Summer-izing a Blazer Jacket

I love blazers. I love them so much that I wear them with things you might not expect...like baby doll dresses. (I learned to do that in South Korea.) However, blazers are really best worn in cold weather. (Or when your office cranks the a.c. in the summer!) Anyways, I already have a black blazer that I love, but I found the Merona jacket below at Goodwill for a dollar and couldn't pass it up because I'd been wanting to make a warm weather blazer option.

First, cut the sleeves off wherever you want. (Make sure to add about an inch for seam allowance.)

Turn it inside out, and fold the outer part in about an inch.

Fold the lining in toward the part you just folded. (In other words, the raw edges are now inside the two pieces of fabric.)

Pin it down, but make sure your pins are about 1/4" from the edge of the lining.

All right....now look at the next three pictures in sequence. (You are folding the black part down, holding it with your left hand, and with your right hand taking the pin out and re-pinning it.)

This is what it should look like when you are done with that step.

Turn the sleeves right side out. Fold the cuff part back so you can see the pins. Then set your machine to it's blind stitch setting. (I accidentally went ahead and sewed it, and then forgot that I hadn't taken a picture...so that's why the seam is already sewn! Sorry!) 

This is what it looks like when you are done. I'ts kinda messy, but that's okay because it's inside the sleeve. The main thing is for the raw edges to be hidden.

You can wear it like this.

Or if you kept enough length in the sleeves, you can fold them up.

The End!

Black Harem Pants

If you have a really good memory, you may well remember these weird pants I made about a year ago. The problem I had with them was that they were grey, and soon after making them, I learned I was T4. I wondered why I hated the pictures of me at the end of that post. Now, it all makes sense. Anyways, I really wanted to remake them in black. So, I did.

I used the same pink shorts as last time as my main pattern pieces. I love this shiny black jersey material. Really edgy and great for this project.

I also used a pair of sweat pants to use as a reference for the length of the pants. I cut around them.

I did something different at the ankles, though. I curved them in slightly. This will make the pants drape differently around the ankles. I think it looks really modern.

After cutting all the pieces out, the first step was to fold the pockets in half and stitch the bottom of them.

Then, I pinned and sewed the pockets to the top of the front pieces.

Next, I pinned pleats into the sides of the front pieces.

Then, I pinned the front and back pieces together and sewed the outer seam of each leg.

This is what the seam I just talked about looks like from the right side.

Next, I pinned and sewed the "crotchal region."

Then, I sewed the inseams together in one big, long seam.

Last step: sewing on the waist and ankle bands. Notice how the ankles curve in here, and notice that effect on the last few pictures. It's subtle, but it's a neat effect.

The End.