Last summer my dad gave me his old, beaten-up leather jacket that he was planning on getting rid of. Obviously it was way too big on me, but I had plans to turn it into something more stylish and fitted. I ended up using Aicha's variation of the jacket pattern in the BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook. After I cut apart the leather and quilted lining I realized I had just barely enough material to make this jacket. Luckily it was a cropped style. You can see that there are weird seam lines criss-crossing the jacket from where it was sewn together before.
The pattern called for using ribbing for the collar and cuffs, but I used a claret colored wool instead. I re-used the zipper and waistband from the original jacket, and I also cut apart and re-sewed the quilted lining.
Sewing leather is a pain, especially when you're going through multiple layers. A lot of the time the pieces just didn't want to hold together, so I had to go back over them once or twice. The problem with that is the needle punches holes in the leather that don't heal back up, so you end up with a hole-riddled mess. It came together in the end though, and hopefully it'll be sturdy enough to last for a while. I'm definitely not planning on sewing with leather again anytime soon.
The weather here's been crazy. It was 80°F when I was taking these pictures, but two days before that it was in the 30s. For about the last month the weather's been swinging back and forth between extremes. Hopefully it'll stay cool enough for me to wear my jacket a few more times, otherwise it'll be time for my summer project: shorts.
Do you have any tips for sewing with leather? Please leave them in the comments below!
<3 Lindsay
Labels: burda, finished project, leather jacket, refashion
