A 30 minute refashion.

 I bought a dress for 50 cents at the Op Shop. Too small but lovely flowing T-shirt material that does not fray. I immediately knew I would make a skirt to muck around in, for when I do not feel like wearing shorts.

I purchased a very wide elastic for the cost of $4, cut the dress just below the bodice and then zig zagged on the elastic. Not a pretty attachment but I want it to be really casual.

The elastic I bought

The super cheap 50cent skirt

Super happy with the result for the time and money.

With ongoing health issues I need to find projects that are quick and easy and use no brain power. But creating is also my happy place, so it is important to keep doing it.

Linking to these place and crazy mum quilts.

A 15 minute refashion

From this teatowel

To this cute apron

I love retro caravan stuff, even though our good old caravan is not retro it has a lot of retro bits in it. Anyway, last January my mother gave me a couple of caravan themed tea towels when she visited us whilst camping. I love love them but they are far too good to use to dry dishes.

In my current state of recovery I want to do craft but it needs to be quick. I spied the tea towels sitting on my sewing desk in my "to do" pile. (Well the visible "to do" pile, I actually have a "to do" cupboard!!!). Iron back the corners and stitch them down. Stitch on some grossgrain pink ribbon around the neck and some white for the ties. Ta Da... all done.

But now I think it is too nice for the caravan, so I have hung it in the pantry to use at home and dream of camping.

Linking to these places and crazy mum quilts.

A refashion - Merino Swing Cardigan

From This

To This

I bought the long cardigan from an Op Shop (Charity Shop) for $9 as I loved the colour. But I did not like the fact that it was made to have a big gap at the front. Winter here is too cold for that. And the length was just not right for me. I love the gather on the sleeves. So I chopped. Jakob was horrified and told me that I should not and then I realised I chopped it too short. So out came an old grey jersey which got sliced and diced too. I have been really inspired with my overlocker being fixed. Though it took ages to get the tension right when I changed threads. Why are those machines so hideous??!!! I follow a blog by Jody Pearl about reinventing fashion. She had a fabulous tutorial on how to make a small cardigan into something funky that fits. So I followed that and inserted triangles of Merino under the arms, then put on the grey border and finished it with a doubled over merino strip. I love the length.

From this

To this

Linking up to these places and crazy mum quilts

Thrilled with the refashion

I went from a stack of linen shirts and jackets, all from Op shops at a total cost of $8

To a casual colour blocked shift dress. I used a dress that I enjoy wearing and overlaid it as I cut items for this. That pattern worked out quite well considering I did not even make a paper pattern.  

I really like natural fabrics being linen, cotton and wool. This being 100% linen shirts has made it a bit stiffer than the shift I modelled it off. I need to start thinking about the flow of material. Recently I have purchased a few "fake" material tunics and the drift about the larger body frame rather nicely. 

I was really struggling to get enough dark material for the bottom of the dress so made a bias binding and used that for the hemming 

Absolutely thrilled with the secret pockets in the front of the tunic. I get really annoyed that ladies gear often does not have pockets. What to do with my phone and car keys? Drives me nuts. So these are quite deep. 

Now I have some sleeves and lots of buttons to do something with. Can't waste a thing. 

This has been on my to do list for about two years. I put it onto this quarters projects to finish with "2016 finish a long" to motivate me. And yay it is done.

 as well as these other links and now a new link up with one of my favourite refashion blogs "Sew Outside the Lines"

A finish - upcycling via the sewing table

Yay, I started and finished something in the same day. A hat. Just in time to head off to Fiji.

I have been meaning to make another hat for summer and think about it often (the last three summers!!). So finally realising my hat was in the caravan and I needed to pack for the tropics, I pulled out an old linen shirt and started cutting.

I used McCalls 2163 with a huge amount of adaption. I quilted the top of the head piece and the brim. Made the brim wider, did not follow their instructions - all the typical behaviour of someone who does not want to be told what to do!!

I am so thrilled with it that I have already pulled out an another linen shirt - in black - and have cut out a new one already. More alterations than before. So there will be another update (soon I hope).

Now on to finishing all those headbands for Christmas.....
I link to these places.

A bit of refashioning and upcycling

Yes I am into broaches at the moment. They are a lovely addition to the winter wardrobe without being all glitz and glamour. This broach is made from dying an old blanket, I adore this colour. I got this material thanks to Jane Van Kuelen in Hanmer Springs. Oh she dyes the most amazing threads and material.

I followed this pattern but instead of adding a button on the front I got the centre from an Op Shop (thrift shop) as one of a pair of earrings.

The filigree broach back was purchased from Jane. The colour is much more like the bottom photo

Linking to these place.

Refashion - linen top for me

I have been stashing this long sleeved 100% linen shirt for ages intending to make a summer top. I had wanted a wee capped sleeve but the armholes on these shirts are huge. When sewing under the arms it was still too big for a sleeve and I even had to put a little facing in to make it decent.

The linen shirt I started with

So I took the main collar off as it was really large and on a summer day when the back of my neck is sunburnt I like my collar to stand up. Using some cute patchwork material I made a much smaller version.

The side view - with a high low bottom

Fixed the arm holes and took the arms off altogether. One arm ended up being the binding for the armholes. I was going to use my quilting material but could not bring myself to cut through my metre of fabric to make a bias strip!! So I did a square cut and put it around the bottom, after I had changed the shirt tails to a high / low look. A bit of a cheat really.

