Altering a Blazer (the easy way)

As I mentioned yesterday, I am a huge fan of blazers right now. They look great with shorts for a summer date night, but they also look good with skinny jeans and heels, on top of dresses, and basically with every single thing you pair them with. You really can't go wrong. I have a horrific time finding blazers that fit, however. It's awful, really. But since I now have a sewing machine and have gained some sewing confidence, I bought this giant blazer for sixty-six cents yesterday. Since it was so cheap, I figured I could attempt an alteration on it and if it didn't work it wasn't a big loss. But it did work! Here's the steps. 

This jacket was about 10 sizes too big for me. Not to worry. :)


1. The first thing I did is chop the sleeves off. Make sure you cut them right along the seam line so the arm-holes are still even.


2. Second, I tried on the vest part and eyeballed how much smaller it needed to be. I hemmed both sides several inches then I also hemmed the back seam, starting a few inches below the collar. I have no idea how to work with collars, so I left that part alone.


The ugly seams. I probably should surge them, but seriously, they're on the inside. Is anybody really going to care?
 3. I tried on the sleeves and hemmed the sides up about an inch and a half. You can see the seam on the inside if you look closely.


 4. Attach the sleeves. This is by far the most intimidating part of the whole project. I have botched a lot of shirts on this part, but it's much easier than it seems. First, turn the jacket inside out, and nest the sleeve inside right-side out. 

 Match the underarm seam with the side seam and pin, then pin the top. Go all the way around the sleeve and pin the two pieces together evenly. My arm and armhole didn't match perfectly because the armhole was slightly smaller than the arm. But I pinned and sewed and it worked itself out. There aren't any weird pleats or anything. Sew all the way around on both of the arms.



 And that's it! After I took these two pictures, I realized I should hem the bottom. When I took in the sides it made the bottom of the jacket a little bit mismatched, so I folded it under and hemmed it.

The entire alteration probably took me thirty minutes tops. This project was one of my most rewarding refashions and I'm so excited to wear it!





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