I love seeing all the creative ideas the posters have for giving new life to old cloths, and I'm excited to contribute a few of my own. As a brief introduction, my name is Erin and I am a PhD student in microbiology. I started refashioning last fall for the economic benefits (as I tell people, "I don't have a new cloths budget, but I do have an old cloths and thread budget.") Now I think this is a hobby I'll hold onto even after I graduate and have a little more spending money. When I am not sewing, I am usually in the lab playing with cells or viruses.
I am posting 2 refashions in my introductory post. The first one is a skirt and shirt combo I got from my younger sister.
The outfit fit fine, but the long skirt and flaring sleeves weren't really my style, and it was much too fancy for me to wear just about anywhere. (My husband also said it looked like a bathrobe....)
I knew I wanted to take in the sleeves and shorten the skirt. The fabric was a nice soft velour, and to decide how I wanted the new sleeves to fit, I found a shirt of a similar material with a fit I liked and overlayed the 2 to get an idea of what I wanted.
I ended up making the sleeves a little wider than the purple shirt, but it gave me a starting point.
This was one of my first refashions, and I was terrified to make the first cut in the fabric.... So I pinned up the sleeve and skirt with safety pins, and tried it on to make sure it was what I wanted. Here it is post pinning, pre snip in all its lumpy glory...
Finally I snipped and sewed and got the final product. I'm pretty happy with the outcome, and it's *much* more my style.
The second refashion was another shirt from the same sister. She and I used to be a similar size, but since she had a kid, not so much... So I get her hand me ups (I'm the oldest), but we have very different styles.
The second shirt started out as a 3/4 sleeve number with frills at the end of the sleeve. I love the bodice, but I don't wear 3/4 sleeve often, and the frill was a bit much for me.
I picked apart the seams at the shoulder and at the end of the sleeve, and used the frill from the end of the sleeve to make a new cap sleeve:
I *love* the way it turned out and I wore it today for my birthday dinner (mmmm seafood)!
Thanks for reading!
Erin
SewingScientist
4 comments:
Really cute. Those sleeves look much better.
Bryony
EOD
Thanks!
My sister who gave me both outfits thought I made the first one more boring, but she agreed that the 2nd one was an improvement on the original. I liked both.
Nice to meet another scientist! I have my phd in molecular biology/biochemistry. I completely understand your budget. :) even on a post doc salary I really don't have a new clothes budget either! but glad to see another scientist :)
Lalalauren
Laurenphd.blogspot.com
Hi Lauren! I'm starting my 6th year in microbiology. I like cells and viruses. :) (My undergrad was in genetics/biochemistry though.)
I've seen your co-op posts and really like some of your dress refashions. I have a few dress refashions in mind, but haven't quite been brave enough to do them yet...
I don't mind having a clothing budget now that I have a sewing machine (which was a gift). I now look a cloths in a whole new way. Instead of "oh, I wish I owned something like that..." its "Oh! I bet I could make that!"
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