Mary's Thrifty Chic

Upcycling thrift shop clothing/sewing

Jackets

Jean Jacket with Boro Detail

By 4 Comments

Hello Everyone!

Recently, I became very interested to incorporate Japanese style Boro stitching into some of my refashions. The word boro is derived from the Japanese boroboro, meaning something tattered or repaired. Boro refers to the practice of reworking and repairing textiles through piecing, patching and stitching, in order to extend their use.

Boro style decoration on a jean jacket

This is the finished project. It is not technically authentic Boro because this was not a mending project. I just wanted to decorate the jacket, but I think that the result is beautiful. It was a journey to be happy with the end result. This finished piece did not happen overnight. It came in stages:

Stage 1

I found a perfectly fitting white denim jean jacket at the thrift store. The price tag was $4.50.

This is the before with only the collar and pocket stitching finished

Stage 2

Here is a close up picture of the decorative stitching on the pockets and the collar. I used a heavyweight embroidery thread.

At first I thought this was all I would do to the jacket, but it would have been so boring…

Stage 3

At first I thought I would just do some scraps over a gray denim back panel. The only problem was when I mocked it up on the back it just looked too deliberate and staged. I wanted it to look more like modern art.

This was only the beginning!

Stage 4

I started clipping, pinning and stitching…

This is after I started cutting back the gray

Stage 5


I experimented with a circular pattern in the upper left

Stage 6-Ready to Wear

On duty at school!

As always, I welcome your comments and look forward to them.

Until next time,

Happy Refashioning…

Mary, Thrifty Chic

Refashioned Spring Jackets

By 17 Comments

Hello Everyone!
Spring is here in SoCal so I still have time to refashion a jacket for those cool mornings! Here is  the AFTER but you will not believe the BEFORE!  I think this piece lends some glamor to my very glamorous life as a teacher. Right?

Jacket #1

Before Front
Before Back

I purchased this jacket for the whooping price of $4.00. It had good structure and shape, but it was just a boring khaki color damask pattern. In addition,it was also in a petite and needed to be bigger for my 5’7, 150 pound frame. My favorite part was the back pleats.

Jacket # 2

Jacket #2 inside

Jacket #2 outside

I originally planned to use the “Right side” with the embroidery, but ultimately found the wrong side of the fabric to be infinitely more interesting! This piece cost me $5.99.

Tutorial

Step 1– I took out the sleeves from both jackets. Then I opened up the side seams of the khaki jacket and added a blue side panel from the embroidered jacket. This was necessary to make the bust and body wider to fit my frame. Then to make the sleeves match, I had to use one sleeve as the pattern and cut a matching sleeve from the back of the jacket.

Step 2-Next, I added a trim on the neckline made with one of the gold stripes cut from jacket #2. I overlocked the edges of a gold stripe to make it into trim for the collar. In this picture you can also observe the delicate damask pattern on the tan base material.

Collar Detail

Step 3-I added back the sleeves with the stripe pattern. In the second picture you can see the detail on the cuff. I turned up the “Wrong” side of the fabric up to make the hem. I thought the overlock edge detail paired well with the trim on the collar and made the sleeve more luxe looking.

Step 4-The final step was to add some detail to the back. I used the same technique used on the collar trim, but made this trim a lot wider.


That is it refashion friends. I hope you like it and and look forward to your comments. Happy refashioning!!!!

Mary, Thrifty Chic

Sleeveless Jacket and The Coat…

By 23 Comments

Hello Everyone!

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OK time to confess…If you are a long time reader you may be wondering what happened to:
The Coat! When last you saw it, I was on Episode 7- The Coat. Well, the truth be told, I GAVE UP! There! I admitted it!   I was committed but I had a lot of trouble with the fit.  Then I had put so much work into it that I kept going. But when it is not right, you have to know when to give up the ship. I couldn’t spend another minute on it. I had to admit miserable defeat.

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I know you are probably saying, “It looks OK to me?” But trust me when I say it was a nightmare and it is in the scrap pile.

Here is what I am offering as an easier compromise. The thrift shops are full of mens jackets and I found this beauty.It made total sense to create a sleeveless jacket. I have been seeing them in the fashion magazines and this glen plaid wool was the perfect fabric.

