No Sew Legging Refashion

This is a quick and weird refashion that requires no sewing.  

I learned this trick from one of my daughters dance teachers.  They wanted them to wear fish net stockings under their shirts for part of their costume for the recital.  She had us cut out the crotch and cut off the toes and slip the stockings on over their heads and under their shirt for a funky-fresh, hip-hop look.

I had these cool pair of tie dye leggings.  I love them, but I can't find anywhere in my wardrobe where they work and believe me, I have tried.  

I finally said screw it!  I'm cutting into them!

I cut out the crotch.  These were leggings, so I didn't even need to cut out the feet.

I thought it might be cute under a tank top.  It's been so cold here lately, but I really want to wear my tanks.  I slipped it on under a couple shirts ....

... What do you think???

Is it too funky and far out??

Or just funky and far out enough to work?

Erinn ~ Sticky Genius

Top & Strapless Dress / Skirt

My daughter loves to go to the thrift stores with me. Since she has found that her clothing purchasing power goes a lot further that way. When she showed me this dress, I just shook my head and said "No, you don't want that." To me this dress looked like an 80's nightmare, crinkled rayon in pink and turquoise with a crazy pattern. What were the designers thinking? Too long sleeves and blousey top that hung over the drop waist with sash, yuck. But. my daughter saw something in it and bought it anyway. Then it was up to me to transform her vision into reality. 

First we separated the top from the skirt section. I shortened the sleeves and hemmed the bottom.  She was happy with just those changes and I have to admit it looks nice on her. She wears it with jeans, but, I think it could easily go with a dressier pair of slacks.  

She didn't have any plans for the bottom skirt portion. I was going to just put it away for another day, but, it looked to me like we could also make a strapless dress or tie waist skirt from the bottom section.  I added some elastic to give the top some support and help avoid accidental exposure as a dress. The sash is tied in the back but it could be tied in the front. It can also be worn as a skirt with the sash tied at the side or front.

I'm glad we have this activity to share. Now, if I could just get her to learn to sew herself. . . 

Thank you for reading.

Jean

When Ellen came to Sydney!

Ellen DeGeneres came to Sydney recently to film an episode of her talk show and to celebrate, a newspaper gave out T-shirts, I was able to get 2 of them, so of course I made them into a T-dress and T-pants. 

I used the front and back of the shirt for the T-pants (reversing them so that the print is now on the back). I then used some black and white striped jersey that I had for the leg cuffs and the waistband.

For the T-dress, I used the sleeves of the black t-shirt as the sleeves. I cut them off and then opened them up at the underarm seam before tracing off my pattern. Although it can't be seen in the photo the original shoulder seams provide a nice detail on the new raglan sleeves.

I used the same black and white jersey for the skirt and hemmed it with Fold-over elastic (20cm) which was also used for the neck and sleeve finishing. Besides providing a nice looking edge and being quick and easy to sew, the weight of the elastic gives the skirt a better fall.

I really like the dress and pants the colours are bold and who doesn't love Ellen!

The T-Dress is a great pattern to use to quickly refashion an adult T-shirt into a cute dress and one day I will do a tutorial, until then if you would like to have a go all you need is a Raglan top pattern and a simple skirt pattern. 

The blog 'Craftiness is not Optional' has a really clear tutorial for a Raglan top and there are plenty of instructions on the internet for a simple skirt, a half circle skirt will work well.

To save time I combined the front and back top patterns into one (see picture), so only the necks are different and I can cut both out at once. I fold the T-shirt in half widthways and then cut out the pattern for the back. The front neck can either be traced out and cut or just cut freehand, just ensure you start and end at the same spots as the pattern.

Okay the next photo hasn't got much to do with Ellen (although I'm sure she is a Belieber as well), I just couldn't resist including it. It does show how you can use different but similar T-shirts to create outfits that go together but are not too matchy-matchy.

If you are interested in seeing other outfits that I have refashioned and made, please visit my blog:

www.orangewho.com.

