Wintervacht

I love when people re-purpose things. Whether it's clothes or jewelry or furniture. I think it takes so much creativity to see things in a new way and make it your own. It also plays into my pack-rat nature not to throw anything away.

When I'm bored, I often browse through Pinterest under the heading "Re-purpose" and a few months ago I saw a blanket coat from a company called Wintervact. The company takes old wool blankets and sews them into simple coats. Since I've started following them they've added new styles but because they are made out of old blankets, the coats are really one of a kind. I loved the style and wanted to try to make one on my own (since I don't have the 145 euros it costs for the basic short blanket coat).

The hardest part of making the coat was finding the fabric. I thought it would be easy to go to any thrift store and find a wool blanket but after searching for weeks I was still without fabric. When my mom and I went to a half price sale day at a local thrift store when they were here at the end of last month I finally found a wool throw for $2.25. I loved the material and the colour (and the price), but I was disappointed that it was a small blanket.

I decided that since it was my first time trying out the pattern it made more sense to do a smaller version anyway - so I made a sweater coat for Allison.

 It took 15 minutes to cut the pattern and under an hour to sew it. Working with wool was like working with felt - the finishing was really easy. I used a serger instead of a blanket stitch (like many jackets on the site) and I think it looks comparable to the original inspiration.