Shortasauraus

Hi, long time no see :) It's been ages since I've had time to refashion but with prelims over, I shut myself in my room today and got around to doing a project I've been dreaming up over the past torturous no sew month. We were over at my home from home, Ireland just before Christmas to do some shopping in Belfast and paid a visit to Avoca, one of my FAVOURITE shops. They do these really cute hot water bottles with gorgeous lace trim which gave me the idea to do vintage velvet shorts (trimmed with lace of course). My friend Merrick has asked me to make her a pair of shorts from vintage square scarves so I took the oppertunity to try out the pattern I printed from Burdastyle, the tonia shorts. I used a pair of velvet trousers I got from marie curie at £4.They looked really good and I was very pround of how neat they had turned out when half way through, I tried them on. They were closer to a size 20 than a size 12 (uk sizes) I was very disapointed but I'll have a go at taking them in, if not , anyone looking for a pair of size 16/18 Uk shorts. give me a call :P P.S. does anyone else have trouble with Burdastyle sizes? this is the third time i've used them and the sizes are always way out:( Bhliain nua sásta!! :PBeforeAfter (please excuse the awful photo)

Roisin xx

From pullover to cardigan

Good morning everyone! This was the very first tutorial I posted on my new blog

Chic Envelopements

I refashioned this sweater for my sister's Christmas gift.

In addition to the sweater this was all I needed. A button, a hairband and a strip of fabric.

First I cut the sweater up the middle.

After pressing under one side of the strips of fabric, I pinned it to the sweater right sides together.

And positioned the half hairband where I wanted the button to be.

I then sewed the strips onto the sweater and folded it over and pinned in place.

Then sew all around the strip on both sides.

Now your ready to sew your button in place.

And wahlah! You have a cardigan. I'll have my sister send me a picture of her wearing the sweater and I'll post it later.

Corduroy pants and skirt into bags

I posted refashion of jeans into jacket couple of days ago, and today I want to share another pants refashion. This one is easier - pants into bag. I managed to get lovely webbing, matching with corduroy, and also matching checked flanel for lining. I sew-in lining by hand, so it's invisible on outer side. For finish I used faux leather and studs - they keep bag closed and also give it chic look.

Other refashion is made from corduroy skirt (almost brand new!). The skirt had outer pockets, so I kept them for some extra space for keys etc. It had lining, so it saved some work. I also changed buttons for bolder purple ones. First I wanted to add some features to front side, but the bag looks very good anyway and I didn't want to ruin it.

The main point in these refashions was to keep it tidy and to pay attention to details. The materials were in excellent condition, so it would be waste just to keep it in closet!
There are more pics in my shop or on my FB page.

This is an old refashion I did that I wanted to share with you all.


1. Yet another before shot, 2. 364/365: Even more after, The Ann Taylor dress edition, 3. Even more after, The Ann Taylor dress edition, 4. Even more after, The Ann Taylor dress edition

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

I had this dress a loooooong time.
So long, in fact, that it is a size 4.
I have not been a size 4 since before I had my daughter and she will be 11 in March


I have a hard time with dresses, especially shirt dresses, because my upper and lower halves are two very different sizes. As you can see this size 4 top was perfect, but the 'before' pic shows you that there was no hope of this EVER buttoning all the way again. Ever!

So... I chopped the sleeves.
Very carefully picked out both cuff seams.
Very carefully picked out the hem seam.
Split the side seams up to the fifth button from the top.
Split both sleeve pieces in two where they were already cut for the sleeve detail.
Sewed each set into two longer pieces.
Pinned the hell out those pieces into both side seam openings, tapering towards the top.
Sewed the bits in.
Made some adjustments.
Re-hemmed the bottom.
Made new sleeve hems.
Shortened button tabs and reattached to each sleeve.

Whew! It all reads like a lot more work than it was!

Straight Skirt to Pencil Skirt Refashion

Hi! I'm new to Refashion Co-op and want to thank all the contributors for their inspiration to try refashioning and to the editors for getting me set up (I'm NOT a technical genius!). I've recently started a new blog, Beehive Chic, for FABulous people like you who want to live a Queen Been Life on a worker bee budget.

