A SAORI Twist

In our series of posts on upcycling, mending, and rejuvenating old pieces of clothing, Amanda talks about the new lease of life she gave a favourite jacket.
 
Light blue denim jacket on wooden floor
This week, I was watching some twenty-year-old holiday videos that my son had converted from the original cassettes. In several clips, I spotted a denim jacket that I still happen to wear all the time. I hadn’t realised it was quite that old. Impressed as I am at its longevity (quick calculation  cost per wear so far = 2p), I decided to give it an update.
 
striped handwoven cloth, with red, pink, puurple, and light blue accents
 
Now, I always have a stash of weavings to hand. Some larger lengths of cloth simply haven’t told me ‘what they want to be’ yet but there are also lots of shorter lengths: cut offs; samples and demo pieces. I had a rummage and found a brightly coloured piece that I had woven to demonstrate embellishing cloth with ‘treasures’ – bits of ribbons, leftover threads, strips of leftover fabric etc in the weave. 
 
I pinned the cloth to both sides of the collar, cutting off the excess (to be used in another weave sometime in the future), hand stitched all the way round, turning in the raw edges and tada…. a new look for my trusty jacket.
 
Pale blue denim jacket with red handwoven collar
 
I’m not stopping at that though. I have plans to add a panel of weaving to the back, some patches on the pockets and perhaps some new woven cuffs. Watch this space!
 
Blog post by Amanda Edney