Beach Bag Fix

My uncle sewed a beach bag as Christmas presents for my mom about 30 years ago.  This yellow and gray bag went with us everywhere.  It is the bag of my childhood, made of yellow canvas and jeans, I think. When my mom showed me how the handles were falling apart and some holes had appeared on one panel, I offered to make some repairs.  I used some pretty vintage fabric that I had on hand. (bedsheets!) I folded the fabric over several times to get a decent thickness, and then sewed OVER the grey strips, completely encasing the sad, worn out handles.

I made a fabric "flower" out of an old white tee shirt to cover up the holes.  It is just pinned on there and can be easily taken off to throw in the wash.

The best part of making a repair for your mom?  Knowing that someday I'll get it back and it will be MY family's summer tote bag.  The bag of my kid's childhood. The bag I rescued, reinforced and put back into use for another 30 years.

Love,
Amy Jo at The Little Moments

Tablecloth, Version 2

Remember the beautiful, hand stitched tablecloth pieces I added to a dark grey sweater? I liked it, but not enough to wear it.  (see the smaller pictures below) I tried it on recently to find it was way too tight around my stomach.  My weight fluctuates, and at one point I think the sweater fit ok, but right now? Not.At.All.   This discovery made me feel better about cutting the sweater up the front to give me some room to breathe.  I added a ruffle (salvaged off some other garment) around the raw edges.  I added a little eye and hook so I can close it. Cute, right? I still haven't worn it, but now there's the possibility that I might.

 

(Pictures of the first version front and back)

While I was working on the sweater, I pulled out the rest of the tablecloth, determined to find a way to use the rest of the pretty pieces. The banner is no-sew and not fashion related, so you'll have to click over to The Little Moments if you want to see more about my tablecloth banner!

Thanks for reading!
Love Amy Jo at The Little Moments

Sweater with Tablecloth inserts

My sister gave me a plain dark grey sweater a few years back.  I had an old (antique?) hand embroidered table cloth that had holes in random places, but was still beautiful.  I sewed pieces of it inside the sweater. Then I cut out the sweater parts out, following the shapes on the tablecloth.  I think that is called "reverse applique".  The first picture is the back, and the second picture is the front with just a small applique off to the side.  

Sadly, I've never worn this!  I keep putting it in my donation box, then pulling it back out because I DO like it, just not enough to wear it.   I'm considering cutting it down the center, or off to the side and turning it into a cardigan instead of a pull over sweater.

Any other ideas for me to consider?  Any other ideas of how to use beautiful embroidered tablecloths in your wardrobe?

Thanks for reading!
Love,
Amy Jo at The Little Moments

Lace insert on sweater

I've had this brownish sweater for several years.  It was always on the small side- tight and short.  I cut off the bottom ribbing from the rest of the sweater and then sewed on thick lace between the two pieces.  Now it is a little longer, and I LOVE the lace insert. 

But, sadly it's still too tight and still a weird brown color.  Somewhere along the way I lost a button and I don't have the heart to replace them all for something I won't wear.   It was fun to play around with lace, even if it didn't end up being something I love enough to keep.

Thanks for reading,
Love,
Amy Jo at The Little Moments

Pants to winter hat/scarf

I took some warm fleece pajama pants and turned them into a hooded scarf.

The pants were huge on me, and I could have taken them in a few inches, but instead I decided to cut them up.

I traced the shape of a hood onto one of the legs, then used the remaining parts to make a long scarf.  It's one piece. 

It really looks like a hijab, which was not my intent.

I didn't expect it to be some tight around my head.

It is not as warm as I thought it would be.

It snowed last week and I didn't even think to wear it.

I pretty much hate it.....

What do you all do when you make something that you don't really like? Donate? Toss? Take a picture of it anyway and post about it here?  ;)

But guess what? I'm happy to be sewing again.  My sewing machine was out of commission for several months with a bobbin disease but it has been cured and is back home where it belongs.  This was the first refashion I've done in a while and it was fun!


P.S. I'm almost done with this crazy scrap map of the USA, which isn't a refashion, but did include some clothing scraps.

Have a great day!
Love,
Amy Jo @ The Little Moments

Pink lace

Just in time for Valentine's Day, I added pink lace to the bottom of this plain gray sweater dress.  I added a little lace heart on the back shoulder for a little somethin' fun.

 I put a small square of lace under the fabric, pinned it down, and then sewed a heart shape on the shoulder.  Then I cut out the gray fabric inside the heart and was left with just the lace.

