Mod Bod | Winter Coat Fix

Winter finally decided to make an appearance in Utah, and all I can say is "Finally!" The only downside to finally getting our due share of snow was that I really needed to give my pea coat a minor face-lift. I bought my coat three winters ago, and due to my passionate affair with this particular piece of outerwear, I had managed to rub holes in the edges of each sleeve. As eager as I may be to sew a new coat completely from scratch, such a project wasn't in my budget, and I couldn't imagine parting with a coat that still had so many years of good use left in it.

I grabbed 6" of a wool outerwear blend from my local JoAnn's (and yes, I did happen to feel very weird asking for only 6"). The plaid pattern has a little hint of shiny silver in it, which really made me excited to add a bit of spice to my conservative coat. I then sewed a cuff to attach to each sleeve. For each cuff I cut out a piece 6" thick (to get 2" cuffs eventually) with a width one inch more than the circumference of my sleeve. I then folded each cuff in half and sewed the ends together with a 1/2" seam allowance.

I inserted the cuff into the sleeve, with the edge of the sleeve and edge of the cuff lining up, and hand-sewed about 1/2" down from the edge of the sleeve all around. I then pulled the cuff up/out and folded the remaining raw edge down by 1/2" and pinned the edges down. I then folded this entire piece over the outside of the sleeve. To finish the cuff, I used an invisible stitch all the way around. 

The project took a bit because it all had to be sewn by hand, but a little under an hour to revamp a coat versus days to build a new coat seems worth the time! I have one pressing question, though: how in the world does one pose for self-portraits? I am definitely camera shy if I'm not being goofy, and I end up with weird poses like this one below and my funky semi-robot at the top. Sorry for my non-model-isticity.