"Matrix Jacket" Refashion

Sometimes I get some very interesting requests via my website. For a few of these recently I have asked my clients if I can write a blog post about these somewhat more interesting projects. I recently received one such enquiry from Sheila, asking if I could turn her leather jacket into a skirt. I got quite excited by the prospect of being able to cut someone elses leather jacket into smaller pieces.

  

Here is the jacket before: a full length, black suede jacket. It had only been worn a few times, a purchase inspired by the matrix movies, before it was quickly relegated to the back of the wardrobe, rarely seeing the light of day, except when shoes were thrown into the back of the wardrobe.

My challenge: turn this jacket into a skirt, and a shorter jacket, so Sheila can get some more wear out of it.

So, how did I do this? I started by cutting the jacket in half just above the lowest button, so I could reuse the jacket pockets in the skirt, and maximise the length of the jacket.

I shortened the skirt by separating the leather where there was a join about 20cm above the hem, reusing the remainder of the CB split, and inserted a zipper in the CB.

Using the hip measurement, I put in a straight seam at the CF between the pockets, and cut off the excess jacket width to use as waistbands on both the jacket and skirt.

At this stage I needed a fitting to take out the excess in the waist. In the place of darts, I overlapped the existing seams. Fortunately I had enough lining to reuse for the skirt. After neatening the hemline, and redoing some topstitching, I then added a waistband and a hook and bar - skirt complete!

All the jacket needed was a waistband to extend the length a little and neaten off the raw edges.

Maybe this ensemble will see the light of day a little more than the old jacket did.