Saturday, November 30, 2013

skirts from duvet covers and dust ruffles

A friend of mine recently had to replace the boiler in her airing cupboard. When she was cleaning out the spare sheets and stuff, she discovered there had been a leak in there and a lot of the stuff was stained. She asked if I wanted to see if there was enough of it salvageable for fabric.

I guess you know what duvet covers look like! This is the end of one.

I need some basic summer skirts, so this will be a 'beige' version, even though the fabric is a quiet tan stripe.
To be honest, it was a bit too plain, so I have stitched a line of little shell sequins here and there. Three spaced lines in the front and one at centre back.
The detail shows the centre back. If you click on the photo, it should enlarge enough to show how the beads are secured with a metallic bead.

It will keep the skirt interesting, but still allow me to wear it with blouses that make their own statement. A bit like tone on tone embroidery.


For the rest of the bedding 'fabric'....
I sometimes make skirts to send to my friend who works in an orphan village in Ethiopia. The little ones get a lot of clothes sent, but the ones 10 and up need things. So I made six skirts from the duvets and dust ruffles. There were more stains on these things than I originally thought. But 6 skirts (plus 1 for me) is better than all of it getting tossed.
One from the tan stripe, one from a blue/white stripe and 4 from 2 red dust ruffles.

I cut some squares and arranged them and appliqued them on to the fronts of the skirts as they were a bit plain - or at least compared to the ones I am also sending made from some flowery fabric someone gave me. The basic shape of the skirt is like the one I did in a previous refashion.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Would using some Rit dye have helped cover the stains in order to make more skirts for Ethiopia?

Sandy said...

hmmm. Should have thought of that!
Oh well. if there is a next time. Thanks for the idea.
Sandy in the UK

Refashion said...

I like the tiny shells on the shorts. The skirts lookgreat and what a good use for the old duvet covers

Debbie EOD