The second denim jacket ended up being a cold weather solution for me.

I wrote about winter weight dresses earlier in the week.

I wrote about my second denim jacket months ago.

Those two posts merged on Tuesday.

I discovered the slightly larger, squarer, second, denim jacket works perfectly over heavy weight dresses. Perfectly.

I had my alteration lady add inside pockets to the second jacket, when I discovered there weren't any.

I seriously, truly love these pockets for daily life around town (car fob, cell phone). And for travel (hotel room key, cell phone, money, passport, airline tickets). I very rarely carry a purse.

The more substantial second jacket felt a little bulky with summer weight dresses, tops and skirts. It is perfect with heavier winter clothes.

So I have my original jacket with the mended elbows for half the year and the new one for colder months.

I almost never wear denim (skirts, dresses, jeans), so the denim jackets go with most everything I wear (dresses mostly) and are definitely my GO TO items for every day life.

Yes, I wear other jackets. But not as much as I wear my denim ones.

And honestly, I should take my other favorites in for an alteration lady consult, because inside pockets in all of them would mean greater happiness.

Inside view of both jackets. Original, lighter weight jacket is on the left. The newer, heavier jacket is on the right. Original pocket on left, added pocket on the right. Tall, skinny pockets. Deep. Really love them.

Clothing alterations - This is the one with pictures of taking in knit tops (links from past alteration posts included in this post too)

I have talked about taking in knit tops many times over the years.

My shoulders and bust remain solid. I buy tops to fit (those, the largest part of me).

I have mentioned I am very careful not to wear things that hang straight down from my breasts. That very much feels like maternity clothes to me.

So I have taken in the lower half of many of my knit tops since 2009.

Here is a series of pictures showing exactly how I take in these tops.

Again, as always, experiment on things you do not care about first, or even tops from Good Will that will not cause sadness if they end up in the rag bag. When in doubt, BASTE, either by hand, with pins, on huge stitch length on machine. Working with tops inside out, basting, trying on, helps.

Stretchy knit tops require something other than a regular straight stitch. Can straight stitch and then put a zigzag right next to it, in seam allowance side of the straight stitch line. Can use a serger (ask around if you do not have one, a friend might). A serger is set up to CUT the shirt as you sew, so experiment on rags if this is new to you. Or there are special stitches on some machines that mimic a serger or do a forward, backward straight stitch. Experiment on rags to be sure tension is right for your fabric.

I measure over 1" from the side seam at the bottom edge of the top and then draw a line straight up to the under arm seam (red line).

I sew a straight seam ON the line. I serge next to the straight seam. The serger cuts the excess fabric as it sews.

Ditto red line.

Ditto seam line.

Yes, it is a subtle bit of alteration, but it makes all the difference in the world on how I feel in these tops. There is more information in the Knit Top Alteration link below.

BONUS -

Long darts in two jackets and two blouses (6/30/2013) 

Long, vertical darts altering my "under grown" clothes to fit me again - these are alterations done in 2010, but I am still wearing these clothes, hence today's post.

NOTE -

If you are doing these alterations yourself - BASTE, BASTE, BASTE. Practice on a shirt from GoodWill or one from your closet you will not be sad to pitch. Notice she did not cut away any of the excess fabric (blouses).  If you are doing these alterations with a new to you alteration person, I would start with your least favorite item. You can also request the shirt be basted (thread or pin) and then go in for a fitting. The other suggestion I have is to wait quite a while (hitting maintenance) before having any alterations done. First to see where your body settles. And second to see if you REALLY want the piece of clothing long term. Because only true loves should be altered (if you are paying someone to do them).  As I was looking through my alteration notes, most of my alterations happened in summer/fall of 2010 after I hit my final weight in November of 2009. I waited a bit to be sure of what I wanted. 

There is very little ego involved with the pictures I post.

If you look carefully, in pictures,  you will find dust, you will find clutter.

I have posted pictures with bed head.

I have posted pictures in my underwear.

Last week I posted pictures in my pj's.

In early May, I had the idea for this post, after I had spent a very long, hot, humid day running errands.

If I had gotten the idea with a freshly pressed blouse, first thing in the morning, still in air conditioning, you would not now be subjected to the wrinkles in this first set of pictures.

Two problems with that theory -
1) the blouse was not ironed when I started.
2) if I don't take the pictures when I think of it, idea is lost, post never happens.

These are both size medium blouses I had before I lost my last 20 lbs.

I did not save every item of clothing when I got down to my current size, but I did save favorites which were alterable. Not every single thing was. I purged a lot.

I have a middle eastern alteration lady who we all adore. If something comes up and I have the opportunity to give her business, honestly, I do.


The other thing I guess it would help to understand is I carried my excess weight in my belly. My last 20 lbs all came out of the area between the bottom of my arm pits and the top of my hip bones.

