Restoring a Leather Jacket

 In July 2021, one of my pals asked if I could save her vintage leather jacket.  

I checked all the seams for disintegrating thread.  Leather doesn't get pinned, it gets clipped to not puncture the skin.  Clips can be purchased at Wawak or even Amazon.   They are also great for quilting and hems.

Over the next few days, I used old rags, rubber gloves and 2 bottles of  Leather Honey leather conditioner and saved the leather.  The jacket sucked up the 1st bottle!

And here is the almost final reveal, because I did go back and touch up a few spots.

Repairing a sweatshirt and making it cute

 My friend Jackie Sanders, who I worked with on Cowgirls back in 1996, has a sweatshirt that she loves, but had gotten a bit holey.  I had been working with decorative repairs and hoodie lining, so we decided to play.  The ribbing was replaced and Jackie picked a jersey and I got to stitching.  
Going along with my quest to reduce, reuse, recycle, the jersey was a t-shirt that was purchased from Thred-up.  The ribbing came from  Fabric Made.

This is the final result.  Jackie was extremely pleased and her husband  Bill Hayes dubbed me "The Jazz Seamstress"!

I actually shot a video on lining the hoods on sweatshirts....oh, at least a year ago.  I really should edit that!

Letting out a sweater dress

This dress is a favorite of my pal Molly.  It's from Hanna Andersson a few years back.  And as kids do, she has grown.  (I hadn't seen her in 2 years and was amazed at how tall she is now!)

So, I was asked if I could make this sweater dress bigger.  If you know anything about me, Dear Reader, is that I like a challenge.

I took the sleeves off and used a piece to make extensions at the shoulders.  Then, I went to my local thrift store and found a sweater in a similar color.  I debated on getting something in one of the colors of the trim, but I didn't see anything that would work.

I used that thrifted sweater to add side panels and more of the owl sleeve to do the trim.  Then, to make it fun, I made bows out of some of the thrifted sweater and a piece of the owl sleeve.  

It was stitched together using a stretch stitch and the sides were serged to prevent fraying.  I then bound the armsyces w/ bias binding.  The bows are hand sewn on.

I had a lot of fun reimagining this dress!

Appliqueing T-shirts onto Hoodies

Today, I'm teaching you how to customize your hoodie.

Jeans with Lace Applique

 

 Hey, it’s your old pal Melissa Joy and I’m appliqueing some lace onto jeans!

The bird puppet feeders are for Ravensbeard Wildlife Center.

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