Wardrobe Refashion

Blue and green shirt refashion

Two shirts refashioned into one.

 

 

Just cut approximately and serged. All ended well! :-)

Ciao!

Barbara

I actually refashioned something

So here is my coat. I bought it form the local British heart foundation for £10.99. 5 packs of Dylon Burlesque Red later I have a purple coat. That's right, purple. Yeah I'm not sure what happened either. Fortunately purple is my favourite colour so that's ok. The only thing I need to do to it now is add a belt as it is several sizes too big and trying to take in in at all seems to leave me with no arm movement. 

 
 Please don't mind the bathroom, it's still hanging up to dry :o)

I also made a muslin for my Christmas party dress. It's not going well. I've had to alter the pattern to accommodate my boobs and that's made it all wonky and hard to put together. Only 4 days to get it right *starts laughing hysterically*

shirt into skirt

hi there,
this skirt is my first real refashion ( as opposed to sewing from scratch). I had a very old sweatshirt made from nice thick cotton jersey, but it was shaped like a sack. So off came the neck and sleeves. I just turned in the top edge to form the waistband and that was it!

Sorry for the picture quality - camera and mirror clearly show signs of aging!

manuela

Toddler nightgown from a free t-shirt

We went to a basketball game last spring and came home with five - yes, five - of these free t-shirts, which were part of the promo for that night (they also gave out reusable grocery bags, which was really nice):

I cut off the bands at the arms and the bottom hem (since it's jersey, it won't fray).  I shirred the sleeves (I've shirred before, but this time was different - it WORKED, and I saw the elastic "pop" as soon as I hit it with the steam iron).  I used the bottom band I cut off to use as a cording to gather the neck, where I sewed a casing.  I would normally use elastic, but I didn't have any here, and I didn't feel like driving out and hitting the stores during an after-Thanksgiving weekend.  Now the shirt is a nightgown for my 3-year-old niece:

This technique will definitely be used again to alter the tons of free t-shirts that seem to wander into our house.  It could easily be a shirt for an adult, too, by just not gathering the neckline so close.  And it would be a great summery, beachy dress for a little girl, too.  I'll be shirring and cutting some more!

More for the Kiddos. . .

I still haven't refashioned anything for myself. . . it is on the "to-do" list, I promise!  But I have been refashioning for the kiddos.  Here is a little men's shirt to dress refashion and a women's skirt to dress refashion.  So fun and easy!

 Come visit my blog for a few quilt projects and a few from scratch things I have made.  And, there will be a few giveaways going on in a few days for Sew, Mama, Sew's Giveaway Day!  Yay!  I love to give away stuff!

Brown Paper Packages

Mc Call 6520, vintage blouse (1946)

I thought I’d sew something quick and easy. This blouse looks quite simple, doesn’t it? It's a 1946 Mc Call-pattern, with quite few pattern pieces, and it was in good enough condition that I didn't have to copy the pattern before using it.

So was it quick and easy? Well… it was easy enough to sew, but there are eight darts around the waist (and that takes TIME, at least for me), and the necktie and cuffs took some figuring out (although this was one of the apparently rare vintage patterns with good, illustrated instructions).

The material is cotton, a very cheap remnant (skr 25/m, about 2.50 euro's/meter), but in a very good quality so I returned to the shop and got the lot, I now have 10m's of blue cotton...! I'm glad fabrics are not forbidden goods when you're in wardrobe-refashion, but from now on I'll try to stick to my stash. But I needed some light weight cotton for blouses, I didn't have any.

More information and pictures in my blog, Ancien-Nouveau

Now on to an unprinted 1930's pattern in an unknown size, that will become my new christmas-dress, I hope!

summer top

A simple modification to a top from the op shop that was too snug over my hips. I really liked the embroidery detail and the roominess of the top part of this top, so I just unpicked the lower side seams and hemmed them.

Now a top I wouldn't have worn will get plenty of wear this summer thrown over bathers or worn with slim pants or jeans. I even wore it this morning to breakfast for our first anniversary.

Project Pouch

I am not sure about you kids, but I am notorious for starting a project and then like a little magpie flying off to another more sparkly projects without completing the first project, so basically I quite often have a few (understatement of the century) projects on the go.

I decided that I needed a more efficient way of keeping all my bits and bobs from each project in one space so they did not get lost. I have used plastic bags in the past, but tend to shove them back in the stash chest and out of sight is out of mind for me, so they seldom resurface again within 6 months.

So, I set off to the local Salvation Army to see what practical (read: boring) fabric they had and managed to find some bland ol' curtain fabric for just NZD3.00! Score! I made myself  some very handy little project pouches which if I may so I am quite proud of. Now I can keep each garment, or project, and it's accompanying notions in the one place between crafting sessions!

I have put together a little D.I.Y. tutorial over at my blog if you are interested. There are two parts, part one is up, and part two should be done in the next day or two. Enjoy!

Beanbags - who knew?

Yesterday we avoided the Black Friday mess completely and opted instead for the thrift stores, which were practically empty.  My son purchased a Toss Across (one of those beanbag tic-tac-toe games) with his own money.  It was perfect, except that it came with no beanbags.  So we came home and he went through my stash, especially the scrap basket, and we made these:

We made nine beanbags for practically nothing.  The fabric was all scrap and/or quilt squares from a project that was planned but never made (procrastination has its benefits, apparently). There are probably even a couple squares in there from cut-up shirts and skirts.  I even got the rice for the filling on sale a couple of weeks ago, using a triple coupon AND a sale, so it only cost a few cents for a whole box.  Best of all, my son LOVES these.  I had no idea that beanbags would be such a popular toy with a high-energy, constantly-moving seven-year-old.  I double-stitched and double-knotted them to make them more durable, and so far they're holding up very well.  I plan on making several more as a Christmas gift for my 3-year-old niece. 

On making and finding

This week, I decided I needed new trousers. Slightly posh ones, no jeans. I found this charcoal gray woolblend at my favorite store for 10 euros for 4 metres (no fabric in the stash for project, good basics are always the first thing to go) and used a pattern I made two years ago. 

 

I found the jumper at the thrift stall for 3,50  euro on Friday. It's from H&M, but I really like the style and it's 56% wool 40% angora 4% acrilyc (yes, I'm a bit of a fibre snob, but I think I've worn enough synthetics back in my days of wearing new RTW clothes). 

More talk and recent creations on my blog