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BEFORE

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AFTER

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The very first step was to rip off those sleeves. At the same time I took out the heavy shoulder pads too. The lining was in great shape so I planned to keep it with some alterations after I fit the body

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Creating some shape was the next step. I had to take out the straight manly shape by taking in the center back,sides, and adding darts to create a slimmer more feminine shape. The next three pictures show what a total makeover it really was. I had to open up the side seams of the lining in order to get to the insides.

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After sewing in my alterations, I had to create a facing for the armholes. Here you can see them basted in place.

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I also had to fix one little moth hole in the back of the neck. I grabbed a few threads from the hem of the jacket and made did some weaving to plug the small hole.

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From here it was just a matter or putting the lining back together and sewing the lining hem. I made the same alterations to the lining as I did to the jacket.

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THis is another picture styled a little differently. I am anxious to know what you think. I wear this quite often during the winter months and the reaction is always good.

I love your comments

Happy Refashioning!

Love ya! Mary AKA Thriftychic!

Sweatshirt+Denim Jacket

By 20 Comments

Hello Thrifty Refashion Friends!

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Happy New Year and welcome to my first post of 2019! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season with friends and family.

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For some time now I have been wanting to combine a white denim jean jacket and a heather grey sweatshirt, but the correct jean jacket was always out of reach. I had been holding on to a gray hood and sleeves from a jacket that formerly belonged to my son, but that ever elusive white jean jacket was hiding from me. As you will see, I finally found it and happily, I love the finished project.

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This was the first trial run of the finished project. I can wear this jacket with blue, gray and black jeans and I can even imagine it over casual t-shirt dresses as well.

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TUTORIAL

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On the left is the jacket before. It was an extra large but I was sure I could alter it to make it fit. On the right you can see I immediately took off the sleeves and released the side seams to alter. The bottom band was tricky because I had to partially release it and sew it back on in order to avoid raw seams inside the band. (Sorry it is not pictured, as I got carried away and forgot to take a photo. I eventually took off the standing collar as well.)

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The gray sleeves had to be narrowed and the hood had lost the rivets and needed a clever fix. Whatever I did, I had to make it look like it was all meant to be that way.

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The answer was some leftover rib from the original jacket. I also added some plastic toggles to give weight and detail to the drawstring. What you see here is the rib pinned and basted in place before the machine sewing.

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After sewing the hood on the neckline, I finished the inside with some camo ribbon to cover up the raw seam. It was difficult to stitch evenly on both sides but I basted it in place first and stitched carefully. The left shows the inside finish and the right is the outside finish before the machine sewing.

Both sides are finished here and ready to roll.

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Well there you have it. What do you think?

Can’t wait to hear what you think. I love to hear your comments.

‘Til next time…

Happy Refashioning!!!

Mary

Jean Jacket Re-do!

By 35 Comments

Hi Everyone!

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My 21 year old son came to me last week and said, “Mom, I have an idea to refashion my favorite t-shirt on the back of a jean jacket.” He has been on winter break from college and just like that, he caught the refashion bug! He has been watching me do it for years and wanted to save that t-shirt. As you will see, he even asked me if he could try sewing it! I think it turned out really great and we had fun making it together.

Here is my handsome kid wearing the before. We tried to find a jean jacket in the thrift stores but they are quite hard to come by. He purchased this jacket at Target for $50 and the quality was excellent.

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Before-Front

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Before-Back

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T-shirt Before

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This t-shirt had been well worn and loved. It was getting kind of “beat up” but the screen print was still in great shape. It was worn into a vintage feel that was perfect to go with the washed denim jacket.

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Here is his first try at the sewing machine. We had to cut down the edges of the screen print a bit on the top and bottom to fit on the back of the jacket. He is sewing the black knit fabric around the edges to create a frame for the picture. It was quite hard to pin the shirt on the back without distorting the picture or the jacket but we finally wrestled it into submission and I carefully stitched it onto the back of the jacket with the sewing machine.

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Here is a close look at the new version. He loves it, his friends love it and he looks fashionably cool if I must say so…but I am partial:)

He informed me yesterday that he has “A new idea.”…It seems I have may have a new creative director for my men’s refashions! Stay tuned…

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As always, I would love to hear what you think.

Love ya,

Mary AKA Thriftychic