out (so you can see the seams) and then pinching in the seams where they need to be taken in and then pin them in place. You might need to have somebody help you with that part. Also, after you sew the seams in place, don’t trim anything until after trying it on again, that way, if it’s messed up at all, you can just take out your seams with your handy seam ripper and re-pin it. Once you cut, it’s too late, so better to be safe than sorry! Hope that helps and good luck. Also, I was very apprehensive about refashioning this coat because I’d never done anything like it before and I didn’t know what to expect, so I made it out to be much more difficult in my head than it ended up being. If you’re nervous about messing up your shirts, perhaps try taking in something that you don’t care about messing up first to practice beforehand.
~Jen
Misty, if you don’t have a dress form, here’s a link that shows you several different ways to make your own! My favorite is the duct tape version!
http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/3659/clone-yourself-a-fitting-assistant/page/all
Glad the ugly buttons went. You are very good at what you are doing. You can go far with what you ‘ve started. I am very proud of you.
Thanks Aunt Joann! That’s so sweet! You just made my day!
Love you!
That’s amazing. I can’t wait for the final result!
Thanks Dorine!
Love it! Oh, and I vote to keep the collar. It’s fantastic.
Thanks Leila! And thanks for following!
~Jen
Love coat refashions! They’re so satisfying once they’re done. Can’t wait to see the result, looks like a great start.
Thanks Jessie!
It’s going to look amazing! Can’t wait to see the end result. I vote to keep the collar too
Thanks! I like the vintage style of the collar, but I wasn’t sure if maybe replacing it with a black collar to match the buttons would be better? Thanks for your vote!
~Jen
Hi I like your blog and enjoy reading it everytime I visit. Hence I have nominated you for Very Inspiring Blogger Award. Your acceptance is totally optional and depends on your wish to join in or not.
You can find it here http://femmehavenn.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/very-inspiring-blogger-award/
Regards
Shobhnaa
Wow! Thank you very much! I’m honored!
Wow! You figured out a good way to reuse the coat!
I have nominated your blog for the Liebster award.
If you want to head over to my blog you can check it out
http://happyandharried.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/the-liebster-award/
Thank you! That’s very sweet of you!
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visiting from recycled fashion. What a huge amopunt of work. Amazing
I love Recycled Fashion!
Thanks for stopping by and for your kind words! It was a lot of work, (and sore fingers) but the challenge made it more worthwhile once it was done! (Plus I had a green coat to wear on St. Patrick’s Day!) 
Thanks so much for sharing this, your coat is amazing, so much work, and what a great addition with your anchor buttons, love those!
Thanks Erica! I got my first compliment today when I wore it to the library. That felt pretty good.
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