I CANNOT stand things that hang down from my breasts (maternity look to me). I need things fitted through my waist, because now it actually indents.

What Sharla and I both discovered is if things are too big on us - they TENT in the back which makes it look terrible in the front. We learned this as I worked with my alteration lady (2010) after my last 20 lbs (2009). Alteration lady makes the corrections in the back (not very noticeable) which then make all the difference in the world in how things are in the front.

Sharla is a long time blogger friend of mine with a private blog - sorry no link.

And one more thing - I wear a size 6 on bottom. I have very broad shoulders. I still have a bust (32D). I am solid. As I buy new clothes now, I am always buying for the biggest part of me (shoulders, bust). So that is why some undergrown, larger sizes have been alter-able for me. I think that all that might combine to make a big difference in altering clothes (for me, being worth it) vs just starting over with a smaller size. (If I had tiny shoulders, bust, would not have altered any of those clothes shown in this post).



I love this first blouse. I love the fact the buttons are in sets of 3. I love the detail on the lower hem. I love the color. So, yes, I paid (gladly) to have this one altered.

This (wrinkly) picture shows the front of the blouse as it was originally sold and as it still remains. No alterations on the front.

Notice the detail at the hem? I love that.

Here is the part that I hope you can see. The top stitched seam on the right is the seam sewing the sleeve to the top. The top stitched seam on the left is part of the original structure of the blouse (there is a seam just like that in the front too). The seam between those two seams, the seam that is not top stitched, is a long, vertical dart the alteration lady added to ease the fullness out of the top when I lost my last 20lbs. This dart runs from the shoulder seam of the blouse to the hem. 

Here is the same (wrinkly) shirt, now inside-out, with my nasal spray pointing to the long vertical dart which was added. Notice the dart starts at nearly nothing by the shoulder seam, is widest at my waist, and then also takes in part of the hem. If you click on this picture, it will enlarge so you can see more easily.

Now the nasal spray is pointing to the identical dart on the other side.

I love this blouse too. Love 3/4 sleeves. It is a nice heavy weight fabric. I like the color. I love the vertical stripes.

No alterations were made to the front of this shirt. Yes, there are vertical darts, under the bust. They are original to the shirt.

Two long darts, were added to the back of this shirt. Because of the stripes, you can see the seam lines, one on each side of the back.

Again, an inside-out view of the blouse. The tips of the two nasal sprays are touching the dart seam lines. So, yes, in the middle of the vertical dart, there is a larger amount of fabric being darted, the dart goes to nearly nothing at the top and bottom of the blouse.  If you click on the pictures, you might be able to see more clearly.

I did not move the nasal spray for this picture. It is showing the exact same position on the blouse. Luckily the thread does not match exactly, and you can see the seam line in this close up, fairly clearly.

I think I had three jackets altered. I think Sharla has one of them now. I later found that same jacket on ebay and ordered a smaller size.

The other two are pictured below.

This first, chocolate brown one is a very thick fabric. I had to talk the alteration lady into altering it as it was a size 14. She argued with me. What won is the fact that if she took it in, center back, the shoulders still fit. And it was good quality fabric. (I had probably bought it somewhere on my way down the scale and it had escaped all closet purges because I loved it. Still do.)

No alterations were done to the front of the jacket. 

The seam you see down the center is an alteration. The next seam over, each side of center, was original to the jacket. Yes, I am planning on wearing this jacket for the rest of my life. . .

My nasal sprays are showing a very large seam which was taken down the center back of the jacket. Because the fabric is so thick, alteration lady did cut away the excess and finished the raw seam. This center back seam starts at almost nothing under the tag. On this one, alteration lady opened the hem, added the center seam, re closed the hem. I actually took this jacket back in, to her, when writing this post, to clarify which seams were hers, and which were original to the jacket. I questioned if she had added the side seams, just off center too, but she had not. Center only, is her work.

As you can tell, the pattern is so busy you will not see any of the darts on the outside of this jacket. I still included pictures, because you can see how well it fits. The black is a shirt I am wearing under the jacket.

On the inside, the stitching is very clear. Again, all alterations were on the back side of the jacket.

The nasal sprays show a seam/dart down the center back of the jacket. There is top stitching on this center seam/dart.

I put the nose of each bottle under the excess fabric, so you can see how much was folded over when this very long, vertical seam/dart was made.

Closer view of the width of the seam/dart. You can see how the seam/dart includes the hem.

In addition to the dart down the center back, I think, two small darts were made on each side at the waist. It is possible these were original to the jacket, these were altered a long time ago, hard to remember. But I think, as I look, they were added by my lady. There are a total of four of these darts, two on each side of center.

If you go back up to the pictures of me wearing the jacket, you can see it fits me very well. I wear it buttoned. It fits great in shoulders and bust and waist. Without the alterations, it would not be flattering, I would have purged it.