First Post: My self-costumized "Beaufort"

When I came back home to the countryside where I was born and raised due to the pandemic, country proof garment was (and always will be) essential. So I didn't have to think twice when it came to choosing my jacket. But the tears! How many tears did I cry when reasserting my oldest piece of fine wax-wear, a approximately 90's Barbour "Beadle" I bought about 5 years ago. Even though being sent to repair and reproof once already, the pockets and sleeves where in really bad condition. And as usual with a jacket that age, the lining had worn through at the hem. The jacket had lived a fulfilling live serving as travel and hiking companion as well as storing a not so secret supply of sausage in the rear game pocket - a precious skill when accompanying a fraternity bound weekend-drunkard.

'Throw it away and get a new one - it's not worth the trouble' was the first advice one of my neighbors - a seamstress by profession - gave me. I decided not to. This led to events such as researching fabrics, learning to sew and buy about eight (!) further waxed jackets in the process. One was ritually sacrificed to donate its organs to the "Beaufort". A "Beadele" got some spares too, but we shall cover this one later.

First I started to use the sacrificed former front to produce patches for the pockets and the front. These were sewn between the layers such that the lining is still able to move free. Getting to know mother's sewing machine only cost about 3 needles in the process. Then I went for the big patch on the sleeve, which I sadly ripped open during a fight (which I didn't start). As seen below it went from one patch around an older one. As the I am unsatisfied with how the small patch turned out, I decided to cover the whole area after roughly binding the tear together by hand to prevent it from spreading.

The new lining was a rather time consuming undertaking. I traveled far and wide in the internet to find the original supplier of the tartan Barbour uses just to find that it'd cost me an astronomical 90GBP per meter including shipping to Germany. Thus the decision was born to "up-cycle" the hem all around. It is bound to tears and small holes over the years, so I remade it all around. There seems to be more lining behind the front panels than these are broad, resulting in creases making it unsuitable to machine-sew the lining - a lot of hand-stitching and pattern adjustment lay ahead of me. Having finished the first side and the rear another idea struck me: why not add a small key-pocket inside? I thus carefully removed the hand warmer from the organ-donor and built a pocket whose borders I fenced with the original waxed cloth. After finally adding the union-jack I am quite fond of the result.