Amend: Leopard Dress

I've had this Warehouse dress for a few years and I really love the fit of the bodice, skirt length and shape. (Excuse the iPad-face, my phone is currently on the blink, so this was my only option!)

 

 

However recently, I've felt the fit on the sleeves has been feeling uncomfortably tight. I decided it was about time to sort them out!

 

 

I decided that precision... Is over-rated, so after vaguely working out what length I wanted the sleeves to be, I grabbed a pair of scissors and hacked away.

 

As usual, I went to some lengths to avoid tacking. I ironed over the end of each sleeve to neaten it up, and pinned it in place.

I wanted a very narrow hem, so the first round I did was a small zigzag around the hem. I then trimmed the excess on the inside as close to the stitches as possible.

Next up, I folded the zigzag section again, and sewed this down using straight stitch, to finalise the hem. I even changed thread colour halfway round, to blend it in with the black stripe.

The other amendment I wanted to make was to add some extra weight to the hem. I was hoping this would help counteract gusting tube winds. I chose to sew this on by hand, so it wouldn't be visible on the outside - not a decision to take lightly, with a 3m hem, requiring two lines of tiny hand stitches...

 

Needless to say, I persisted with the hand-sewing and (many hours later!) and am very pleased with the end result, for both the sleeves and the hem.

 

Mend: Leather Jacket

I love my leather jacket - I've had it several years now, and it's gotten to that stage where the leather is properly soft and supple.

Unfortunately, constant wear has taken its toll elsewhere too, so occasionally I need to do some repairs.

One of the pockets had a hole in it that had become so big, that my possessions were escaping through the lining into the interior of the jacket itself. I pulled the picket inside out and sewed up the two sides of the seam.

The buttons take a lot of wear and tear, but sewing them back on is more challenging than on normal clothes - due to the thickness of the leather, having one button on the front doesn't work. You have to have one on the back as well, twinned with the front one.

Above are the small buttons from the reverse, and below are the ones on the front. All fixed up and ready to wear!