Denim jacket makeover with Wendy Gardiner

My Brother Innovis 1800QC has been a real boon in my many varied sewing projects over the lasts few months. Let me share how I altered a denim jacket on this fab machine.

Prepping the jacket

I was hosting some Upcycle Challenges at the Knitting & Stitching show at in Olympia, so decided I needed to do my own Upcycling to show I can do what I teach!

I had already used an Embellisher machine to appliqué some large roses on the back of the jacket some time ago. These were just cut from a patterned fabric, held in place and attached quickly with an embellisher machine - fitted with five barbed needles that mesh the fibres together.

Applique with the Innov-is 1800C 

I then bought the 1800QC into play. To ensure the applique stayed in place through repeated wash and wear, I free motioned over the design using the free motion foot. No problem. Done in ten!

Next, I added ric rac ribbon trim down the vertical seams on the front and stitched them in place with a zigzag stitch – this meant stitching a quick, thick trim through four layers of denim as I was sewing over a flat, felt seam. No problem with a size 16 denim needle!

I’ve seen many denim jacket makeovers with lace edging, so decided to do that too using some Guipure lace café curtaining I bought in a French market.

I cut off about 3 inches from the bottom of the jacket and turned up the raw edge before stitching the lace to the hem edge. To cover the raw edges, I added a strip of bias binding in a lovely pink – which picks up the pinks from the embellished appliqué.

I covered this with a decorative stitch chosen from the many available on this machine, which meant I was sewing through denim, thick lace and bias binding all together! Sometimes, at the side seams and front edges, there were four layers of denim (front, back and seam allowances) as well as the lace and bias binding. Although I knew this machine was a beastie, even I was pleasantly surprised it went through all those layers without a hitch. Again, I used a nice, robust size-16 jeans needle.

The finishing touches

I finished the jacket with a couple of hand sewn Suffolk puff flowers on the pocket and self-covered buttons. And do you know what the hardest part of the make-over was? Removing the Jeans buttons! I had to cut them away, sew up the little hole and then hand sew the self-cover buttons in place.

All in all though it was completely worth it!

Next time, I will share some of the projects I made for my latest books (Take Two Fat Quarters, published November 2019) including a bag, a teddy and a tots dress! See you then!