Tutorial: Jean Jacket to Lace Jean Vest

I admit I've been drooling over some people's jean vests lately. I have quite a few outfits I think one would go well with. I did a quick search and found them online for $30-$40...just not the money I'm willing to spend on that. I have a jean jacket in my closet. I don't really ever wear it; I'm not sure why. So, I decided to chop off the sleeves and add a little lace!

 

Here's the jean jacked in all it's glory. It's Sonoma (Kohls). I like the lighter wash of it, but it just felt bulky whenever I would try to wear it.

 

First, I chopped off the sleeves. I just cut in with my sharp fabric-only scissors and cut really close to the seam. It worked perfectly.

 

Here's a close up. I actually saw a student wearing a cute jean vest with lace, so I thought I'd try to do that myself. I pondered whether to do the front or back, but decided the shoulder panel would be fun. 

 

I wasn't sure how to get a good pattern. The jean vest has raised seams, so I did the old crayon rubbing trick, and it gave me a pretty good idea of the shape I was going for.

 

I cut it out and placed it on. I decided as I was looking at it, that I wanted the lace to extend to the bottom of the panel (about 3/4" lower than the pattern. Same above, so I made sure to take that into account when I cut the lace.

 

I had this lace around from a previous project, and i thought it was perfect. I pinned on the pattern and cut.

 

Here's the result. I left more on the top and bottom to get that extra 3/4 inch that I wanted and a little on the sides to be able to fold over. I cut two of these for both shoulder panels.

 

Then, I pinned it on. This took a little while just to fold it over, make sure it was lined up where I wanted it and such. Then I hand-sewed it on. 

 

Voila! Quite the transformation, don't you think?! I love it and can't wait to wear it!