Sweater Refashion to Coat

I’ve got one other garment from our Signature Style look that I want to tell you about in detail.  There were so many items I made for that look, maybe you can put up with another blog post.

The coat I made for Baby is actually a sweater refashion.  I was on the fence for a long time about what material to use for the outer layer of his jacket.  I’d already settled on the suede backed sherpa vest for the inner layer.  Since I was going for solid colors I wanted to make the jacket interesting by incorporating textures.  Finally inspiration hit, and I went to the thrift store on the hunt for the perfect garment with chunky cables.  I found this sweater that was close enough, and bought it.

The main problem I could not figure out was how to get my front, back and sleeve pieces from the sweater.  I wanted the front and back of the coat to be cable knit fabric, but the front and sleeves of the sweater were cable knit.  The back was a ribbed fabric.  With Allegra’s help I finally solved the sweater refashion jigsaw puzzle.  The front of the sweater became the back of the coat.  (I sewed the vent shut above the button.  The button hides under the hood, only visible when the hood is up; it’s really cute!)  The back of the sweater became the sleeves of the coat.  And the sleeves of the sweater became the front pieces of the jacket.  The hood is from the same twill fabric as the coat lining, and the hood lining is fleece leftover from Annie’s quilt.  Half of the sweater’s collar became the trim on the coat hood.

You might notice in several of the photos that Baby is grabbing the jacket near the top of the zipper.  Well after he wore it several times, complaining each time we discovered a sharp piece of plastic protruding out of the edge of the zipper!  Poor Baby, one snip took care of the problem, and now he wears the coat joyfully.

Be sure to catch the tutorial in this blog post for the reversible sherpa vest that snaps in and out of this coat.  I think I want to go buy rescue aaaaallll the chunky cable knit sweaters from the thrift store now!

 Sweater Refashion details:

Coat Pattern: Downton Duffle Coat

Coat Fabric (outer): Upcycled Sweater with large cables
Coat Fabric (inner): Sew Classic Bottomweight Classic Twill Solid Fabric – Black
Vest Fabric: Luxury Faux Fur-Sherpa Suede Gray
Hat Pattern: Free newsboy cap pattern
Hat Fabric: Wool plaid remnant from the stash

Oh, and if you’ve got your eye on that stunning dress fabric, right now My Fabric Designs is having an unheard of 35% off sale!  Here’s the direct link to that dress fabric I designed.  Use the promo code QUILT35 until March 31st.  Hurry!