Here We Go Again!

Yep, another leather coat has succumbed to my evil ways. Not to be confused with the Leather Coat Project of days pass. Nope this is a brand new just begun today project with a different coat.

Technically, I didn't start out today thinking I was going to be working on another leather coat. The day had begun with me working on this wool coat....



I think I mentioned this coat before....a 1990's Perry Ellis Meg-Ryan-Sleepless-in-Seattle coat. (I might be off on my dates, but when ever I see this coat that's what I think of. Oh yeah, and how incredibly uncomfortable it was to sit on that damn belt slung across the butt.) Anyway, the reason for this coat project is cuz when Jilly went back to school last week she took her J Crew Pea Coat with her. Damn. I'm gonna have to beat that child. But then again, this is nice coat too, if it's tweaked. I began tweaking this afternoon. It's done except for the hem which will be a breeze and a change of shoulder pads. Arrgh! No shoulder pads in my stash.....oh wait, yes there is, in the long brown leather coat awaiting an appointment with Mr Seam Ripper. Thus, Project Leather Coat II began.

Here are few pix of the original coat......like really, like totally 80's, oh my gawd!



Nothing wonderful about this coat other than it's leather. It has ginormous shoulder pads and a really boxy silhouette. There isn't any spiffy stitching details, it's just a sad, sad, design. But it does have a pretty fabulous lining!!!


Sorry about the icky color, but the grey dismal days of January are upon us. The shot above is no flash (obviously) the shot below is with a flash. Take your pick, dark and murky or washed out and shiny.


The true color is a beautiful bronze ground with black design. I haven't decided if I'll keep this lining in the coat-soon-to-be-jacket or if I'll cut another lining and use this fab fabric for something else.

The plan for this coat is to separate the seam that runs along the top of those huge gapping pockets which will make it a short jacket length. I may have to add a small band around the bottom if it turns out to be a weird length.

The first thing I tackled were those linebacker shoulders. I removed the shoulder pads....just as I suspected, each pad was actually two pads sewn together. YEA! Shoulder pads for the Meg-Ryan-soon-to-be-Lucy-Ricardo-Coat!!! (btw, I'll have finished pix tomorrow of that coat. I ran out of what little light I had)

Now to deal with a shoulder seam that measured nearly 9 inches from collar to sleeve cap. I wasn't confident in my ability to remove the sleeve and adjust the armhole so I made some pleats in the shoulders.



I was thrilled with the fit of the shoulders and stitched it up!

On the first pleat I used a lot binder clips, then I got bold and use fewer clips on the subsequent pleats.



I fiddled around with the collar for...oh.....about 2 hours, and decided I'd leave it a shawl collar for now. Tomorrow I may change my mind. I originally was thinking about putting a zipper up the front, but now I'm not so sure. The lining is only for prettiness, there's no r-factor to it, so chances are I won't be wearing this when it's too cold therefore no reason to zip it up.

I still have some top stitching and some stay stitching to do but this is what it looks like so far.



Be honest, what do you think?
I'm a little frightened.
Tell me this didn't pop into your mind when you saw the jacket.



~sigh~