Fixing a Jacket

I have this great jacket. It’s pleather, admittedly, but it looks great on me. The only thing is, that I haven’t worn it much recently, and with the springy weather, it would be perfect.

And then I pulled it out of the closet to find this:

I searched the internet far and wide. Apparently, there is nothing you can do to fix it once it’s started peeling. So sad. After reluctantly putting it in the “donate/get rid of” pile, I kept thinking about this jacket. Surely there had to be something I could do.

Suddenly, it hit me, what if I could just cover this portion? Make it look like it’s supposed to be this way. (Except that now you’ll all know!) I found a piece of fabric that would go with the design and feel of the jacket. It’s a bit edgy, but this makes it a touch more feminine.

Here’s what I did:

First, I used tissue paper to trace the shape I wanted to cover. This back panel is the only part peeling (except the collar), so I traced where the seams were so I knew how big to make the addition.

Then, I added a seam allowance of about 3/8″ or 1/2″ around the outside of this piece of paper.

Next, I cut 2 pieces of fabric, the pretty one, and a muslin one to act as a liner, since this fabric was a bit thin.

I sewed right sides together, leaving a small opening at the bottom to turn it right side out.

After that, I pressed everything. I also added some Heat ‘n Bond between the 2 layers, just so they wouldn’t slide around a lot while I was working with it. And pressed again.

Then came the hard part. I had to pin it to the jacket so that it came just even with the existing seams. (And then had to wait several days while I ordered a 6mm twin needle from Amazon.)

Once my needle arrived, (and I matched thread) I sewed over the existing seams on the side and created new ones along the collar and the bottom of this piece I added.

And that’s it. It’s like new!

Now it’s wearable again, and I actually like it a bit better now. Who knew!