Bring on the summer!

It's still freezing here in Manchester (UK) but i've been looking through pictures of past, more summery refashions and will share a couple of these with you...

No before pic (i am really bad at remembering to take them, sorry!) but this was a t-shirt with a weird square neckline that never sat well, and was a bit too wide and too short. So i chopped off the top and stitched up the sides, folded over the back top to make a hem adding some elastic to pull it in, and crocheted a bikini top and bottom trim.

This next one is a refashion in the loosest sense - i haven't changed it dramatically, just made it work better for me! I got this dress from a clothes swap, and while the fabric was gorgeous, stretchy and comfy and covered in lovely leaf designs, the bust area was a bit... stretched. It was quite saggy on me :s The dress was a couple of sizes too big, but it didnt look weird anywhere but in the bust. The straps had also stretched out A LOT. No before pic - it would have been indecent!

The bodice was lined, so i was able to shorten the straps dramatically by unpicking the back where they were attached, chopping off a few inches and reattaching, and i also took in the sides of the bust. I added some lovely little beads gifted me by a friend the year before to the front of the straps for some interest. Now i have a lovely summer dress that fits great!

 I'm not kidding about how much the straps had stretched. From the bit i cut off just one strap i made a bracelet to match the dress with some more of the beads.

This last refashion is one i wear all the time. There wasn't much wrong with the original tshirt, except the neck was a bit tight and there was a kind of reverse image of the neckline on the back of the shirt, both of which meant i didn't wear it all that much, which was sad as i loved the design and colour. So i copied another shirt i had, which had a deep cutout in the back and a tie across the shoulders. I made binding, and the ties, from fabric from another tshirt in the refashion pile.

Before: (i finally remembered to get a picture!!)

Close up of the back-imprint - the design must have been printed after the tshirt was sewn up.

I cut off the original neck edging and added purple binding,

and a scoop back with a tie

sorry for the awkward picture! I also cut the original hems off the sleeves as i thought the raw jersey edge would look more in keeping with the raw-edged binding.

That's all folks, thanks for reading!

xx xx