A suit refashion

In addition to being plus size, I often have problems with changing the size - whether I am going up or down on the scale. And this means that I have to keep different sizes of clothes - especially pants and jackets (blazers). Stretchy blouses and sweaters fit better of worse, depending on which side I am, but  in most cases they fit. Trousers and jackets are a whole different story.

I had a tailored black cotton blend suit that was made to fit me perfectly, but it was on a small side for a while now. As I was recently scouring my closet for wearable office clothes for this fall/winter I have tried on the suit to find out it fit me again!

However, it had a number of issues and it simply wasn't fit for work. First of all, I wore trousers far more than the jacket, so they were more frequently washed causing the colour difference (note the trousers were a lighter shade of black). And the jacket seems to be a little to tight.

In addition to these problems, the colour at the edges and seams was quite faded and there was a part of the jacket where this was particularly visible. And buttons were rather plain.

 

Now, for the course of action:

 

First, I removed the buttons and soaked the suit in the lukewarm water (it was washed previously) to get rid of any chemical residue after the washing.

 

Then I have put the suit in the washing machine, adding the dye, fixing agent and salt according the package instructions. I have used Iberia fabric dye, as it is available at our market and it has decent results whether it is used in a washing machine or a pot. In my experience, if you are going for even coverage and intensive colours, you should opt for machine dyeing with multiple dye packets. I used two packs of black dye for this project.

 

Once machine cycle was completed, I have washed the rubber parts of the washing machine to remove the dye residue, returning the suit to the machine for a light wash with the darks washing liquid and starching.

 

After dying, clothes need to be air-dried, and this is the process that takes the longest, so make sure to plan for this time. Once the suit dried, I have ironed it face down and it was ready for the finishing touches - meaning embellishing! So I gathered some supplies and started creating a design.

Studs!

Studding...

After I was done with studs on the collar and on one of the pockets (I opted for asymmetry), I have decided to replace the buttons as previous ones would no longer look good with the stud details on the jacket. And here is the final look:



Off to work!

I hope you like what I did here, as it was a nearly no-sew refashion which landed me with a great outfit including a trendy jacket which makes my day to night transition effortless! Awesome!

 

Happy refashioning!

 

Love, Dee