For my first project I waved my magic refashion wand and changed a simple unlined straight skirt to a pencil skirt. Here's what I started with:




And here's the glorious after:




(Okay, so this isn't the most flattering blouse with it, but I couldn't resist styling it like the model in the Ralph Lauren photo. Did I mention the inspiration skirt was $1000? Seriously, who pays that much for a skirt?)

I find that a pencil skirt creates a more flattering silhouette for my Curvy Girl figure than a straight skirt. If you're interetested in the no-couture-techniques tutorial, you can find it here.

Best wishes for a Happy New Year!

Valerie

P.S. I'm really struggling to get great photos with my basic "fits in your pocket" point and shoot camera. If you have any links to great "get good photos for your blog" articles let me know. Thanks!

Hi, I'm new here at Refashion Co-op. I've just recently joined the refashion community with my blog www.chicenvelopements.wordpress.com

I've been so impressed and inspired by all the talented and creative people out there refashioning clothes. Here's one of my first refashion projects. I hope you enjoy!

I started with this thrift store sweater. The body of the sweater was huge and the sleeves were tiny. Not sure this would fit a real human. So I decided to turn it into a hat and mittens.

I first cut off the sleeves.

Then cut up the sides.

Here is a link to the hat tutorial:

sweater to hat tutorial

And the mitten tutorial:

http://fivegreenacres.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/sweater-mitten-tutorial/

Happy sewing! And I hope to get to know you soon!

Start with a thrift store sweater. This one was 50 cents on Wednesday at my friendly neighborhood thrift store. It's mostly acrylic and a little bit of wool. Kind of itchy and way too small for me.

Cut up one side of the sweater.

Cut off the sleeves.

Cut a rectangle 1 inch larger than the circumference of your head (this allows for a half inch seam on each side)by 4 or 5 inches tall. (Depending on how tall you want your hat. I cut mine 23in x 4in. I might go a little taller next time by perhaps a half inch).

Next I used a lid to trace the top of the hat. This one measured 7 inches across.

Then cut out the circle.

Next choose some cotton fabric for the lining. I used the black gingham from an old tablecloth I bought at the Salvation Army, years ago.

Cut out a circle and rectangle with the same dimensions as your sweater pieces. Mine were 23x4 and a 7 in diameter circle.

Make a paper pattern for a brim. I copied a brim from another hat. I made the brims too big on my first hats and had to rip out the seams and make them smaller. It was so much work but I liked the smaller brims much better.

Cut 2 with about a half an inch around each side. Then cut two pieces of heavy fusible interfacing the same size as your pattern and iron on the wrong side of your sweater.

Place right sides together and pin in place.

Just sew the convex side with a half inch seam. (Now I'll see who is really reading this and see if I used the correct word there. It's been so long since I've had an opportunity to use that word:)) Leave the concave side open.

Turn it right side out.

Topstitch around the convex side. I put 2 rows of topstitching next to each other. You could do as many as you like.

Fold your sweater rectangle in half right sides together.

Stitch together starting with a bigger seam at the top and angling the seam down so the top with be smaller than the bottom.

Do the same with you lining fabric.

Right sides together, pin your circle piece onto the smaller side of the sewn rectangle piece.

Sew around the circle.

Next pin and sew the brim onto the larger side of the sewn rectangle. Right sides together.

Now it's finally starting to look like a hat.

Pin and sew the circle piece onto the other side. Right sides together.

Now turn your sweater part right side out and the lining wrong side out.

Place the sweater part inside the lining part. The right sides should be together and the brim should be between the lining and the sweater part.

Sew all around the edge leaving a 4 inch opening so you can pull it through and turn it right side out.

Pull it through the opening so it's right side out.

Fold the raw edges under and pin all around the hat. Topstitch around the entire hat.

And "Wah Lah"! You've got a sweater hat!!!!