I link to these places.

Refashion - Now a merino tunic

Over the last week I have been working on this Merino tunic. I was inspired by a blog I follow "Sew outside the lines" and especially all her refashions of jersey's into tunics - look at the one in the bottom of this post.

After

Jodi used to call her blog "Re-inventing fashion" and that was when I started following. I would love to attend one of her workshops and keep asking why does she not come to NZ?!!

Anyway - after looking at lots of her photos and trying to work out how she does it, this is what I ended up with. Not like hers at all as I have left it opening rather than pull on. Also I cannot quite work out how she uses the sleeves etc, but I know she does.

The cowl restitched on the neck

The back

This is in aim to be warmer at work. If I am out talking the the guys on the floor it is open to the elements and freezing. I want to have a woolen garment that I can use as another layer over anything I am wearing. So black was the choice.

This jersey was given to me by my friend Susan when we visited her in Kerikeri last time. It had a huge cowl neck that in the end was just too big for me, but ended up being a fantastic collar on this and also cut for extra pieces down the front.

Adding the sleeves into the body created some funny shapes around the bottom of the article, some of it I have left as it is quirky, some I have turned into a more straight diagonal look.

The cowl used to tidy up the front bottom

Before

Pretty happy with my first attempt. It will live at work and keep me warm.

Linking up to these places and Crazy Mum Quilts.

A Refashion - was two shirts, now a skirt

It started with two shirts at a total cost of $2.50. The stripe being 100% linen man's XL and the white top being cotton/elastic woman's M.

I chopped off the sleeves and took off pockets and the gorgeous labels. 

Unpicked the pockets and cut some more pockets from the sleeves.

Then I sewed new pockets onto the old back of the shirt and added back the details from the labels.

Used the white T-Shirt by cutting it just under the arms, doubling it over and stretching it to the top of the new skirt. It makes a lovely big easy to wear waistband. 

Voila a new skirt 

This is the fit on me (with my T-Shirt up a bit to show the waistband etc.

I finished this at 10pm last night and went to show Aaron. He then commented that it was not "quite right" and did not suit me. I had used a linen skirt with this type of waistband as the pattern but was a bit worried about it being to tight on me. 

So I went back to the mirror and I have to say - He is right - (he asked if I would confess on my blog). This skirt is OK. I can muck around in it at home etc but it is not flattering like the other skirt is. Tow reasons I think - 1. It is a stripe and the other is plain and I mainly wear plain - so something we are not used to 2. I have been trying to loose weight and am so far at 9kg loss BUT I still find myself looking at clothes thinking I am too big to fit the. This would have been a perfect fit if I was my 9kg heavier. So I might wear it for a while and then pass it on. But I will keep experimenting!!!

I link to these places.  

I declared today a sewing day

And then I promptly did everything but sew.

I changed the beds, did four loads of washing and hung it out, checked the chickens, gardened for an hour, did some grocery shopping, baked a cake, heated leftovers for dinner...... and then finally I sewed.

I did not attack any of my many many uncompleted projects. But I did start and FINISH a project. I made a pile of pillowcases for the pillows in the caravan.

Now this might seem like a daft sewing project but I like 100% cotton, crisp and cool pillowcase to lay my cheek on at night. The caravan gets the rejects - the old towels, the grotty old pillowcases etc and I was sick of yucky polycotton that does not stay cool at night.

I had a fat quarter of the cool retro car and caravan material, the boys immediately tried to commandeer those ones. Then I used another camping themed material.

The main body of the pillowcase was a queen sized valance I purchased from the Op Shop (Charity Shop) for $3. It is a really good brand and 100% cotton.
The total cost of each pillowcase ending out to be about $2.00 each. My kind of price!!

The retro car and caravan material

The other camping themed material

I link to these places.

A finished refashion and a new tool

About a year ago I bought this nightie from and Op Shop. It is a really pretty cotton lawn but rather old fashioned in it's style. Gathered from the top with lace it just kind of hangs over you. So I never really wore it. Then one of my nighties got so old the fabric ripped in the wash. I cut it down the middle and used it as a pattern to refashion this.

Old style top the the nightie

I cut the skirt off at a reasonable height and then gathered the material onto some piping that I had made for the bean bag refashion. Then I cut a new top out and sewed with some piping and bias binding. I was halfway through making this and it was sitting on my sewing table when my purchase arrived in the mail.

What excellent timing. A 2.5cm bias binding maker. No more boring shop bought bias for me, funky stuff to come!! (well that is the intention - we will see how it pans out). I tried it out on some matching red fabric and it made lovely bias binding for the shoulder straps.

The whole outfit even looks a bit Christmassy.

Linking up to Finish it up friday as well as many other places - check out the links here.

My husband is wrong and my husband is right!!

I completed a refashion of my original refashion!!!

The first refashion

1. My husband is right. Yes the dress did not quite work, I still don't think it is perfect and as flattering as some things I have made but I have now worn it twice and enjoy doing so. As you can see in order to try and make it a bit more cohesive I bound the neck edge with orange. I do thing it works better.

The first attempt

2. My husband is wrong. He recommended putting the netting on the fascinator as it was for the wedding we have just had. But I felt it just did not work. So off came the netting and I was thrilled that I did it. I got quite a lot of comments on my fascinator!! (take that two ways - either it was just so fab, or they felt they could not make comments on the dress!!)


I link to these places