Sunday Sew-Day: Blazers, Part III

I bought this casual cotton blazer a few years back when I got my first real grown-up job and wanted to dress semi-professionally. I believe it came from Burlington Coat Factory, so it certainly wasn't expensive, but I don't recall the actual price.

As with last week's remake, I had already used the button relocation trick on this one, but clearly, after further weight loss, it's gonna take something a little more powerful this go 'round.

I began by removing that button entirely. Where we're going, we don't need buttons!

Off came the pockets!

By far, the most time consuming part of this project was seam ripping. I carefully picked out the front dart seam on the buttonhole side and the front edge on what used to be the button side. I plan to switch the direction of the overlap, so I won't have to worry about that button hole showing.

I took one side of a separating zipper, purchased just for the occasion, and inserted it in the dart seam. Then I closed that sucker back up, just as it had been.

I flipped the jacket right-side-out again and top-stitched along the zipper.

Since this seam had originally been pressed and top-stitched the other direction, I had to rip out a little bit of the armhole seam where it was attached to the sleeve also, so I could flip the dart seam. I trimmed off the excess length of the zipper...

...and reattached the sleeve at the armhole.

The other side of the zipper was inserted into the front edge where the button had been.

I top-stitched all the way down to secure it, and I was finished!

I decided not to do anything permanent with the slightly-too-short sleeves just yet. I like the casualness of the cuffed sleeve. I think it complements the style and fabric of my new jacket.

Obviously, it's not physically possible to zip the zipper all the way so the lapel point meets the armhole, not while wearing it at least. But I thought it looked nice as a design element to have the zipper go up as far as possible on both sides. I also considered using a contrasting zipper, maybe a navy blue, but ultimately decided against it as I was worried about it bleeding onto the light khaki fabric in the first laundering.

I also contemplated doing something with the pocket fabric, some sort of embellishment, but I felt like this style of jacket calls more for simplicity.

And hey, look who's back to her usual shenanigans! That's right, just one week after emergency surgery, and she's already interrupting photo shoots and demanding playtime. Pretty much the only thing holding her back from 100% puppy mode is that blasted cone, which will come off along with her staples in a few days.