Simples

I made this dress earlier in the year.

Looks fine standing up. But when I'd sit down, I was very uncomfortable with how far above the knee it ended up. I got a brainstorm the other day. Rather than trying to think of a way to make it longer...just chop it off and wear it for a blouse.

Here is the dress turned blouse being worn.

That being successful, I got a few ideas for sorting out this cardigan I made from a remnant of t-shirt fabric. I originally copied a cardigan I already had.

Only there wasn't enough to do the sleeves on the lengthwise grain so I did them on the cross grain. I seldom work with knits and it wasn't till I tried to get it off and all the sleeve seams popped that I realised the stretch was not around the arm, but up and down. So, I used some old shoelaces to sew on the seam as stay tape. That was fine, sleeves stayed sewn. But at the time, the sleeves still were quite too snug.

Also when I made it, I was trying to copy a refashion idea I saw on this blog. Someone opened up a t-shirt into a cardigan and put lace on the edges. Theirs worked...mine...well it was a bit too twee.

Fastforward to recent refashioning session. I dug the cardigan out of the cupboard thinking to chop it up and use it on something else. Well, in the meantime from making it, I have lost weight and the sleeves aren't snug anymore! So, I unpicked the lace. It still wanted 'something'. So, I dug out some buttons and beads and doodled a bit with them.

Here is the Cardigan not so easy to see detail with black, but it fits and feels nice.

And a detail of the button beads treatment on the lapels. Subtle but interesting.