Botanical dress alterations and leaf pouding

 

When I visited the Textile festival in Amersfoort last may, I came across a stand with beautiful botanic printed clothes and scarfs. The maker used second hand clothes for the prints and I couldn't resist this warm greyish dress with yellow branches and flowers on it. 

When I bought it I knew I wanted some alterations to make it more wearable for me, let's say more my style. The neckline was too high and to be honest a little sloppy. And I wanted the dress sleeveless and a little longer. I have a skin condition that is very visible on my legs and I'd rather not show too much leg.

When I returned home, I discovered a small hole where the price tag was inserted. Such a shame. But... i'd already decided to lower the neckline so it wouldn't be a problem. It wouldn't be visible again afterwards.
So I cut out the neckline, including the seam and only replaced the ribbing. That already made a lot of difference! 

Then I took off the sleeves. I serged the edges, folded it inside and topstitched the seam. 

For the elongation of the dress I cut a strop of 20 cm fabric from a white t-shirt. To match the grey of the dress, I died the fabric, tied together with a few spoons of Dylan Smoke Grey. 

And I also wanted to print some leafs on the fabric. I've done it before, it's in fact very easy. You keep a flower or leaf between 2 layers of fabric and start pounding with a mallet, while making sure it stays in place. 

Here's one of the prints, I used Sweet woodruff that grows in our garden. Not all flowers and leafs give a good print. You just have to try and see what happens. 

Here's how the strip turned out, with prints of Birch leafs, lovage and Sweet woodruff. The quality of the picture isn't ideal, it looks better in real life.

It was really fun to experiment with prints of different leafs! Thanks for reading along and you're welcome to visit vermaakster.blogspot.com for more details. 

Until next time!

Dress to 2-Piece

 Hello Refashion Co-op. I loved the plaid fabric of this dress so much, but it did not fit well. I decided to break it up into separate pieces. I thought that would be more versatile and also easier to alter for fit. 

The top and skirt can be worn together or separate. 

I took the dress apart at the waist seam. 

 

I changed the straps so I could use the excess straps to finish the top. I shortened the skirt and made an elastic waistband. 

 

Thanks for reading along, for more pictures and details go to, I Can Work With That.
 

 

 

 

 

Logo - be gone!

I found the perfect post workout pants to cycle home in this winter - or so I thought. I did notice the bright red logo at the hip, which I thought would be easy enough to cover with a patch if not hidden by my top. I completely failed to notice the huge logo down the side of the one leg and alongside the ankle zipper. 

I haven't posted before photos but the logo was for a local sports team and in bright red and yellow. Hard for most people to miss but I managed it. You can see the size I needed to cover in the after photo though. I was going to return them to the thrift shop, but would anyone else want them? Or were they destined for landfill?

Worth trying to get rid of the logo. I dug out some acrylic paint left over from other projects and got to work. I laid plastic inside the leg so the paint wouldn't bleed to the other side. Watering down the paint made it settle in the fabric better but required a few coats to cover the logo. I couldn't get a navy to match so decided to make the paint design intentional and used black. Waited for that to dry.

It said night sky to me so I search the internet for images and found some YouTube instructions for how to paint a galaxy scene. First the swirly background with multiple layers of very watered down paint, and then the Earth. When that paint was dry I used a toothbrush for the stars and painted the large ones with a bamboo skewer. I've ironed over the top to (hopefully) set the paint and I'll wash carefully(ish). 

Saved, not only practical but different.

Happy upcycling!

Mimi

Visible mending with silver patches (and did you know about the Red Dress project?)

 

Hi everyone! A stain on smooth fabric like this, in the chest area, well, let's say is hard to miss. And though lots of mending and upcycling techniques are focused on 'hiding' stains or other issues, I thought it would be nice to try the 'visible' approach. I had just the right thing for it: a set of cute shiny silver patches / spots from Humade. I bought it a few months ago in this cute store in Metz (France) and this just seemed the right project to try it out!

A small job like this was just what I needed since I've been having some trouble with my arm and hand lately (long story, better focus on fun projects:)). The package contained 15 silver patches to choose from, all kinds of sizes, and a piece of parchment paper to iron with. It looks like the paint is still dripping...

It seemed wise to try it out on a spot a little less conspicuous, just in case..., so I started with a sleeve. 

I chose a small spot for the sleeve and cut it out. The fabric lay flat on the ironingboard, parchment paper on top and I kept the iron on it for 15 seconds, with hardly any pressure (no ironing back and forth).

It was very easy to remove the plastic layer and there it was, a beautiful silver spot!

And I didn't stop there... if you want to find out more about the other patches, take a look at my blog Vermaakster for the details! Because I also want to take the opportunity to share something completely different with you: the Red Dress project!

About the Red Dress Project

Last week, I visited the textile festival in Amersfoort (NL) and one of my 'must see' goals was The Red Dress Project by British artist Kirstie Macleod, displayed in the Netherlands for the first time. It's such a special project: more than 360 women from all over the world embroidered on this beautiful dress, from 2007 to 2023. Here are a some pictures I took.

At museum Flehite, Amersfoort NL

Look at the beautiful embroidered details!

The Red Dress is accompanied with a beautiful documentary, showing the women who contributed to it and their stories. The dress has already been exhibited in galeries and musea all over the world, but it's still traveling! So if you're interested, check out the dates and places. For instance, the Red Dress will be displayed in the UK and Australia this summer. Visit reddressembroidery.com if you want to know more about the project!

Hope you enjoyed the visible silver patches (you're welcome to visit vermaakster.blogspot.com for more patches:)), and appreciated my short report on The Red Dress Project. 

Until next time!

Lace Dress to Top

 Hello Refashion Co-op. This dress got shorter or I got taller... either way, it seemed too short. I decided to make a top so I could still wear that lace, I liked it so much. 

New top.

I cut that beautiful ruffle off. I saved it for later. 

 

I gave it a new hem and I was done. 

 

That eyelet lace is too pretty to let go. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.