Upcycle: Utility Vest
Story Time
“what I thought would be a small sewing project turned out to be the easiest upcycle”
The summer after graduating highschool, I worked three jobs and barely saw the sun. All of these jobs required being on my feet, and one of them involved smelling kettle corn for hours while wishing I could have a dinner break. I’m still very grateful for all the work I got to do, but by the end of summer I was exhausted.
Celebrating Fall 2015 in my “reward jacket”
Before I left home for college, I decided to treat myself and buy an $80 utility jacket from Hollister. It was the only Hollister item I believe I have ever owned, and it was my go-to jacket in the fall and spring for many years. Until last year….when I found an ugly tear in the worn-down elbow of my favorite green jacket.
So the infamous jacket lived in the closet for several months while I pondered whether to toss it or find a way to repurpose it. This jacket had become sentimental to me, and represented my hard work from that long, long summer. I determined to upcycle the jacket either by adding elbow patches or removing the sleeves and to make it a vest!
The project
After an inspiration binge on Pinterest, I collected my courage and examined the jacket. The simplest and most versatile solution seemed to be the vest route. I cut the sleeves off, leaving an extra inch of seam allowance in anticipation of finishing the raw edge. Upon further investigation, I realized if I trimmed removed the adjacent seam and trimmed the sleeve side, I would be left with a perfectly finished edge!
In the end, all it took to convert my jacket was cutting the sleeves off and taking out a single seam on each side. What I thought would be a small sewing project turned out to be the easiest upcycle, and I’m so happy to give new life to my utility jacket.
