Winterizing Summer Vests : DIY

 

I bought this vest on a whim from Forever 21 one rainy day in Seattle, and immediately was regretful. I had no idea how to pair this vest - all the warm weather outfits I tried to pair it with just made the vest seem out of place. It was the right style for the wrong season.

Exasperated, I gave up and gave the vest to my sister - who gave it a loving home for a few months until a stroke of genius hit me. Seeing all the jackets with leather sleeves on Pinterest and in the stores inspired me to turn the vest into a jacket with leather sleeves. 

Begrudgingly, my sister gave me back the vest, whispering "Indian giver" as she handed it over. But luckily for me, she didn't hold it against me for long - I mean she was the one who photographed this shoot, so that means she's forgiven me.... right Allie??  

*Scroll to the bottom to see some pictures and brief instructions.*

While I was in the fabric store I was debating how much leather I would actually need.. humming and hawing, the sales associate convinced me that I definitely need a 1 1/2 yds... well now I have a lot of extra leather for future projects! But a yard will be just fine.

To make the pattern for the arm sleeve, a folded a scrap muslin the long way down and laid out my vests armhole, lining up the top seam of the shoulder on the vest with the folded fabric. Trace along edge of front armhole. then flip the fabric over, along with the vest and do the same for the back side of the fabric (usually the front and back sides of the armhole aren't symmetrical). Then I took another jacket that I felt comfortable in with the sleeves and measured the width to see how long my sleeve needed to be and how wide.

Cutting out my pattern piece on my leather, I followed the steps of any usual sleeve sewing instructions.

I also wasn't entirely thrilled with the jewels on the pocket and thought this jacket needed a little more hard core energy... so I added studs to the pocket which you can see in the pictures above.

 

Here's my *messily drawn pattern piece - its ok to try, scrap, and try again :)

 

Jacket - DIY

Scarf - Grandma DIY!

Shirt - Free People

Pants - J.Crew

Cheers!

Naomi Joy