Cheers

Mary D

Orange Who? At least it's not all Pink and Blue

Sweater dress to Peplum Tunic

I made this sweater dress (from pattern Butterick 5523) in early 2012 and wore it often despite it not looking quite flattering on my body... Decided that I love the upper portion too much to have it buried under my huge down jacket, so chop chop...

And after:

Spring is definitely here, but it is still chilly at times, so a wool knit clothing is gonna keep me nice and comfy :) Hope that you are all doing great and having a great time with your projects :)

Happy Monday,
Far
p/s: I blog re this project here:
http://farsland.blogspot.com/2013/04/2013-refashion-5-sweater-dress-to.html

Tunic from trash!

Yes, I said "trash." I dug up the bottom piece of the tunic from an earlier refashion... out of the trash scrap bag. Oops! Oh well, it was saved from garbage night in the end.
The dark brown linen dress was a little too darned tight for comfort - not tight in the "sexy" way, just plain squeezing like a sausage. Ugh or should I say, "oink?!!?" hah hah
So I chopped the brown tunic, pinned the bottom of the blue knit skirt to it, and sewed. Voila`! A tunic that is comfy and cute to wear. Very simple. The Tunic Upcycle story is told on my blog, the Embarrassing Disgrace.

Pinned then sewed...

Voila`! A cute tunic I'll actually wear...

Albert the Photo-bomber strikes again!
"The End"

Purple Dress Refashion

Hello everyone!
I've been wanting to do a dress refashion for a long time, but haven't been able to find any cheap dresses from my thrift store, until this week! I was lucky enough to get a whole cart-load of 49-cent dresses, plus use a $10.00-off coupon on them! Altogether each garment ended up costing me 17-cents! I was so excited about the colossal savings that I just couldn't help but share! :)
The first dress from my shopping spree that I decided to refashion, was this bright purple number...

After removing the shoulder pads and elastic waistband, taking in the sides and shortening the length, it looked like this...

Finally some sunshine and warm temperatures! :)

My daughter was my photographer.

She kept telling me how to pose! :)

I really love this color and am so happy to finally have the right weather to wear this in! 

If you'd like to see the more detailed tutorial, check out the Diary of a MadMama blog. 

Have a great week everyone! 

~Jen

Men's Shirt Sleeve to French Pouf

Using the leftover shirt sleeves from this previous refashion (found here), I created a french pouf hair clip for my sweet girl.

 

 

 

This pouf can be easily made into a clothing pin or to add a little flair to your home decor. There are tons of possibilities!

 

To see the full tutorial, check out my blog All Glorious.

 

Hope you're all having a great Monday!

 

Dodgy Leather Trousers to Handmade Leather Planner....

Last week I spent some time getting myself organised  and part of that involved turning this pair of leather trousers into a handmade leather planner....

There are more details on my blog and a tute for the planner, plus a free download for the planner pages later this week :)

Princess from old sheets

This outfit is one of my latest creations, entirely made spending 0,75 Euro for the zipper!
I used old sheets and a scrap of yellow rib knit that my mother gave me: we've had it from a long time (at least 30 years!) and I've decided to use it for entering my very first Pattern Review contest:
The 2013 Spring Pantone Contest, where you have to create a two-pieces outfit using fabrics where the 2013 Spring Pantone colours must be the prominent.
I've decided to sew a princess seam, with rib knit cuffs and a self drafted asymmetrical cardi, edged with reverse facing.
This is my Before:

And here's the After:

I hope you like it and, if you are on PatternReview too, please come to vote me (May, 2nd - 8th)
If you want to read more and see some detailed pic, please come to visit me on SergerPepper

Short Top, or Dress? You Decide!

This was my very first refashion.  I certainly selected a material that wasn't easy to work with, so this was a lengthy project for me.  I'm happy with how it looks in the pictures, but up close it has quite a few flaws and rough edges.  To keep it from falling off my shoulders, I had to insert a piece across the top of my shoulder blades, which I conveniently hid with my hair in these pictures.

Hope everyone is having a great day!

http://www.patchworkpastries.blogspot.com/

Tablecloth Couture

Continuing with my linens and things theme, I've made a kimono from an Asian tablecloth a friend gave me.

