Restyle # 16 - My Me Made June fail safe!

This is really just a bit of fun and not very technical, but I thought I'd share it anyway, if only for the fabulous 1950's print! This was a curtain remnant from a college friend. There really wasn't enough to make anything meaningful out of, and since I am taking part in Me Made June, I thought an apron would be a handy fall back since I wear one every day. Everything is totally from remnants and thrifted notions....Px

http://portialawrie.blogspot.com/

Long Sleeve Shirt to Short Sleeve T-Shirt Tutorial

Sometimes I feel like I should change the name of my blog to “The Lazy Crafter” because that is so what I am. I am always looking for a short cut.

It was a crazy weekend complete with a wild wedding the night before when we needed to get the family up and running to catch Thomas the Tank Engine at the Cuyahoga Valley Railroad.

Only problem was my number on Thomas fan C2 did not have a short sleeve Thomas the Tank Engine shirt that fit.  Bad Momma. 

So what is a slacker momma to do?

Well cut the sleeves off a longer shirt of course.  Okay it’s not that easy, but pretty darn close. You will need:

·      Long sleeve shirt

·      Short sleeve shirt that fits well

·      Ruler

·      Scissors

·      Matching Thread  (Can Not Stress this one enough!)

·      Sewing Machine

·      Iron

Lay your long sleeve shirt out and Place your short sleeve shirt on top and line up the arm openings.

You could do one of two things here. You could guesstimate and add about a half an inch to wear the short sleeve you like lands and cut the long sleeve shirt there (lazy crafter way) or amazingly enough what I did was measure the top and bottom section of the sleeve on the short sleeve shirt (3 ½ inches and 2 ½ inches) add a half inch.

Mark ware you will be cutting. I was cutting the top portion at the four-inch mark and the bottom portion at the three-inch mark.

Turn your long sleeve t-shirt inside out at this point and iron the edge of your shirtsleeve up half an inch.

Turn your shirt right side out and get ready to stitch the hem of the sleeve. 

I am partial to a lightning bolt stitch on knits. It just works better for me. You should stitch the sleeve in two spots for a more secure hem. About 1/4 an inch up then again as close to the edge as you can get. It was 8:30 in the morning about five minutes before we were supposed to leave so you know what I only added one line of stiching to the hem. It worked out fine, but I am going back to add another once it is washed because the hem kind of rolls up. 

 It is also important to know where your bobbins are and use matching thread. I lost my bobbins, and yes that is pink in the machine. Oh well.

 Tour shirt is finished now go meet Thomas....

It was a fun day and the little man looked adorable in his new short sleeved Thomas shirt.

Happy Sewing!

Final call for contributors!!

Hi everyone

A couple of weeks back I asked if anyone was interested in contributing to a book on refashioning clothes. Well thank you so much to those of you who have come on board! We are now in the final stages of putting the book together and have room for 5 more refashion projects.... so if you would like to give it a go and want to put your hand up to be involved in a book then now's your chance! Don't be shy!

All you need is a refashion project with photos and step by step instructions of what you did with a common piece of clothing someone would probably have in their wardrobe. We would welcome any previous projects you have already done!

Please email me at carey.katrina@gmail.com if you are interested in this great opportunity - perfect for all you bloggers out there!!

cheerio

Kat

Refashioning a refashion

Bought at a charity shop - lovely soft cashmere but it made me look too rosy.

Sew up the bottom and tie the arms together and it's a bag - used a lot and displayed in the window of the Oxfam Shop in Horsham.

I took the bag apart and put it in the dye pot.

I have too many bags and it is a lovely soft jumper, so today I dyed it violet. A good colour for me and it will be worn a lot next winter.

Crazy sleeves to cap sleeves…

The college I work at has a fashion department and not surprisingly I’m quite friendly with the members of staff who work there. Every year they have a sale of old student work but inevitably some things don’t sell and those in the know get to rifle through the pile and take their pick.

I got this shirt and a few other things too – boy, does it have crazy sleeves but in every other respect it fits fine.

All I did was rip out the sleeves (which were huge, that’s about two feet of sleeve right there) and follow Rosie’s easy peasy tutorial on Craftster for making cap sleeves.

And this is the result:

Much cuter and more wearable!

Beccy from Wipster

The absent blogger

Life has been a bit crazy the last few months and after a long creative dry spell I've made a few small things from old t-shirts

A headscarf for my friend



and a bracelet from my favorite t-shirt inspired by my favorite author.



not much but it'll do for now....btw, love love love the clothes on here, what an inspiring bunch. I thought about dropping out for now, then I came on and had a look through and decided I want to be a part of that....

http://spindlejigs.blogspot.com/2011/05/inspired-by.html

In the jungle

Since I had such wonderful feefback on my red dress, I wanted to share this other refashion that I made.
This was a tribal print dress that I bought at a thrift store, it cost me about $5 or $6 and I absolutely loved the print on this dress. By cutting off the top and the bottom to make the legs, I turned this dress into a cute jumpsuit. Visit my blog http://nichellenotmichelle.blogspot.com for more pictures and to see how I did it.

Pillowcase to skirt

Hi, I have been away from the blogosphere for a while due to computer breakdown. Now I am happily back again I thought I would share my new skirt made from an ikea pillowcase bought in the charity shop.I was given a copy of "Sewing Green" by Betz White for my birthday a few eeks ago and decided to try her "East Breezy Skirt" It is a very easy and super quick refashion. You just have to slit the short seam on the pillowcase, try it on to judge length and then make a casing at the top with elastic or a drawstring. I was inspired by some of the scalloped hem tutorials floating around to try and add a scalloped hem. I just drew round a There is a tutorial for scallop hem here though I didn't bother with a template and drew round a tumbler instead to get my scallops. Now I just need the english weather to warm up so I can wear my new skirt!