Love,
Amy Jo

Red Boots and rags

I made this cute little shirt a little longer so my "Happy Little Camper" can keep wearing it this fall.  I found an unloved tank top which was the perfect diameter to the shirt and after pinning it down really well, it took about four minutes to sew.  I cut off the rest of the tank top to use for a rag, and before I could even put it away in my rag drawer, I found a good use for it: Waxing my boots!

I adore cowboy boots and maybe someday I'll have a real pair.  But for now, what I have are these $35 Target brand boots.  They came in grey, which is not a fun color and the toes scuffed off almost immediately.  I spray painted them red (YIKES, they were really red) and then rubbed an antiquing wax all over to tone it down a bit. I wore them out last weekend in the rain, and can already see how the paint is starting to flake off.  Bummer.  Maybe spray paint isn't the best shoe refashion method......Any suggestions?

Thanks for reading!
Love,
Amy Jo at The Little Moments

Polyester Red

This new school year has really thrown me off track and I haven't been sewing much.  Earlier this week, I pulled out this dress, for the 27th time and decided to make a few alterations so I could wear it.   I took in a few inches under the arms on both sides, and then cut a few inches off of this red dress to make it shorter. It was an awkward mid-shin length.  I cut off about 5 inches and all of a sudden it became mid-thigh length.  It's a little shorter than I intended.  (Why does that always happen? I guess I don't have a good sense of my body mass.) 

Anyway, I wore it with black leggings and boots, and it was more like a long shirt/ tunic. I love the color and it has some interesting texture on the fabric.  It feels a little funny, which is why I hesitated 26 times in doing anything with it. But it was so easy to sew! The dress is 94% polyester and 6% something else.    Polyester is my new favorite fabric to sew, and with a tank top under, leggings under and a black cardigan over, none of the fabric touched my skin.  Here's to getting back into sewing with an easy refashion!

Thanks for reading,
Love, Amy Jo @ The Little Moments

Little adjustments and a really little skirt

This shirt was a couple sizes too big for me, so I used a favorite pink shirt to figure our where sew my new seams.  Sometimes I trace my new seam lines with the kids markers or whatever I can find around the house.  But on this lucky day, I was able to find my chalk tailor which worked great on the black fabric.  I left the sleeves and length at the original length of the shirt because I liked the fit as it was.




The pants were brand new with tags from Ann Taylor, at least 75% off retail price. It was a great find!

AND they would have been perfect if I was four inches taller.



I brought them home and hemmed them up.  I took my time and did a good job (which I don't always on my little projects) and now I have an outfit that fits me just right.



I'm wondering how many of us have been inspired by Hofficoffi  to use scraps to make Barbie clothes!?!  I love that idea!

I used the hem from my pants to make a little black skirt for one of the Barbies hanging around my house. A little strip of Velcro attaches the skirt around her impossibly small waist.

Barbie is hanging out in our backyard, wearing her new little black skirt.

Thanks for the inspiration, refashion co-op!
Love,
Amy Jo at The Little Moments

Pin-Tuck Purple Shirt

This is the story of a very sad purple t-shirt.
The flaws: too wide, too short, too low-cut.
Basically stretched out and worn out.




I thought about cutting it up to make t-shirt yarn but decided on an experiment before slicing it up.
My super long plastic measuring guide was already out from a quilting project, so I used it to make chalk lines diagonally across the front of the shirt.  I drew three parallel lines about an inch apart and used them to help me sew a small pin-tuck all the way down, from one shoulder to the opposite side .  I was hoping to shrink some of the wideness of the shirt by taking it in a little bit on each line.  Then I did the same thing on the opposite side, which left me with an "X" shape across the front of my shirt.
You can see the inside of the shirt looks pretty cool too.

pin-tuck, right side out

pin-tuck, inside out

As you can see, the shirt still has all of the original flaws; it's possibly even MORE stretched out than ever before, but now it has something interesting added to the front.
I might wear this camping or to exercise, or eventually cut it up into yarn....but I'd love to try this idea on a better quality piece of clothing too.

Thanks for reading!
Love, Amy Jo at The Little Moments

Layered Swimsuit

[[photo removed and link added by editor: LINK]]

This is the catalogue picture of the swimsuit I altered from Chadwick's of Boston.

Last year I changed the halter top into actual straps by sewing them down, hoping that it would give me a little bit more support.  (Plus halter tops always make me nervous with that little tie in the back that someone could untie in one second.) 

