Happy New Year - which embellishment looks good? (Incl. update)

 

Happy creative New Year to all of you! 

Remember this refashion into a sweater vest or slipover from last year? I wanted to upcycle and embellish the neckline and found myself doubting which way to take it. 

So I thought.... why not ask your opinion? 

Here are the ideas I' deciding between:

Which one should I go for? Just the lace? The lace with beads on the right? Or just the beads in the middle? (Or none of the above:)). I do have a very, very small preference for one of the options, just a teeny-tiny bit! But I don't want to influence you... 

So, I'm curious, what would you advise? Let me know!

Update January 13th
Thanks for helping me out here! I started with the lace last week, and then added beads. But I wasn't sure, so I left out the lace again and also liked 'only beads'. But I really love the lace (the colours work better in reality), so I couldn't let go of that at first. A case of kill your darlings I guess... I sensed a general agreement on 'either' but not both:) in the comments, which sort of confirmed my slight preference for the beads. 

So here's the result!

Tadaa!

Thanks for reading along! If you want to find out more about the the making off (rolling beads etc.), you're welcome to visit vermaakster.blogspot.com. Until next time!

Visible mending jeans & sparkly upcycle

 

A few weeks ago I found these dark grey jeans in the clothing loop I'm part of. It was a great fit, but unfortunately the fabric was torn near the pockets. On both sides actually, would you believe that? 

Makes you think, right? Did the jeans belong to someone who likes to keep their hands in the pockets? All day? And of course it's a bit dubious that they wanted to pass on damaged jeans to another owner, but hey.... I wouldn't be having a new pair of grey jeans if it weren't for them. So I decided to take on this challenge and make it a visible 'not to be missed' mending!

I started with fortifying the tears

I used interfacing to fortify the fabric around the tears and made some zigzag stitches on the outside. Then I unstitched 2 pocket flaps from an old pair of jeans. I thought it would be nice to also add a flap on the back pocket. 

The pocket flaps definitely needed some sparkle of course! I found an old greyish black necklace with small stones. So after I sewed the pocket flap on, I hand stitched the chain on the flaps. 

The shimmering stones looked perfect on the flaps!

Sparkling front and back pockets

Last, but not least, I went on a weekend trip to Metz (France) last week and found the perfect jumper to combine the jeans with!  I visited a small friperie (second hand store) in the city centre (love the word 'friperie') and found this colourful jumper. And look and the brand name, Sucre Neige, so cute! 

What's the common English translation,
powdered sugar, icing sugar? 

🎄Happy holidays to you all!🎄

And if you're interested in more details, you're welcome to visit vermaakster.blogspot.com! 

Making Bell-Bottom Jeans

 Hello Refashion Co-op. I needed to alter the fit of these purple jeans so they would work for me. I got side tracked and made bell-bottom jeans. 

Before and after. 

I opened the bottom of the pant legs with a seam ripper. 

I made 2 triangles of fabric to sew into the opening. 

I liked how they turned out. Thank you for reading along, for more pictures and details go to I Can Work With That.

Fall Collage Top

 Hello Refashion Co-op. I had 2 tops that did not fit well and I used the Collage Pattern by Matchy-Matchy to make a new top. 

Before and after.

I love this pattern because you can use different pieces of different pattern and mix it and change it every time. 

I cut out all my pieces and I was ready to put it all together. Thank you for reading along, for more details and pictures go to I Can Work With That.

Cover a stain with embroidery

 

Out of nowhere (so it seamed) a stain had appeared on one sleeve of this cardigan. It looked like toothpaste, but it clearly wasn't, since washing didn't help. White paint then? I cautiously treated it with some organic solvent but that didn't work either. I kept wearing the cardigan, but I couldn't forget the stain and wanted to fix it. But how?

A few weeks ago I went to a workshop 'Embroidery on clothes' and brought the cardigan with me. I've done some embroidery on clothes before, but I was hoping for some new inspiration and I always like working together with other creatives. 

And that's where I found the book Beautiful botanical embroidery by Alice Makabe. It contains beautiful examples of embroidery, like this cute twig with leaves I used for this project.

I traced the twig and some extra leaves to play with and traced the final composition on soluble interfacing. It reinforces the fabric and makes it easier to embroider.

When I finished the embroidery, I gently washed the sleeve to dissolve the interfacing. And that was it, actually! 

By the way, wouldn't it be cool to embroider one or two flowers of Aniela's beautiful fabric for the cute front tie top she made last week (@Aniela, what do you think)? Or I'll do it for you Aniela, just send me the top:)).

If you're interested in more details, you're welcome to visit vermaakster.blogspot.com! 

Tip: if you like embroidery on clothes, you might also like this older post I ran into: hiding a stain on a skirt with beautiful yellow flowers (Refashion Co-op).