Denim Vest Love & Easy Tutorial

Today I am co-hosting a link-up with two LOVELY girls--Jill at Doused in Pink and Carrie at Curly Crafty Mom. Jill is super crafty so hopefully she approves of this post! HA! Link up with us below!!!

Girls--as you  know I am participating in the Summer Style Challenge. The thing about these challenges are they are truly CHALLENGES. They often put you outside of your comfort zone to try things you might not ever dream of wearing! A few past things I never thought to wear before the challenges...

~ Stripes and florals

~ Denim on Denim

~  Palazzo/Track pants

All of these things were outside my comfort zone at first but now I LOVE them!!!

I have to say, the Summer Challenge is definitely "challenging" me more than others! One HUGE "I will never wear that!" item on the list this challenge is a denim vest. Is it just me, a child of the 80's and 90's, that just makes you think of Billy Ray Cyrus, Achey Breaky Heart, when you think about about a denim vest??!! I know vests are mainstream now, but still. This isn't Billy Ray, but you get the idea....

But darn it, I was going to try to and step outside my comfort zone. So I went onto Pinterest and found these outfits....(better, right?)

Hmmmm...that looked  promising!!! So I started looking for some vest options...here are some GREAT ONES!

Then, in a short, rare, flash of genius, I remembered my huge "donate" pile that was ready for Goodwill and low and behold I found a denim jacket. Hmmmm......dare I just cut the sleeves off??! I am NOT, repeat, NOT a seamstress and the farthest thing from a DIYer! But I dared. This is how it turned out ~

 I think it turned out great!! I'm still feeling a tad Achey Breaky but I'm warming up to it!

Girls, you can do this, too in 3 easy steps. If I can do it, ANYONE can. I swear! I found ANOTHER denim jacket in my donate pile to show you how it's done.

Needed: Denim Jacket, Sharp Scissors (I used a pair of sharp scrapbooking scissors). I preferred the smaller scrapbook scissors so I could be more precise when cutting around the arms.

Step 1: Locate a denim jacket, preferably thrifted and INEXPENSIVE. I would not pay over $10. See fit guidelines below. Fit is VERY important!!!

Step 2: With your scissors, make a small cut right near the seam where the jacket's arms are sewn. This will allow you to easily get your scissors into where they need to be.

Step 3: Cut all the way around the jacket sleeve, cutting as close to the seam as you can to minimize fraying. In the first pic, you can see how close to the seam I'm cutting. Repeat steps 2 & 3 for the other sleeve.

Voila! A denim vest is born!!!

A few notes ~

~ Fraying: When you wash your jacket, it will fray just a tiny bit. If you cut close to the seam, it's hardly noticeable. If it bothers you, you can easily just trim it off with your sharp scissors or apply Fray Check, a seam sealer right at the edge where you cut it.

~ Denim jacket fit guidelines: When looking for a jacket to make into a vest, SIZE DOWN! A vest is meant to be fitted to avoid lots of extra bulk. When I put my vest on, it barely buttons. I would even look for one that is too tight to button (but still fits everywhere else), so you get a nice "open" look in the front (please don't ever think about buttoning your vest!). If you look at the pics of the girls at the top, their vests are all very open in the front.

There you have it! Are you brave enough to try a homemade vest??!

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Welcome to Thursday Fashion Files!

Welcome to Thursday Fashion Files with Jill at Doused in Pink and Carrie at Curly Crafty Mom! We are excited to have you here and would love to have you link up one of your latest outfits with us.

We are always looking for Co-Hosts for Thursday Fashion Files. If you haven't signed up to Co-Host, but are interested, sign up by clicking HERE. 






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Guest Co-Host:

Casey from A Little Bit of Cheer is our co-host this week. Casey has been blogging since 2008 and it started as a digital scrapbook to document memories of her kids childhood. Now her blog shares outfits, but easy recipes and her family life. Casey wants to bring a little bit of cheer to anyone that stops by... be sure to stop by and say hello to her today!

Now let's get linking!

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