One of the best thrift-shopping excursions I had in a while was when I led a thrifting excursion back in October with a few Sewing Summit Peeps. There I scored tons of awesome stuff, among them: this coat. It’s nearly impossible for me to find awesome vintage winter coats that fit. Usually they’re too short in the arms or too wide in the shoulders & sleeves. It’s not a bad problem to have, but it forces me to always be on the lookout for a coat that actually fits. Even when it’s not coat weather.
I love this coat! It’s 100% awesome wool with a 100% silk lining. Oh yeah, you heard me, this coat is legit. Not even Anthro provides coats this nice at their $300 premium. The only problems I had with this coat straight off the rack were the short sleeves and the trench-like length. The sleeves were just about a half inch too short & the length about 8 inches too long. It took me a long while to figure out how I would adjust this coat & thought I would share with you my thought process & how I came up with the final refashion.
- Originally I thought I would lengthen the sleeves by adding the equivalent to a sleeve dickie, but as the sleeves had button enclosures, I didn’t really see how that would work in my favor.
- Then Liz gave me the brilliant idea to add fur cuffs to the coat. I found some inspiration & I even bought some killer zebra fur, but it quickly became a giant hot mess as I got to sewing. Real fur is a giant mess to work with. Yuck.
- After seeing a giant hot mess of my awesome coat I really wanted to give up, but I still had 6 inches of wool that I cut off the bottom left to use as scrap. I used every last bit of those scraps to make new cuffs and sewed some linear details on the cuffs to match the collar.
So, once I finally figured out the vision, the coat didn’t take a whole lot to revamp. Here’s the list of final alterations:
- shortened hem by 8 inches
- hemmed the silk lining, didn’t need to hem the wool part, though (YAY!)
- removed old cuff & used as a pattern template for longer sleeves
- bought brass buttons for a double button closure on the sleeves
you’re a genius! that is beautiful!
LOVE!
This cost is gorgeous, what a find! Perfect alterations, too. I seriously want to go thrifting with you, I think you might be good luck!
Rebecca (hearts)…
Love it! So cute and fancy. Have fun at Alt!
Classy coat and cuffs. I like the look with your new glasses!
First- totally gorgeous. Second- I really missed the thrift-a-thin this year and want to do it again! And third- where did you get the shoes? I’m in love!
It is perfect. I am so inspired by your talent, girl.
that’s awesome!! love the refashion :)
goooorgeous! 8-9 hours seems like a small price to pay for the awesomeness of wearing this coat. i wish i had the energy to come home from work and sew even a couple of nights each week, because your posts are always so inspiring!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love love love love love it! You are a GENIUSSSSSSS btw I would have never ever thought of hemming it and using the fabric to lengthen the sleeves. That coat is lovely. You are lovely. I find vintage coats all the time for my Etsy shop and like you said they are usually too short in the sleeves if they fit in the shoulders. But recently I have gotten extra lucky and found this one for $5 and all it needed was to be dry cleaned. (the navy one its super warm and heavy wool.)
http://www.youaremynewdream.blogspot.com/2011/12/greed.html
I kept it for myself!!! Because I’m greedy when it comes to coats haha Well done Melissa!!!
WOW. Love it. What a great score and then your alterations are beauty!
It looks great on you!
I think you did an ah-mazing job!!! Very inspiring. And, also, the before picture of you is da bomb.
I love this restyle! Those cuffs really made it more modern!!
Beautiful!!:)
You are amazing! I would have just worn the coat as is and suffered with the awkward fit because I wouldn’t have been brave enough to try the refashion.
I am impressed, but not amazed, because I already knew you had mad skillz. Those sleeves are killer–you’d NEVER know they weren’t original. I need to get my little booty over to D.I. to find me a wool coat! But first you will have to share some of your patience and diligence with me.
I love it! This is a very timely post for me, because I just inherited some coats that will likely need a refashion. I was a little nervous, but not so much anymore. I can’t even tell you how much you’ve inspired me. I bought some boots the other day at savers and thought of you. And i got some killer pants that will hopefully be awesome after i skinnify them. Whenever I see clothes, I ask what would melissa do with this? I actually want to start a blog just so I can post my own refashions. What do you think of the name “experiments in domesticity”?
Love! I will look at coats in a new light now. :)
I’d say it’s an epic victory. Very cute!
Never would have thought of lengthening the sleeves this way! It turned out so incredibly lovely!
It looks great. I should get around to doing something like that with the purple coat I inherited from my grandmother.
You did a great job. I love thrifting especially for jackets. I have a few very cute ones. I can wear the now but I’ll eventually o some tweaking.
Love this! This coat looks amazing now, it is such a gorgeous colour too.
Love it! Have you thought about replacing the buttons on the front of the coat as well? Seems like it would be super fun to do something a bit funky/ contrasting with those! I agree with the commenter who said they think “What would Melissa do?” when thrifting – I have totally become more expansive in my thinking about what to do with pieces that have cool elements but aren’t exactly right!
I am speechless. This coat turned out absolutely amazing – perfect fit, perfect color, gosh, just perfect everything.
WOW! LOVE it.. I really need a Mellissa E in my house =) Can you move back here?
Bellesme
fantastic job. kudos
that is awesome!!!
Fantastic job! Another example of subtle alteration for huge change in feel of piece. Well done :)
It’s fantastic! I really like the shorter length too. Makes it a bit more trendy than the trench length.
I LOVE this idea and am totally inspired to look through some of my mom’s old coats now. Nice work!
preethi
lace, etc.
Very niftily (is that even a word?) done, and looks gorgeous on you. Perfect length of coat and sleeves now (:
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