Bean Refashioning: Military Jacket

Hand-me-downs. Love them. Half of my closet was my mom’s and sisters’…and then there’s one piece from my Grandma. Yep, you read that right. This jacket…
…was my Grandma’s. She asked if anyone wanted it over Christmas and it took me a minute, but I knew it had potential, so I grabbed it.

But, obviously, something had to give if I was ever going to wear it in public. First, I took out the sleeves to make them a tad longer. I took out this seam…
…and that’s it because there was another seam underneath that kept everything nice and finished.

I’ve never taken in a jacket before so I was a little intimidated by this refashion, I’ll be honest. But, since it was free, I didn’t have much to lose if I messed up. A bunch of seam ripping and another try was Plan B and donating it was the worst case scenario.

First, I zipped it up and turned it inside-out. Then I laid it out so that the side seams were right at the sides and the jacket was flat along the edges.
There was a litte more fabric in the front of the jacket than the back so that’s why the above picture shows a little buckling on top. It was more important for the sides seams to line up since that’s where I’d be sewing than for the jacket to be laying perfectly flat…if that makes any sense.

For sizing, normally I might just try it on and figure it out from there but with a belly and no waist, there’s no figuring out anything that way. So, I grabbed my favorite white blazer that I know has a great fit and used it for sizing.

First I marked out how much I wanted to take the sleeves in.
I lined the two sleeves up along the top and used a white sewing pencil (technical term?) to draw a line onto the military jacket that followed the bottom of the white blazer’s sleeve.

Then I lined the armpits up, starting at the point where my line for thinning out the sleeve ended at the armpit seam, and used the same pencil to draw a line down the military jacket that went right along the edge of my white blazer.

I made sure to press down the white blazer with my hand along the place I was penciling so that it was totally flat while I traced its edges.

Next, I pinned everything into place, making sure my edges and armpit seams were lined up, and sewed a straight stitch right along my white line.

A repeat on the other side of the jacket, a pinking shears to cut off the excess fabric (eventually I’ll serge the edges), and that was that.

military jacket: hand-me-down – $0
sequin-embellished top: hand-me-down (mom’s) – $0
maternity jeans: hand-me-down (friend – thanks Grace!) – Old Navy
boots: Target (purchased on sale 2-3 years ago but here’s a similar pair* on clearance!) – $22
grand total: $22

I can’t exactly zip it up at the moment but that’s totally fine by me – spring and summer don’t necessite zippers unless it’s the fly really, so looks like this chick is in the clear.

I’ve had a military jacket on my wish list for awhile now so I’m happy I came across one for free, even if it did cost me a little bit of time. :)

Thanks again Grandma B!

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