Well, I only blinkin' well went and did it! I updated my old red coat, all by my little self.
I hot-footed it down to our local haberdashery store this morning, Mill House Fabrics. I made my usual stylish entrance into the shop. Totally bedraggled from the rain, holding my son under one arm (I was parked illegally so had no time for messing). As suspected, quite a few elderly's were pottering around but once I'd shoved them out the way, (what? I was parked illegally, no time for being polite) I set about choosing my buttons.
This must have been the point when I started talking to myself. I thought I was just mumbling in my head, but the look on the assistants face told me, no, I was actually talking out loud. My son then chose this opportunity to fall over on his face, resulting in a minor nose bleed. And something told me that all this was fairly unusual behaviour in a shop like this.
Anyhow, the selection of buttons wasn't huge, so stifled my creativity somewhat, I had something much different in my mind, but came out with 6 pearlised glass buttons and some cream tassle trimming, setting me back around £7.
For most people, this is probably THE most simplest thing ever, however, I am not a sewer and haven't really ever tried anything like this before, so for any other virgins... here's how it went:
Customising the coat:
1. Wash coat thoroughly using loads of fabric conditioner, so it smells gorgeous! Good start.
2. Repair the inside seam, not visible to anyone else, but makes it feel old to me.
3. Remove boring old black buttons and replace with twinkly new ones.
4. Iron on cream tassle trim to underside of both pockets (for simplicity, using iron on hemming/bond tape, which I have to say is amazing stuff!).
5. Ta da! Nearly new coat, that is actually 3 or 4 years old.
Time spent: Total around 45 mins, but actually I was being slow. A competent sewer could probably achieve this in 15 mins.
With some left over cream tassle trim, I then updated this boring cream short sleeve sweater which I never really looked twice at, again, using the iron-on bond tape, giving it a pretty new neckline. Time spent: 5 mins!
I'm quite pleased with my first attempt, and dare I say even a little bit hooked on this new hobby! Looking for my next project as we speak!
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