Refashioned infant outfit, plus two bonus projects...

Time for an update!

I used three items to make the outfit:

1)  An infant top that costed me $1.25 at Target (on clearance).  

2)  An old sleeveless top I haven't worn in ages; it was too short for my postpartum body, but I loved the embroidered botanical design.   

3)  A hand-me-down onesie that was given to me for my son, but my daughter didn't get to wear before she outgrew it.  I really liked the colors, especially the dragonfly applique.

I'm very happy with how it turned out!

A full update regarding what I did in the alterations will be added to Sew Mankycat.

As an added bonus, here's another project that I worked on this month and one my husband crafted.  Both were using spare cardboard from our move to make fun items for our children.  Mine are faery wings for my daughter to wear to Faery Festival.  My husband's is a full Clone Trooper outfit from Star Wars for our son's birthday party (and just for fun).

Upcycled Sweater with Flowered Embroidery

I’ve been seeing fancy embroidered sweaters all over this spring, and I wanted to try my hand at one. I had a lightweight wool sweater in a beautiful light teal color, but it was a little bit boring. In my head, the flowers blanketed the shoulder and looked like a field of wildflowers. In reality, I think they are too big. I used a nickel to trace circles on the sweater, and then filled each circle with a daisy-stitched flower.

Just imagine how great this would look if you traced a pencil eraser instead and made tiny flowers! It would also take you many, many more hours. I have another sweater in my closet, and I think I’m going to try a single color of embroidery floss for the flowers.

Read the full post on my blog iMade.

Jackets to baby shoes...

I want to make some baby shoes for sale and gifts...

I need you to help me decide which ones I should make

and from which jacket :)

Here are the jackets:

And here are the shoes:

(some more info on why I want to make them)

You can click on the photos to enlarge them :)

Thanks so much

~Yelena~

Inspired by D&G

Remember this ad? 

I picked up this wonderful big wool-mohair-acrylic sweater, at the op-shop and all I had to do was to take it in from the cuffs all the way to the hips for a snug fit. I don't have a serger so I asked a local seamstress to do it for me. 

I just feel so fashionable right now!

Reconstructed Turtleneck

I’ve had this cute little striped turtleneck in my closet for years. I rarely wore it but couldn’t toss it cuz I just loved how it fit and truly dug the stripes. Finally I realized that it was the turtle on the neck that was keeping this sweater in the drawer, so off came the turtleneck. Sorry, no before pics as I hadn’t planned on sharing this recon, but I’m sure you all can imagine the before pic – we’ve all seen too tight turtlenecks before, right?

No more turtle on this neck :)

 
I wanted to make the neckline slightly off the shoulder but it didn’t quite work out that way. Instead what I ended up with was a squarish, way too deep neckline that didn’t work at all. I put the sweater on my dress form and started playing around with it and this is what I ended up with:

Hello cute little deconstructed neckline.

 
To see how I did this little reconstruction check out my post Reconstructed Sweater Turtleneck.

Scrap busting with yo-yos!

Hello hello! I've been seeing fabric yo-yos alot lately and thought it was about time I gave making them a go!

I collected a bunch of scrap fabric (leftovers from vintage sheets, a kimono, a skirt & a top all thrifted)

 

I used this tutorial that Jessica 1st linked to, thanks Jessica!

 

I made a bunch of stuff:

 Plain thrifted singlet from my wardrobe embelished with yo-yos & vintage buttons.

Hair clips on left with added embroidered & sequin flowers. Brooches at top. Headbands with button sewn onto the centre of the yo-yos.

 And lastly a yo-yo necklace made simply by sewing the yo-yos onto chain.

And I still have more left over!!! To see what else I've been making come find me on Facebook :)

Acceptable in the 80s

Check out this fabulous blouse and skirt! The pattern is so 80s… It actually reminds me of yachts – it’s like something straight out of ‘Howard’s Way’. For those unfamiliar with Howard's Way, it's an awesome/terrible soap opera the BBC made in the 1980s and it's set in a marina. I suppose it was the British alternative to 'Dallas'.

I'm tackling the blouse first. It has a pretty sweetheart neckline which I've kept intact. Great for summer - I've worn this a couple of times already!  More details, pictures, and Howard's Way videos at my blog.

Two become one tshirt refashion

I made this at the end of April but I have only just gotten round to taking a picture of it :S

Anyway, I took two tshirts that werent getting much use, one was too short, the other too baggy, and made them into a gorgeous new top for my big girl. I love it so much, its her (my) new favourite top :D

Tutorial on my blog.

Upholstery Patches

Last year I picked up a pack of upholstery fabric samples for $1, at a Recycle Centre.


Up till now, my upholstery samples have been left untouched in my rather large suitcase of thrifted fabric, waiting patiently for a project. Whilst I am scheming up a suitable project to reuse all of these pretty fabric squares, I have, in the meantime found a use for some.

My favourite pair of Diesel jeans, that I've had for close to ten years, have finally given at the knee. Now, I shouldn't be too bothered about this, for ripped jeans have a certain character, but during Melbourne's winter, it is just not practical to wear hole-y jeans. What better opportunity than to patch with fine furnishing samples?

*Click on image for clearer picture*

To sew on my patches, I had to unpick the side seam of my jeans, then machine stitched what I could, hand stitched the rest, and machine stitched the open seam back together again.

Never too old for patched jeans!

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