Restyling and Refashioning

I'm always evaluating my wardrobe and deciding what I wear and don't wear and why.  I only buy things that I love and what is interesting to wear with what I already own.    When I buy, it's only quality and I've always avoided anything that was trendy or dated.    I prefer garments that hang nicely from my body, nothing tight or garish.    

Here are a couple examples of what I've been doing, restyling things that are great quality but that I didn't wear for one reason or another.    First is a great Escada double layer coat/duster.    This is  wool/cashmere lightweight flannel and the topstitching and construction is TDF!  All seams are flat felled - no raw or serged edges.  It is only a size 36, which is size 4 US but is very loosely fitted - oversized.  There are many photos of it on my Flickr photos but here is what it looks like on me,  belted and showing the two layers.     There's nothing wrong with it - I just didn't wear it often.   The lapels are very much like Louise Cutting's Of the Moment jacket pattern that I also love.

I then took the coat apart - easy to do since it was only attached by the collar, at the tops of each lapel and at the sleeve hems.       I had several ideas since there was so much fabric - perhaps a short jacket and a wrap skirt a la Shirin Guild for the plaid.    I was inspired by a Brunello Cucinnelli jacket ($2,115) that I examined while snoop shopping at Neiman Marcus.    I also added pockets across the front of an A Subtle Twist jacket in a lightweight wool a couple of years ago.     So here's what I did -

For the solid gray layer, I just folded up the amount that I would like the pockets to be, saving all the stitching, pinned the coat to a 34" length.     I will press and topstitch the pockets in place at the fronts, add the contrast facing at the lapel and stitch the back closed.   For the plaid layer I'm still thinking - a wrap skirt like one of my Shapes or Shirin Guild skirts?     I'd still have the top portion for a restyled short jacket.     I'll post photos when I'm finished.

I also restyled this Anthropologie sweater jacket that I didn't wear because the wrap-over sash was too cumbersome and bulky.   This was an easy change.   I cut it off and used my blind-stitch to stitch in the ditch and catch stitch the edges plus some Steam-a-Seam.  I removed and left off the buttons, just kept the tiny hook/eye it originally had if I want to wear it closed.    I'm working on other projects as well that I haven't blogged about yet.  Still styling and keepin it simple as I always do.