Wardrobe Refashion

It has been a shamefully long time since I have posted here. I haven't caved in, though...still haven't bought anything new, and still not planning to. Buying new is for suckers. :-) Rather, I have been working on many projects, most of which I have posted on my own blog, including but not limited to the following:

a couple miscellaneous crochet projects -- made from 100% stash and gifted yarns
birthday gifts for my 4-year-old daughter -- made from 100% recycled and stash fabrics and scrap          batting
1 small table-top quilt -- made from 100% gifted stash fabrics and scrap batting
3 maternity tops (so far) -- made from 100% recycled and stash fabrics
a child's skirt --made from 100% stash fabrics and this tutorial
kiddo pj pants refashion x 2

That should about bring me up to date here, I think. ;-) Fingers crossed that all those links work.

WELCOME TO WARDROBE REFASHION!

Wardrobe Refashion is Typepad's featured blog today (31st).  If this is your first visit please take the time to look around the blog, check out our wonderful archives for inspiration and if you feel the urge to take the pledge please check out the following details.

• The next Wardrobe Refashion pledge will start on December 1st.
• You can choose to pledge for 2, 4 or 6 months
• Please read the rules carefully before making your decision
• To join please email me at wardroberefashion(at)gmail(dot)com after November 17th, please read here to find out what details you need to provide.
• I will then send out an invite for you to become a guest blogger on Wardrobe Refashion
• Once signed up you can post as much as you like, just keep it relevant to the blog
• Post the pledge on your own blog, shout it out to the World and let them know the fabulousness that you are taking part in!
• Take one of the buttons in the sidebar to post on your own blog

Please feel free to email me with any other questions you may have.

Viva La Refashionistas!!!

Nikki.x

Shari dress

I've been working on the Shari dress this past few weeks and had hoped to get it finished this week.

  Once i sewed in the invisible zipper it seemed i had a problem, the back of the dress above my waist was bunching up, ugh!  My bum must be growing along with my bump! 

Ideally i should have widened the back of the skirt the same way i did the front but since i didn't i need to figure out a way to fix it. 

Any ideas?

So this week's task is to fix the bunching problem then sew the hem.
You can read my column on BurdaStyle here and see the how-to for Shari so far here.

Help Request

Hello everyone. I'm coming to you for all of your expertise in thrifty invention of garments.

Our family will be traveling to New York in about two weeks. With our three small children, there is no way I want to be stuck lugging coats around airports (want to have as many free hands as possible to keep the little ones in check). I was thinking with the seasonal temperatures that are expected there, it should be fine to wear long underwear (thermal underwear or long johns to some of you) under a shirt and a sweater or something like that. Coats are just too bulky, and I figured layering might work for us with a lightweight wind-breaker/rain coat if necessary.

I've searched the internet for ideas, and aside from the mention of using an old wool sweater (not really an option in Southern France, where it's not easy to find them in thrift shops), I've found no information on this. Does anyone have any idea what kind of fabric I could effectively use for this purpose and if so where I could find it (should it be available at my local fabric shop?).

Any suggestions are welcome. I guess I should have thought of this before now (two weeks before the trip, but at least it's not the night before).

From t-shirt to undies...

I know I haven't posted in ages, but our lives have been such a whirlwind since this summer. That doesn't mean I didn't sew, but very little of it was true refashioning. Although all of the fabric I used was from my stash. If you want to see what I sewed over the summer, go to my blog, to the sewing category

But a few days ago we got some used clothing mainly for the children. Among it were two huge XXL pretty ugly (IMO) t-shirts. I almost packed them away immediately, but then realized that the white cotton was soft and would probably make nice maternity undies. I have made three from power-dry fabric earlier this fall, but needed some more till the end of this pregnancy. So, I recycled the buttons, cut the shirts apart and managed to somehow cut out two pair of panties. On one I had to put an extra seam in the front and use a patterned part of the shirt, the other ones I managed to just cut out of the white part of the shirt. They are wonderfully comfortable and will serve me well. The pattern used is an OOP Kwik Sew (771).

