Out Of My Comfort Zone

So, the teenaged boy of mine is growing by inches daily, it seems. I bought him some new jeans in the fall, and he's already growing too tall for them. And the leather jacket he had to have last year? The sleeves are too short. Sigh. I'm not buying another coat right now (and definitely not a leather coat), so I started thinking of solutions.

When my daughter was young and growing like a weed, I could add ribbon to the bottoms of her cuffs on pants and shirts to make them last a little longer. I was pretty sure the boy wouldn't take to that idea. So, I remembered seeing a leather coat with flannel cuffs and lining. I thought maybe I could do that, even though I am perhaps the worst seamstress in the history of sewing. Sewing is SO not my thing. I'm more of a "hot glue it and call it good" person.

Once I got online, I found that some people use sweater sleeves to make a jacket sleeve longer. And then—Eureka! I found someone who made cuffs for a jacket from socks! Now, I loved this idea because we had black socks aplenty and I wouldn't have to go find a black sweater to cut up.

So, I did it. I actually got out the sewing machine and sewing kit and made cuffs for the jacket. They turned out all right and it was free!


 1. Cut socks like this. Machine stitch the cut edge to prevent unraveling.

2. Turn the sleeve of the jacket inside out, slide the sock around the sleeve and hand stitch the sock (cut and sewed end) to the lining of the jacket.

3. It'll look like this when you've finished.

4. Turn it inside right. and it looks like this.

5. Have your taller-than-you son try on the jacket, and fold back the sock cuff and it'll look like this. Whew! We might make it through the season without buying another coat. Maybe. And he's even thinking I'm clever and helpful and that it looks good. That's a win right there! Now if I can keep him from just pulling them off in the day-to-day wear and tear of his clothes, I'll be happy.

Here's another card I'm adding to my stack for the nursing home residents. It uses a Papertrey Ink stamp and Hero Arts bg paper. I think I should've gone with silver for the hello with these blues...hmmm...yep, I'm going to need to change that. Off to fix it!

Happy Friday, my friends!
Chark