XL overcoat to Maternity coat

I thought about doing a video tutorial for this one, but realized anyone who might try this will be starting with a different product, so it would be easier for me to just type out a general idea of how I did mine to give people an idea of how to do theirs.

I live in the North East and we have COLD winters. So I needed a maternity coat I could wear once my tummy got too big for my regular coat. But I HATE the idea of buying an expensive maternity coat for just a few months. Instead I made one, I went to the thrift store and bought a coat that was too big, but that had potential It was $7. Here I am modeling it in my night gown. Classy right!

BEFORE

AFTER

The coat is fake fur and suede, so there was no lining fabric to deal with. That was one of the things I liked the most about it. It also had these seem lines in the back.

So I turned the coat inside out and marked it with Chalk. I made 2 lines, one at the base of the arm pit and the other a few inches bellow that. (At the time I wasn't sure how far down I wanted to sew, but ended up choosing the top line.)
I pinched the fabric between each seem line in the back and pined them together.

Then I used my sewing machine and sewed from the neckline down to my chalk lines.using the previous seam lines as a guide for my sewing machine foot.

After that I took some ribbon and made a belt out of it. I used grosgrain ribbon because I thought the texture would help it to stay tied well. I folded it in half to find the center and sewed that into the center seam in the back of the jacket so I wouldn't loose the belt. Then I made some belt loops out of some of the extra ribbon and sewed those just a few inches under the armpits.
The jacket was a little tight with all the extra fabric in the back so I cut the extra fabric out. I made a seam allowance of about 1/2 or 3/4 an inch. and stopped cutting about an inch above the bottom of my seam.
I think it turned out cute and I'm not embarrassed to wear it anymore. In fact with the fur cuffs and collar it makes me feel a little bit like a Diva :) I wonder if it will still be cute on me when I'm not pregnant next winter.