One of the t-shirts:

Finished undies:

I am the refashionista fairy!

This was my costume for a Halloween party I went to on Saturday, inspired by these wings that I found at Joann Fabrics for half-off (and for probably about the same price as it would have cost me to make them. Plus the colors on these were already perfect.) The top is made from a thrifted stretch nylon skirt, with a pattern I drafted from a shirt that I already owned (also thrifted.) The skirt is made from thrifted polyester satin pj pants, which is overlaid with blue chiffon (remnant found at Joanns), and shimmery black organza (recycled from a failed dress project from a few years ago.)

And a better view of the skirt:

Sewing notions swap

In response to my recent garage sale bounty, I'm having a swap of sewing notions, fabric, patterns, how-to books and magazines, buttons, etc. If you want to get in on it, leave me a comment here.

more pants

I made a second pair of pants with the pattern in Sew U. Corduroy this time, it's lovely and soft.

I found the Sew U pattern a little easier to follow the second time, although I still want to write up some notes to fill in missing steps in the instructions.

My sewing machine is old and only does straight stitch, so I'm really excited because I used my vintage buttonhole attachment and the buttonholes came out perfect! More on my blog.

Bubble Belly Begone

Last week I was only able to complete one project and it was a doozy.

Murphy's Law was operating: "things will be done the incorrect way first if there is more than one possible way to do it." (Contrary to popular belief, it isn't "everything that can go wrong will go wrong". That's Finagle's Law. Murphy's Law is similar, but more optimistic. I didn't know that, but I recently read it in a book by popular know-it-all Dr. Karl, by the way.)

Anyway, in the giant pile of clothes I got from Freecycle, I got this shiny jean skirt festooned with square mother-of-pearl buttons. I loved it. It had the potential to be really cute.

It had a lot of problems with it. It was uncomfortably high-waisted and too long--it looked dowdy. It was also designed for someone with much larger hips than mine, and even with that extra allowance, the seams on the hips had ripped open. On the front, it also had extra darts to make room for a rotund belly. I have a bit of a belly, but thankfully a full-on bubble belly allowance isn't required just yet. This picture is at a bad angle, but you can see some of the problems with it, including the belly bubble.

And no, I'm not wearing a white undershirt--I really am that freakin' white. Seriously, it's a handicap here in the land down under the hole in the ozone layer.

Errors:
1. Repaired the original torn seams, only to cut them off a few minutes later after marking where the new fitted seams should be.

2. Accidentally left a pin in, scooped up the whole lot to put it away, stabbed about 1/2 cm of pin into my thumb. Bled, cried, et cetera.

3. Painstakingly ripped out the darting on the belly, only to cut off the entire darted area because the ideal waistline was below the darts anyway.

4. Spent 45 minutes folding and refolding the new waistline because I couldn't get the two pieces on either side of where the zipper would go to line up evenly. After all that time, realise I hadn't cut it straight and one side was 1 cm longer than the other. No wonder it wouldn't line up straight!

5. This was my first zipper. I pinned it and sewed it into place, then realised I'd put some of the stitches in the path of the zipping mechanism, and it wouldn't zip up. Had to tear it out.

6. Sew it back in, crookedly. Had to tear it out.

Here's the end result! The shiny fabric kind of emphasizes my poogy belly a bit, but usually the shirt I am wearing covers that up so it isn't really an issue. TA DA!!

I just did the washing, and as I hung this skirt on the line I noticed that the seams on the hips had come open in the wash. Sigh...will it never end?

Mittens and a few other things

Not getting much sewing done, but I have been knitting.  Finished a hat, mittens, the back of my sweater and the first nine inches of the front of the sweater.  I was very proud because I almost wimped out and bought jeans but I talked myself out of it and went to a thrift store.  While I was there I found a denim dress.  I'm going to try cutting it at the waist to make a skirt and a top as dresses never fit me right.  Maybe next weekend....