Refashion It! Leather Coat to Leather Bag
Finally.
After weeks of hurting fingers, broken needles and a lot of frustration, I finished my leather coat refashion. The outcome? A leather bag!
It was certainly not an easy and quick refashion project, that much I can tell you. Especially since it was my very first time sewing with real leather (rant ends here).
I found these two beauties in a thrift store a few weeks ago (6 pounds each!):
(Is there a tree in my flat? Sort of.)
Quite a bargain! The coats are way too big for me, so there was plenty of leather and lining to use. For making the bag I only used the bottom leather panels of both coats and some of the lining from the pink coat.
I made the pattern for the bag myself and, as you can see, found a way to recycle the patch pockets of the pink coat. I love that the bag is big enough to carry a binder around (Not that I do that every day, but whenever I need to take one with me I realise that none of my bags are large enough.)
The bag unfortunately doesn’t count into my 27 Dresses Challenge (ohhhh….) and it’s also not for me to wear. SO WHAT’S THE POINT OF GOING THROUGH ALL THIS?
I made the bag for my little sis’ birthday (Yes, I must love her very much). I’m not really the pink bag type of girl, but she loves everything black and pink. Hopefully, it doesn’t fall apart, hehe. The bag was shipped off to good old Germany yesterday and hopefully won’t get lost on the way (I still don’t trust Royal Mail.)
I won’t post a tutorial on making the bag, but I have taken quite a lot of pictures during the process. So keep your eyes peeled for a making-of post in the next couple of days. I will then also post some pics of the innards and details! If anyone is interested in the pattern of the bag, leave me a comment. If there are a few of you who would like to try and make the bag without proper instructions, I might post the measurements of the pattern pieces.
FYI, my fingers stopped twitching over the weekend (Gosh! I was getting really concerned!) – I’m now fully recovered from the leather disease, yay! But I have plenty of leather left and already way too many ideas for further projects. So this definitely wasn’t the last time you see me masochistically tormenting my hands like this!
Happy week everyone!
♥
PS: There’s still plenty of time left to join our Hollywood Sewalong!!
PPS: Who’s watching the Sewing Bee? Some seriously cool refashions this week!
Three weeks ago I sewed with real leather for the first time. And after three weeks, that brief affair is coming to an end. Two souls alas! are dwelling in my breast.
I love wearing these and thought about how to make them look a bit more chic without overdoing it, since they will be worn underneath most of the time. Because the neckline is often still visible, I decided to use a few tube beads to embroider the neckline.
I used greyish-blue tube beads and sewed them onto the topstitching of the neckline binding. I didn’t sew the beads onto the binding itself, since I thought they might be too heavy for the light stretch fabric, pulling it down with the result of the neckline gaping open.
I didn’t use one continuous thread, but knotted it off after every 10cm/4” or so. In case the thread should break, I won’t have to redo the whole thing.
Heeeeeeeeeeello!
After choosing my fabrics, I used some black tape (you can also use ribbon and pin it) to mark the lines of the apron on my dressform. Alternatively, if you do not have a dressform, just draw it on paper and use it as a pattern piece. (It’s a kitchen apron, so don’t worry about the perfect fit too much.) I tried to make it very similar to the Anthro-version, as I really loved the shape of the neckline.
Pinning my fabric (wrong side up) on my dressform, I traced the marked neckline with tailor’s chalk.
I cut out a bib (don’t forget the seam allowance!).
I marked the center on the bib (and also on my bodice piece) with a small notch.
Using the same marking and tracing technique on my dressform, I cut out the straps. I stitched around the edges like so:
I then attached the waistband to the bodice. When cutting out the strap/straps for the waistband, make sure it’s long enough to tie it in the front.
Before gathering and attaching the skirt panel, I hemmed it and added trim. It’s easier to do that when the fabric lies flat. 
After the apron was finished, I decided to add a ‘second hem’ (is there a name for that?) in a contrasting colour/the same fabric I used for the bodice. I simply cut out a strip twice as wide as I wanted the hem to be, folded it over in the middle and stitched it onto the skirt, both hems overlapping.
