Last Sewing Project for 2016

The year is coming to a close. I managed to squeeze another sewing/refashioning project before New Year's Eve. This is a very well made, good quality jacket that I thrifted a couple of years ago. It's a beautiful true red, cashmere blend jacket, made in Canada in the 1990s. The fabric is really soft and extremely warm. I wore it in the office with layers underneath and I was sweating profusely.

The super broad shoulders and the crop length made my body look even more top heavy than it already was. The sleeves were too long also. A Refashion/Alteration was in order.

I watched a video of Angela Wolf narrowing a jacket's shoulder seam and I thought I could try that with this jacket. There is a very good tutorial at this blog: https://sewfordough.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/altering-the-shoulders-on-a-jacket/. So this was my plan to alter the jacket:

I opened up the lining seam and found that the jacket was indeed very well made. It has custom shoulder pads and proper sleeve heads:

First I took out the very wide shoulder pads. Then I tried on the jacket and basted the new shoulder seam. And eventually I sewed and steamed the new shoulder seams in place.  Then I chopped off the sleeves and made them 3/4 sleeves. And here is the resulting garment:

I think it now looks better for my proportions. I'm happy to have a better fitting, warm and colourful jacket for the cold months!

Now I need to dig into my to-be-Refashioned pile and see what I can fix/refashion next!