Kimono made from satin-y embroidered tablecloth

using both the right and 'wrong' side of fabric cuz it was so cool

made-from-scratch piping joining the 2 back pieces

one sleeve uses the right side and other sleeve uses the 'wrong' side

plus a cat pin I made from found fabric, stuffed it and added a pin

Harem cargo pants made from orangey peach silk-like boudoir curtains complete the ensemble.  Find out more details and see me wearing it all at Project Minima, here.  And thanks for looking.

A Quasi-Prairie Skirt

Out of two pairs of Levi's, come two skirts. This is the second one and I used the technique for making a Prairie Skirt, following the guidelines from Sincerely, Kinsey's tutorial.

You can read about A Tale Of Two Levi's, Part Two: The Quasi-Prairie Skirt on my blog, the Embarrassing Disgrace (go here for Part One). Both are tutorial-style posts.

Pleased as I am with this particular skirt's comfort and fit, Albert the family dog photo-bombs relentlessly.

A Two Levi's: from the 1970's and no longer wearable as pants...

WHAT I'M WEARING:

• Thrifted tee turned backward for a boat neck
• THE quasi-prairie skirt
• Thrifted Robert Zur quilted leather moccassins

Albert, the charming gentleman-dog, steals the photo...

"The End" *snorfle*

Perfect Summer Tote Bag

Today I have prepared an easy and quick refashion that any Costco shopper can afford to make :) Why Costco? Because that's where my in-laws take us shopping sometimes and that's where I found a giant bag of rice that came in a sack, that we are going to use in our refashion today!
Another thin we'll need is either plain fabric for lining, or, like in my case, a cloth bag one of my designer purses came in!
Here is our bag of rice (I've only seen them at Costco, please let me know if you've seen them at other stores! I want to make this easier for those who choose to shop elsewhere!)

And here is the bag we are going to use for lining:

The first thing you are going to want to do is hide all the loose ends, strings, etc! I also got rid of the zipper, because it was junky!
Then I trimmed the cloth bag to fit, kept the handles, because the original sack handles were too short!

Make sure to do some fitting before you start sewing by simply inserting the new lining into the sack:

I also went over the top edges with a thick red thread, to make sure it didn't fray:

How big is your needle? ;)
And finally sewed it all together on my machine! When sewing be careful, because the sack is made of a thick and heavy fabric, I don't want you ruining your machines because of me! And keep in mind - you'll end up doing some hand sewing one way or another, because the edges are thick!

And you are done! Enjoy your bag and have a wonderful weekend!
For those of you who are wondering where I am going next week - my blog is taking me to Chicago! And even though I am going to the Windy City only for a couple of days, I feel like it's an amazing start of something wonderful and exciting for me!
Lots of love,
Z
BeingZhenya.com

Mother's Day Outfit Mishap

This is what happened to the pretty outfit I got for Mother’s Day. It has i sleeveless shift dress with a same length jacket. (Church is always cold.) Pointing no fingers at the landlords cousin who had to use that expanding caulk to fill the vent he put in my dryer room. When and how isn’t the problem getting it out was. So Here goes…

Dryel solvent… nope… Goo Gone… nope…Amway solvent(not pictured) but, nope anyway…
Hmmmmm not one to give up so away I went. Under the bed to storage there for wonder under fusible webbing, glittler puff paint, scissors, and the Be Dazzler!!!

Well I decided the mini one would work best for this application. With the strip of fabric from a skirt I shortened I got a great paisley piece. With the left over I made a scarf to go along with it. I can wear this as a more fancy or played down. The dress I shortened can be worn under for more summer day. Scarf is interchangeable for both dresses and works well with lots of my wardrobe. Now to press it all and get it ready for Mother’s day service.

I hope and pray in Jesus’ name if you have a mom or if you love a mom that you let them know. One day from the next we are not guaranteed tomorrow. I was blessed by being able to tell my mom I loved her, to bless her and tell her how beautiful she is and always will be to me. I have been on cloud nine ever since. Thanks be to God!!!
God’s grace, peace, light, and love always Doreen