Wardrobe Refashion

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Jammies from some gifted fabric.

I have some last minute gift ideas for using up things in your stash on my blog.

Introducing The Princess of Sewing

I would like to introduce my 9 year old daughter, Emily, to you. She has just started sewing on the machine. She has been handsewing for the past year, and has made several really neat projects. This past week she has completed lots of cool projects. She has made decorations for the Christmas tree; she made a skirt for underneath our Christmas tree and she just made her first skirt for herself from Butterick 4722. Here are a few pictures of some of these items. She is pictured here wearing the skirt she made. She has more photos and descriptions on her blog, along with tutorials for the tree decorations and the tree skirt. If you look closely at her tree, you will notice that she has decorated it with things she has made, rubber band balls, button flowers, sock doll, etc. She has her own sewing blog. She also has several things she has recently made that she will post after the holidays, decorated tote bags, hair ponies, painted pet and garden rocks, and sock dolls, rubber band balls, bean bags, hot pads, button flower bouquets all complete with tutorials. She'll be sewing up more skirts and a pillowcase soon as well. I hope you'll get a chance to stop by and look around and say hi while you're there. I know she would love to hear from you. And you may wish to consider signing up as her follower and putting her blog on your blog roll so that you can know when she has posted to help you better keep up with her. Thanks for looking, and I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 Click here for Emily's blog. Click here for my sewing blog. And click here for my art blog.

     

Hats off!

After a few refashioning mistakes, I've gone a bit mad making hats this weekend. I made a couple of very simple pull on fleece hats for my good friend, Claire.

Then my son Louis, 12, wanted one too - only with ear flaps, woolly plaits and a pom-pom!

This hat - made from an old grey fleece top and some pink acrylic wool - was a whole lot harder than the others. Mostly this was because of the six darts at the top.

But it came out OK in the end and will come in useful in the next few days as it is snowy in our part of the UK at the moment and freezing. By the way, Louis is more pleased with the hat than he looks in the photo. It's just the way he is these days.

Army shirts Refashioned to purses

I wanted to use my father's old army shirts for something and came up with the idea of making "memory purses" for my nieces for Christmas. I have 4 done, one to go! I cut up two shirts and used pockets and buttons, etc in the design. I then sewed on patches, beads, ribbons, buttons and other scrap fabrics to create a unique and hopefully memorable bag for each girl.

In the first one I not only used the shirt, but found an old purse and used the fasteners for the handle. My dad used to say "First one done gets another one" when we had ice cream cones so we would hurry up and eat them so as not to drip in his car! This particular niece has a sweet tooth, just like her Grandpa...

This next one utilizes an actual pocket from a winter shirt. She likes orange, so I lined it with a bright orange fabric. I had to buy the cord for the handle on this one.

Next, I used some of the patches that were in a box from his army days. I beaded them and made a matching fringe (the fringe alone took 3 hours!) to make them special. I like the ID stamp on the back pocket.

The last one I think has the most meaning. It's not from the army stuff except the lining is a cloth napkin from Korea that my father brought back as a souvenir. I scanned in a letter that my grandma had written to me describing her life in Germany, how she met Grandpa and both came to America to start a new life. I sewed on some trim that she made (tatting), some lace from my wedding dress and lots of ribbon. I plan to put the actual letter inside for my niece. She's 10 and wants to be a writer. She writes stories all the time, so I thought this was appropriate for her.

So that's it... one more to go. I hope this isn't my last post before my pledge runs out. I still have those slouchy sweaters that I want to refashion!

 
 
 
 

 
 

Time flies when your having fun...

Well apparently I haven't posted in 2months. Where did the time go. But never fear I haven't stopped refashioning and have a few things to show you.

I recovered a pair of shoes for one of my awesome friends. She adores them like you wouldn't believe which just makes my heart melt...They actually match a denim clutch and brooch I made her. You can see more about this project on my BLOG.

 

I bought this dress at a garage sale last month and the only thing I didn't like was the cross over action on the front... 

 

But a quick snip and sew     solved that problem...

Check out more on my blog HERE.

 

This was a fun project I did for my Birthday in Nov. Moo and I rescued this colourful pillow case from heading to the local dump. Absolutely nothing wrong with it.

 

Add some elastic and a hem and I have a new summer skirt which no one else has ever seen or can buy... I do like the sound of that. I also adjusted one of my husbands shirts to go with the skirt. You can see more HERE.

Most of you have probably seen this done but I just have to share it with you anyway. A fork bracelet which my husband bought me at some markets. I am so not a Tiffany girl... I wear this everyday. 

 

I have so many cot size pillows I don't know what to do with. If I can make a pillow case dress for Moo then I can make a tiny one for Bubble. This also looks adorable with jeans. See more detail HERE.

I have also taken another ethical clothing pledge. This is my new favourite thirfted and handmade outfit. Dress from Op Shop $7. New hat from Op Shop $4 and Boutique Creations crocheted goodness tops off my outfit!! So happy...

If you want to have a look at some crazy interchangable buntings my husband and I worked on using all recycled materials head over HERE.

xo Steph       

Excuses Excuses

I haven't posted in forever.I do have a few finished projects that I need to photograph and hopefully I'll be posting those soon. My excuse is that I'm pregnant. At first I was just really really tired but now I'm also really queasy. I don't think that there will be any sewing going on around here for a few more weeks. I did make this shirt for my daughter. I got the t-shirt with a coupon at Hobby Lobby so it only cost about $1.50. I used some stash orange knit for the sleeves and then used double sided heat and bond and fabric from my scrap bin for the letters. I'm planning on converting some jeans into maternity jeans and also making some maternity tops as soon as I'm feeling a little better.

See you guys soon (I hope),

NinjaEema

pillowcase to girls dress II

I forgot to take a before photo, but this was a pillowcase I picked up at the op-shop. It is a lovely linen type fabric with some embroidery and ribbon pleats detail. It was quite large and had flanges(? is that the right word?).

Anyway, it was very simple and I am very pleased with my first attempt at ruffles (on the shoulders).

I'll know if it was a success on Christmas morning.

You can see more over at my blog

Mx

May Need to Apply for Parole

I'm pretty sure I'm in Wardrobe Refashion Jail right now because I had bought 3 little onesies in order to make these:

Well, I'm not really sure if my pledge applied to gifts. It's OK, I'll use my "Get Out of Jail" pass here, seeing as I won't actually be buying anything new for myself.

Aren't they cute, though? I love the formal onesies. I saw some of these in a store downtown, and I knew they would not be very hard to replicate. However, I knew that I would have a really hard time making my own onesies - thus the reason for the purchase.

I'm also pleased that I made a lunch bag that my husband is happy to carry:

I'm also really pleased with these undies, made from old t-shirts:

 

Thanks for reading,

Su

New Tunic & Skirt

Here is another completed project. With last week being finals it was nice to sit in my sewing room and show some love. This is what I came out with for my lovely daughter *smiles* Drop by my blog, I have two projects up my sleeve. Hopefully I can complete them by next Friday.

pillowcase to girls dress

I bought this pillowcase at the op-shop and turned it into a little dress for one of my nieces for Christmas. I am very happy with how it turned out, I especially love the vintage button from my Mum's stash. More at my blog along with a link for the pocket tutorial.

Mx