Coats From My £2 Stash

I have now made 4 coats/jackets from the fabric in my £2 stash.  The first one was just a simple two fronts, back and sleeves with a couple of pockets on the front and a band around the neck/fronts.  I used a cardigan as a pattern for it.  I think I should have made the  band a bit wider at the top for the collar but it looks ok on so will leave it as it is for this one.

The next two were from a frock coat pattern that I bought.  I am quite pleased with them but not sure whether the stretchy fabric suits the jackets as much as a non stretchy one would.  The fabric also makes them a bit heavy but my other half said they look alright.

For this one I used some of the lovely Chinese brocade my other half brought me back from China for the collar and lapels.

The line in the back of this one is the back seam as I haven't lined it.

This is by far my favourite one.  I had an old leather jacket that had scratches on it that I was going to throw out but it fitted ok so I decided to cut it up and use the pieces as a pattern for this coat.   I only cut up half the coat, I made the first cut straight up the centre back and then left one half as it was so I could check how it went back together again.  Then the other pieces I cut as close to the seams as I could and then added a seam allowance to the new pieces.  The coat is lined using some thin, stretchy, shiny fabric I had left over from doing the sofa.

I have also made three pairs of trousers.  One pair is plain black and just straight trousers.  For the other two pairs I used an old pair of jeans as the pattern.  Again I only cut up half the jeans, so cut down the back seam and up to the zip and cut so I had half the zip on each side when finished.  That way I could tell how they went back together again.  For the front I didn't cut the pockets off separate, they were quite easy to cut out from the new fabric as the.y were.  On assembling the new jeans I made the back's up first (there was a sort of yoke at the top of the back) and then added the patch pockets then sewed the back seam.  For the fronts I made the pockets first so they looked the same as the original jean pockets then put the zip in again following how it looked on the original ones, then finished the front seam.  Then I just had to sew the side seams and inner leg seams, put the waistband on and do the hems.