Body Image - That's a tough one for a lot of us. It's not something talked about openly, very often, but a lot of the people I work with seem to be challenged by it, and daily. I've struggled with my own body image over the years as have most of my friends. As a teenager, looking through fashion magazines constantly (wanting to be cool, fashionable and popular), I compared myself to the models on those pages, dressed beautifully & styled to the nines. The comparisons killed me. You see, I've always been my own worst critic. Self criticism and loathing get to the heart of the matter. That internal critic (along with a little external reinforcement - peer pressure, magazines etc.) led me to an eating disorder, hospitalization and a life unmanageable, all by the tender age of 15...

This jacket was found at the Vintage Fashion Expo in the Michaan's Auction House out at Alameda point last Fall. I loved it immediately and was pleased to say that it fit fairly well upon first trying it on, all be it, a little loose. This beautifully embroidered piece was only $45, so I nabbed it up and took it home.

Once home, I kept trying it on with different outfits and just found that I felt a bit frumpy in it. Have you ever had this experience? My bust and hips are full, at least in comparison to my shoulders and rib cage. The difference in size is about 3 dress sizes. Yikes. I'm the typical "Pear" - size 4 in the shoulders and rib cage, size 8 in the bust and a 10-12 in my waist andhips. Makes for a difficult fit a lot of the time. Well, this car coat (that's what these short jackets are called) is just a little too "Miss Fisher" to give up, so after close inspection, an alteration seemed in order.

"What to do?" You ask. Well, I say, make it fit in the shoulders. I started by pinning out the shoulder to see how much needed to be reduced - about 2" in the end.

After seam ripping the sleeves off the jacket, I drew a new armhole on the jacket, making the shoulders 2" smaller on each side. This made the armhole quite a bit larger than the sleeve.

In order to reduce the armhole measurement so that the sleeve would fit, I created a dart along the sides of the jacket, as there was no side seam to reduce. This made the bust smaller as well, but that worked out just fine, as the jacket was quite full in the bust already.

The sleeves were sewn back into the garment and the lining pinned in and stitched by hand.

With my jacket altered, and fitted properly, I now love it even more. Time to make an outfit to go with it, don't you think?

Happy Sewing!

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