Recently I was at an antique fair.  There was a woman there selling altered denim jackets.  My daughter and I LOVED those jackets, but they were a bit pricey for our wallets at that moment.  Being the crafty girls that we are (well, I’m the crafty girl, my daughter is more the “you can make that for me can’t you?”), we decided to find a used denim jacket and renew it with our alterations.

This was a fairly simple project.  You could add all kinds of embellishments.  I came up with many, but my daughter didn’t want me to go over the top.  So, we found a home dec. print on sale that Elena liked.  I cut out a panel to cover the back panel of the jacket and a panel to cover the collar.

For the back panel, I measured the width at the top, the width at the bottom, the length.  I cut a rectangle using the width at the top + 1″ and the length + 1″.  On the back of that rectangle I drew the dimensions of the back panel and pressed the edges under.  Then I pinned the top on the panel and adjusted the rest to fit.  It’s a little fussy because the back panel is a little wobbly since it’s a used jacket, but by pinning and pressing I got a panel that fit really well.  I made the panel so that it fit inside of the existing seams rather than trying to sew over the thick parts.

Since the back panel is fairly large and I didn’t want it to shift around over time, I put a piece of fusible webbing down covering the back panel and then pressed the new panel down fusing it in place.  I stitched close to the edge all around the panel to hold the edges in place.  Elena had picked a variegated thread that compliments the colors of the panel.  I love using variegated threads!

For the collar, I made a freezer paper pattern.  I added 1/2″ around all edges for turning under.  I pinned it on, adjusting as necessary and sewed around the edges with the variegated thread.  I didn’t bother to fuse the collar down because it’s a much smaller piece.

Elena thought that adding panels to the top front would be over the top.  So I finished the alteration by adding big teal rick rack around the cuffs and the bottom of the jacket.

Viola!  Cute, altered denim jacket for not much money!  And since we bought a yard of the fabric, I have enough left over to make a little matching  cell phone holder!  Think I’ll search the thrift stores for more used jackets I can alter!