Craft Rocks: Quick Jacket Upcycle

Craft enthusiast Jo Burgess explores the world of needlecraft in this exclusive column for Mr X Stitch!

Quick jacket upcycle

Many many moons ago I found a great jacket in TK Maxx. It always feels like such a win when that happens after taking ages poking through the rails in the shop. It was a gorgeous green military type jacket with panels. And it was a bargain price too.

Quick jacket upcycle
My TK Maxx bargain jacket

For a while I had been thinking of upcycling it with some funky fabric but wasn’t sure what fabric to use, then I found some of the fabulous A Ghastlie Craft fabric by Alexander Henry Fabrics and I knew I had to use it! 

This is the main lady on the fabric but sadly she’s too big for my jacket

The first thing I did was to use greaseproof paper to make a pattern of the panel in the back of the jacket I wanted to fill.

Craft Rocks: Quick Jacket Upcycle
Making the paper pattern

Then I placed it on the fabric to find a character who would fit, traced around it and drew another line slightly wider around it for a hem. I then folded the hem under and ironed it flat.

Craft Rocks: Quick Jacket Upcycle
The outline of the pattern and the hem line traced onto the fabric

I pinned it onto the jacket.

Craft Rocks: Quick Jacket Upcycle
The lady pinned onto the jacket ready to stitch

Then it was just a case of hand sewing the fabric into place. The panel had a  nice fringe on it so  I was able to sew the fabric into place neatly under the fringe which helped to hide any signs of my handiwork.

Craft Rocks: Quick Jacket Upcycle
This shows the trim on the jacket which I was sewing the panel underneath

And here she is, the ghastlie sewing lady on my back.

Craft Rocks: Quick Jacket Upcycle
Looking forward to taking this Ghastlie lady out to explore after lockdown

Cost

Jacket: Already had it

Fabric: £7.50 for half a metre so lots of fun leftovers for other projects, yay!

Total: £7.50

What do you think? Would you give this a try? Once you find the right fabric and piece of clothing it’s a really easy quick upcycle. You don’t even need to take out your sewing machine.

I’m sure it’s available from lots of fabric shops, but if you are interested in the Ghastlies fabric I used on this project, here is a link to where I bought it.

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