Flower power makes berets work overtime.

I was in the thrift store a few weeks ago with some friends, and I was thinking how I would love to do as an experiment one of those refashionings. You know, making a woman's suit from a mans old suit. The bad news was that store didn't have any suits worth attempting the project. The good news was, I came across this jacket.

The thing didn't looked finished. There were still tailor's tacks across the shoulders, and other signs like that, but the fabric was a ribbed silk and so lovely. I put it back twice, because it was priced at $6, and at the time that was a bit steep for me. But then I bit the bullet and bought the jacket.

Taking it apart to utilize the most of the silk was a chore. But I did manage to salvage most of it just fine. I then laid out my generic beret pattern, and cutting lining with it, knocked that out.

I lined it with some dotted Swiss like cotton I had. I liked the contrast in colors.

The purse was a different story. At the last minute I decided to utilize the front pockets of the jacket, so I changed my initial purse design. The bottom is circular, with gathers at either side of the pocket to make it fit. ITs kind of like a bean bag, but it worked great.

I really wanted to do the grommet pull for the closure, like from my WWII sewing book (listed in my etsy store). Yes, that was my whole plan. See how sad I am?

As I was completing this, I thought, "Oh! I can use my flower pattern!" I blindly, without accounting the work, got it out and just went for it. It was a lot of work, but when I sewed them to this plain beret, I knew it was completely worth it. The look is grand, and with the vintage expo coming up in a couple of weeks ,I knew just where to wear this set.

So from mens jacket to purse and hat. Not a bad way to end, eh? Finished images can be seen on NVL.

6 comments:

  1. Love, love, love it!! Oh, that is such a great idea! They look FABULOUS! I'm definitely going to try this out! Where did you get the beret pattern?

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a great idea! I love that you got a very fashionable purse and hat out of this drab suit jacket! Very cute items!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Incredibly cute, what fantastic ideas!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. the flower looks fantastic in use! great job!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fantastic! I'm always nervous about decorating hats because I prefer a very simple look. I've certainly gotten over that doing first a victorian hat and now some antebellum chapeaux.

    ReplyDelete

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