The straps were a small improvement.  Very small.  I still felt like the top was too low cut and getting sunburned in a low cut top makes me grumpy.  (I'm soooo sensitive to sun burning that I'd rather just wear clothes, even at the beach.)

The other day, one of my girls was running around the house, giggling, with a swimsuit down around her legs.  It was an a old bathing suit bottom that had lost all elasticity in the waist.   The tag said size 6 children, but there's no way that would fit anyone's bottom at my house.  Later that day, I found the sad, stretched out swim shorts on the floor.  I picked them up and almost threw them in the garbage before realizing it was perfect swimsuit (refashion) material.

I cut the longest hemmed section from the shorts and sewed it to my swim top.  Now it is not such a deep "V" neck; it looks like a layered swimsuit top.   I used some of the leftover fabric to make a pink flower shape on the skirt.

Thanks for reading about my swimsuit woes,

Love, Amy Jo @ The Little Moments

Let's do black....

My refashion pile of clothes has been getting out of control lately.  I throw things in the pile if something doesn't fit me right, needs to be repaired or is too boring.  Over the weekend I dug through it and pulled out anything that was dark in color and could be sewn with black thread.  For some reason, changing the color thread feels like a big pain in the booty and it deters me from sewing sometimes.

I pulled out 9 pieces of clothing and got to work.  One shirt and one pair of pants were beyond my refashion skills and will be donated.  Another shirt looked just fine to me as is;  I can't remember why I threw it into the refashion pile.  Another skirt's hem was repaired, a black shirt perfect for work just needed a little help to keep the front modest.

The two best project took some boot-cut yoga pants, slimming them down and then using the scraps from the yoga pants to create wider straps for a tank top.

I felt productive getting all that black out of my pile and into my closet/ donate pile....let's see what color's up next!

What are your tricks for keeping the refashion pile at bay?

These yoga pants were so wide that I would trip on them! I used the striped leggings as a pattern to sew my new seams.

Originally, this tank top had very thin straps poorly placed. I created thick straps using the scraps from the yoga pants.

Thanks for reading,
Love Amy Jo at The Little Moments

Be Owlsome

I found some great owl fabric at Joann Fabric and they are pretty much my favorite little creatures, so a half yard of it came home with me.  I ironed some fusible adhesive to the back of the fabric, cut and out the shape and ironed it onto a boring sweatshirt.  I took 4 minutes to sew around the edges of the owl and all of a sudden I had a fun sweatshirt.  (And I have 14 more little owls ready to iron on/ sew onto something.)

My next project took a sweatshirt that I love to wear to bed and added some funky circles down one side.  I found a baggie of fabric circles at my mom's shop and asked to take them home with me.  I think someone had started a project with circles, but abandoned the idea and donated the stack of polyester circles instead.  I love the crazy color and pattern combo, and it turns my cozy sweatshirt into something a little more fun.

Thanks for looking and happy sewing!
Love,
Amy Jo at The Little Moments

Purple and Red dress

One of my neighbors asked me to trim 8 inches off of a purple polyester dress for her Halloween costume.  I asked to keep the 8 inch scraps and eventually (years later) added it to a little girls shirt for an awesome purple and red combination dress.   The red shirt had three red ruffles down the front, but that was not fancy enough for my fashionista.  oh no....we added two little lengths of purple ribbon and four fancy buttons.

When I sent my friend a picture of the refashioned dress, she replied that the rest of the dress was  in her donate pile.   I asked for it, of course and she was kind enough to oblige.  However, here's the thing.  I love the print and color.   I hate the feel of polyester and it looks HORRID on my body.  There is elastic at the waist.  I wore it out one day with a purple sweater that helped to balance out the pattern and cover the ill fitting garment a little bit.

I can't decide if I should put it in my donate box too, or if I should try to salvage some part of it.

I have been trying to eliminate clutter in my home by keeping only things that I love-things that spark joy.  There's no joy with this dress (right now), but that's the beauty of refashioning, right?  The potential!

What would you do with this purple dress?

JOY in scarf to vest project

With two quick seams, a scarf from my closet was transformed into a mini vest. 

Not quite the same as coveted $24.99 version, but close enough.
It was fun to see her eyes light up as she twirled around the kitchen in her new fuzzy vest. 

To read the story behind this refashion and see a picture of the inspirational, tantrum inducing original vest, click over to The Little Moments.

