Burnt Blazer

They call it a blazer, but it's a lie, because it can't handle the heat! I decided to iron the collar of this forest green blazer because it just wasn't folding right, and the instant the iron touched it, the fabric melted! 

It left a shiny mark that was impossible to ignore or cover. I liked the fabric and felt sad about losing such a nice garment to such a senseless accident, so I decided I might cut it up and make it into a skirt.

That was almost 3 years ago (I last wore the blazer in spring 2015). I've carried the remains of the blazer around with me from house to apartment to house, and never got motivated enough to make it into something new. Then this fall, faced with a bitterly cold office and a shortage of clothes with sleeves, I suddenly became very interested in layering with cardigans and blazers. I pulled this one out of storage and thought I could make it useful again, not by converting it into something completely different, but simply by removing the damaged collar.

After I finally set to work, I finished this 3-year project with remarkable ease!

I marked where I wanted the new edges with a line of pins, and then cut off the collar and the lapels, leaving just a half-inch for a hem.

Deciding how to protect the raw edges was the hardest part. The fabric was thick enough that it would become bulky if I made a standard hem. Eventually I decided to just wrap it with bias tape. I didn't have any tape that matched the color of the blazer, so I went with a complementing navy hue.

I felt it would go quicker and produce less bulk if I just glued the bias tape on, so I did. In retrospect, it did not go quicker, because I had to wait for the glue to dry over the course of two days, one for the glue on the front side and one for the back.

But finally I was ready for the last stage, which was turning the now-taped seam under and sewing it down.

I tried to keep the seam as close to the edge as possible, so it wouldn't be too noticeable. Here's how it looks on the inside.

And here's how it looks on the outside!

The finished product is fair to middling. The lapels tend to gape open, revealing the bias tape underneath, but fortunately it's a fairly analogous color, so it looks more like a deliberate accent than a mistake (I hope!).

In any case, it's good enough for me to wear it to work again, so I did, putting a slightly less dark green T-shirt underneath, tucking a pair of black skinny pants into a pair of black knee-high boots, and finishing it all off with my grape jewelry set!