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Monday, March 8, 2010

Fun in Upcycling

In the trendy shops of SOHO, New York City one fall in 2003, I stumbled upon the cutest black leather trench coat on a mannequin in the window. Without any hesitation, I suddenly found myself wandering into the leather shop, and minutes later, walking away with a knee length coat made out of the most supple black leather my hands had ever felt. The coat was cut in a very traditional single notch tailored suit and it fit me perfectly.

I wore that coat maybe a handful of times in the next ensuing years. Not nearly enough to validate the amount of money I has spent on it and nor to do it justice.

In 2007, I attempted to sell the coat to the local consignment shop, but they offered me a measly $50 for the coat. Feeling that would have been a bigger tragedy, I was dead-set on holding onto the jacket until I could find a more just use for it.

Fast-forward to February 2010, that "just use" finally materialized. My leather trench coat was now living a new life, as a fashionable petal purse. I laboriously dismantled almost the entire coat stitch by stitch during the months prior knowing that a fabulous new life was awaiting this leather. After all, some poor animal (or herd of) was sacrificed in this process.


I worked off of photographs of what the eventual owner of the purse wanted and went from there. I physically deconstructed the purse in the photographs onto paper to create my paper pattern. From there, I proceeded to cut up my muslin fabric and sew a prototype. I presented the prototype to the owner and she liked it very much, giving me the okay to proceed. I then cut up the leather based on my paper pattern and began final construction.

Now, working with muslin fabric versus genuine leather is very different. Muslin is inexpensive, easy to maneuver, and rather forgiving of any errors. If I had to remove stitches, the fabric could be massaged in a way to "erase" the previous stitch holes. Leather, on the hand, was much thicker and heavier to maneuver. Once I proceeded to cutting up the leather, I knew I had only one chance to create this purse perfectly. Once holes were punctured into the leather by my machine needle, I knew that it had to be the final puncturing.

Fortunately, my decades of sewing didn't fail me, even on a new medium like leather. I'm sure it didn't hurt that I was using a heavy duty industrial sewing machine.

Having made numerous clutch purses and totes, I knew I had to follow a strict order of construction. Before I made the final closing stitches, I had to ensure that the metal snaps were in place and the interior zipper pocket was all in order.

The final product, I'm happy to say, was a great success.  I posted it on kiu Design's page on Facebook (click here to see) to rave reviews.  Now that I have my pattern, I'm ready to make more!  I'd love to hear your feedback!