Sewing Green For Spring

April 2010

7 April 2010 - Jo Williams

Now that spring is here, have you been looking through your closet for garments you can upcycle or repurpose? I have, and I’ve found some treasures in my old suits! I’ve altered one jacket into a new updated look, and am eyeing another one with a different alteration in mind.

Jackets are in this spring, but not your grandmother’s style of jacket. This spring they’re updated with a few fresh looks that will be easy to get from upcycling your old jacket.

Spring’s jackets have short sleeves and ¾ sleeves, which are easy to alter from your original suit jacket. Just mark the length and cut the sleeves off with an extra inch for the hem. (If you don’t like the look after you’ve pressed it, you have enough to lengthen it a ½ inch or so.)

I’ve found that fusible hemming tape is a wonderful product to use in this kind of situation. You can easily fuse the hem, and if it’s not right, heat it up with the iron and pull it apart. When you get the length you want, fuse the lining in place, and if necessary, hand tack it to the sleeve hem. For a short sleeve, you can play around with a gather or a tuck in the hem, depending on how much sleeve circumference you have. You can add a sleeve band with the sleeve fabric you have cut off. Fusible stabilizer is another handy product for this application. Here’s my inspiration:

Several collar alterations can be done on a jacket to make it more modern. You can cut off the lapel and collar entirely, as I’ve done in the picture. The drawings show many ideas for collars, sleeves and jacket lengths.

Several items you’ll want to have on hand are the correct size and type of sewing machine needles, sewing rulers or tape measures, quality sewing thread, and some good sewing scissors, including snipping scissors to get into those small spaces.

Happy Spring “green” sewing, please come back and share some of your green sewing tips with me!