Hello friends! First off, thank you so much for all your wonderful comments on my cropped Victoria Blazer! Each one makes me smile :) And Archibald got a mention over at the By Hand London round up post - check out all the great Victoria blazers!


Today I wanted to show you a quick and easy way to change the lapels on your blazer from square to angled at the bottom - this may seem like common sense to many of you, but I figured I would share it anyways in case someone else was wanting this look and needed some guidance :) We all need guidance in some part of sewing or another!

Babette is working it!  Left side - before (square) ::  Right side - after (angled)
When I originally tried on the blazer with the square lapels pinned on, the hubs commented how it looked very "square" due to the boxy crop cut and the square lapels, emphasized by the horizontal stripe. I decided to try an angled lapel instead and we both agreed it worked better for this blazer! Here's how to do it in eight easy steps:

*These steps were taken AFTER already sewing the square lapels - this is how to adjust them from squared to angled after the fact :)


1. Fold the sewn edge (fold) of the lapel towards the unfinished edge, hot-dog style, at an angle so the corner meets the unfinished edge
2. Press lightly and turn wrong sides out
3. Trace this line with a pencil
4. Press lapel flat
5. Sew along traced line
6. Trim seam allowance
7. Clip corners
8. Turn right side out and press - TA-DA!!!!

***Make sure that you flip the second lapel for this process so you have two mirror-image lapels, not two identical direction lapels (ask me how I know :)

So there you have it! Hope it helps! If you need clarification on anything, please let me know in the comments or by e-mail, and if you try this technique, I'd love to see it! Right click on the above image and select "Open in new tab" to see a larger version of the directional photos (any photos, actually). Thanks, and happy Hump Day!!!