I first made this artsy jacket over 10 years ago, before I started blogging, which is why I don’t have a review of the pattern or any other pictures.

It was a really fun project using several different fabrics, lots of beading and embroidery techniques, shaped facings and hemlines and just general creativity all around. You can still find the pattern at Diane Ericson Design.

I’ve lost a bit of weight lately and rediscovered this jacket tucked way in the back of my closet and found that it was now too big! Not so big that I couldn’t wear it, but big enough that it was starting to look a little sloppy and I knew it would look terrible if I lost any more weight, which I definitely plan to do.

Since the jacket was so much work and so unique, I decided that it was worth it to take the time to take it apart, cut it down and then put it back together.

The fit is much more pleasing now as you can see, and I have incentive to not gain the weight back because if I do I won’t be able to wear it. 😀

The cutting down process was fairly straightforward. I took the jacket apart by removing the sleeves, opening the under arm seams and taking apart the side seams. Then I laid on the pattern pieces, having marked the new size that I wanted, and cut the armscye, side seams and sleeve seams to the new size. This way all the details were left alone and preserved as I had originally done them.

This approach might have been tricky if I had lost a LOT of weight and the back and neck were too wide, but with this style and size difference it worked out well.

Not all garments are worth this much time and effort but this one certainly was!

Like my tutorials? Support me on Patreon for weekly peeks into my creative process and a bonus video every month!