Love,
Amy Jo

Custom pocket

Once upon a time I went to a thrift store and bought a fantastic soft gray skirt.  It was the perfect size, super comfy, great length for wearing with leggings and boots AND it was made by J.Jill.   Yes please, I'll take it for $3.

It has a regular spot in my wardrobe rotation, but the pocket space was ridiculous.  Really, Jill?  It might be enough space for chap stick, but you can see only half of my phone can fit.  At work, I need my phone, paper, pen and pager on me at all times.  I often carry a tiny little purse, but pockets are better sometimes.

I looked for a beautiful fabric scrap in my stash and made an extended pocket to fit my cell phone. I can tuck a piece of paper and maybe a pencil in there too, pager can go on my waistband.

I'm pretty delighted with my little hidden pocket. From looking at the skirt, there's no way to tell I've made a change in the skirt (until I pull it inside out to show you, and believe me I'll probably show you if I get a chance!)

Some of the pocket was made on my sewing machine and some of it was hand sewn (don't look too close!) because of the tight space.
And now I'm off to add pockets to all my clothes....  :)

Love Amy Jo @ The Little Moments

Somehow, a permanent marker (which I have banned from the house, car, trailer, my life)  managed to get a hold of a new shirt and leave a blue mark.   It was stubborn; it was a $3 shirt.  I didn’t get mad, well maybe a little bit mad at the contraband marker sneaking its way into my house.




I salvaged the pretty little flowers from the ruined shirt by ironing some heat and bond to the back of the flowers, then cut them out.  Next, I found a red dress which ALSO had permanent marker lines on the chest area.  (Apparently, I need to increase my surveillance on writing utensils around here.)

I strategically ironed the flowers in place, then sewed them down so they won’t go anywhere.  There were a bunch left over, so Grace pulled out a skirt that needed a little something extra and we ironed and sewed them down too.

Love Amy Jo at The Little Moments

Two straps from one salvaged strap

"I want a one strap dress, mom."  Grace declared one day.  I stopped what I was doing to take a look at the dress she was wearing and determined it would not work.  I suggested we look for another dress that might work better for that style of dress.  The next thing I knew, she was holding up this yellow dress with one strap hacked off.  I was surprised, and she was surprised that the dress wouldn't stay up with only one strap.   (She's learning fashion design do's and don'ts the hard way.)   Although it was just a $4.50 consignment dress, I thought about some ways to salvage the dress, since she still liked it. I asked the pros at Re-Fashion Co-op for some ideas (THANKS, my refashioning friends!)  and decided to fix the straps using fabric from the dress.   The original straps are gathered into a wide strap.  When I removed the intact strap and un-gathered it, there was enough fabric to make two matching skinny straps. 

I think it turned out great and looks just as good as the first version.
Love,
Amy Jo @ The Little Moments

P.S. Still working on a one strap dress project.  Any suggestions for us?

A super dress

Before: two t-shirts

Ta-Da! A super dress

Superman is our families favorite super hero, so I knew I needed to reuse Joshua's old tee-shirt.  Plus, it had one spot and one little hole towards the bottom, so it was not in  "donate" condition.

This is not my best sewing job, but Gracie thinks it's amazing to have a superman maxi-dress.  (I'm trying to convince her to wear as pajamas, not an actual dress around town.)

I used her brother's outgrown superman shirt and an old red shirt from my stash.   I resized the superman shirt by an inch on each side, kept as much of the length from the red shirt (by request) and then sewed them together.

After I took this picture, I measured around her little waist and then added elastic at the waist seam, hoping it would give the dress a little more shape.  It didn't work.  The dress is still loose around her waist (should I have subtracted an inch or two from her waist measurement?)  Also, the red skirt portion was almost the same width, so there wasn't much room gathering needed.

Any ideas to do a better job next time?

I must hide the scissors from my apprentice.....

How can I be upset?  She sees me cutting clothes apart all the time....

 

 

When the back of the strap of this dress came out, my little girl desperately wanted to turn this into a one strap dress.  I took a look at the bodice and determined it would be an awkward and immodest design.  I told her I would sew the strap back on for her later that day. 

She took matters into her own little hands (she's 5 years old) and cut the strap completely off.  I keep looking at it, groaning that a 4 second repair has turned into this interesting challenge.  It was a $4.00 find at a thrift store, thank goodness.  It is made out of several layers, the top layer is maybe organza fabric?

Any ideas on how to salvage or re-work this pretty little dress?