In the Trenches

At least a year ago, I was given this trench coat. It was longer than I liked, but trench coats never go out of style so I figured I would hold on to it. 

It has hung in the closet ever since, never worn. I kept thinking I could shorten it, and the other week I finally got my ducks in a row and got it done. I certainly wouldn't call it a professional job, but at least I'll wear it now. In fact, I've worn it twice already.

The coat has a lining, so I had to detach that first.

Then I picked apart the hem a bit to see what was going on.

I had decided that I wanted to hem it just below the pockets so that it would hit about mid-thigh. And I didn't want to mess with the pockets. I measured 13" from the bottom all the way around the coat. I have no idea what that other little mark you can see in the picture is.

Then I drew a line to connect all my marks so that I could cut along it.

Chop chop!

Next I pinned the lining to the coat, flipped it over, and cut the extra lining off.

I folded the hem over, ironed and pinned it.

Then I simply sewed the hem. It got a little crooked because the fabric is heavy duty, quality stuff and was about the max of what my sewing machine likes to handle, especially when I got to the seams. So if you are ever walking behind me, don't look too closely at the hem. It might look a little wonky.

Apparently, I forgot to take a photo of hemming the lining but it was pretty much the same process. And it definitely got a little wonky because it was silky and kept sliding around on me. Kind of went from one end of the spectrum to the other with fabric on this project.

And now for the finished product! Thank you, Keith, for chopping off my head.

Actually, I did one more thing. I took off the shoulder tabs and the little straps around the cuffs because in person it seemed a little bulky. Maybe I'll wear it and have Keith take another photo so you can catch the really finished project in another post.

This was another one of those projects I put off for a long time only to discover that an hour or so gets it done.