can transform a boring skirt into something a bit special.
Take one 70’s stretchy skirt…
…add an old embroidery transfer…
…and play around with stitches you got from an old embroidery book.
It looks better on me than on the mannequin, but I never take photos of me if I can possibly help it! The stretchy synthetic fabric was the devil to embroider neatly and I should have used some stabilizing fabric to stop it puckering, but overall I think it’s pretty cute.
Beccy @ wipster
Remember this? I made it ages ago from one of my grandad’s old shirts. I took it in, reset the sleeves and made a new collar.
I reused as much as I could, these bits were the cuffs. Faffy, but cute.
But I didn’t have enough to make any facings. I decided to leave it because I’m lazy, but mum really liked it so I gave it to her. That was ages ago and she hasn’t really worn it because the snipped edges flap up sometimes and look messy.
Cue 6 months later and 10 minutes with some bias binding…
…and it looks so neat now. The miracle of bothering to finish things in a tidy way never ceases to amaze me!
Beccy @ wipster
I had this dress which I had worn (and washed) to death. It’s hard to tell in the photos but it was starting to look tired and a bit bleached around the edges.
I also had this top which had gone a bit grey, and then I somehow managed to wash it with a red tee-shirt which left faint pinky blotches all over it.
Cue Dylon Mexican red…
Just make sure your rubber gloves don’t have holes in them…
I realised at the last minute that I had loads of dye salt but no dye fix. A quick look on the interweb told me I could use washing soda (nope haven’t got any of that) or sodium carbonate, AKA soda ash (nope, haven’t got any of… wait a minute!) Soda ash is commonly used in glazes, and what do I have a workshop full of? That’s right, glaze ingredients. Woo! I found some and fixed my dye. It worked perfectly, and was probably cheaper than the Dylon stuff.
After the dye bath - it’s a bit hard to tell in this photo (why is red so hard to photograph?) but it’s very vibrant and no longer looks washed out.
I didn’t bother reading the label on the top because it was either this or turning it into dishcloths but it turned out to be polycotton. Well, what do you expect from topshop?
I don’t mind though because the colour is lovely. It’s a little bit salmon and a little bit hot pink. I’ll get more use out of it now though, it looks like new!
Beccy @ Wipster
Ok, so not wardrobe exactly, but still refashioned!
I bought the fabric ages ago, intending to make a dress or something, but it was really thick (being curtains) and I thought it would be perfect for these cushions. They were a birthday present for a friend and I made them narrower than normal so they would fit on her picnic benches.
I like bright colours, so I raided my stash of bias binding to make contrasting piping. Is there anything more boring than sewing metres and metres of piping?
I had the pink and yellow bias in stash but I had to make the red and green myself. I even covered plain old white plastic buttons with scraps of bias to make them matching.
Nothing from these is newly bought – even the stuffing is some I saved from the cushions of our old sofa (there’s forward thinking! Who says hoarding is bad?)
There is something extra nice about giving gifts you’ve made to people who truly appreciate them. I know Trace’s first thought wasn’t, “they have machines to do that nowadays you know” and that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
Beccy
I picked up this summery top for 40p at a jumble sale. It’s lovely and crisp cotton with a little bit of stretch and cute pintucks but it was a size 18, and I’m not a size 18.
First I slit the sides to below the darts – I didn’t just need to take it in, I also needed to make the darts smaller so I opened them up too.
First I pinned the darts the right amount (check out a shirt that fits you well for a guide) but this left a lot of excess fabric above. I decided to sew this as another dart running flush to the seam of the band around the top. This meant I could hide the excess fabric and make the band run level all around.
When I was happy sewed the darts up.
See how the top hem runs flush? I then pinned and sewed the sides, removing about an inch from each.
It looked fine on the mannequin but on me it gaped a little at the top so I had to put in a little pleat. It’s not the most elegant of solutions and I might have another look at the elastic at the back to see if I could pull it tighter at the top.
It’ll do as a little summer top though!
Beccy
No, that’s not a weird new fashion for teensy bra-tops, I just forgot to take a before picture! The shirred ruchy halterneck bit was originally attached to the skirt and really all I did was hack it off leaving a sizeable chunk of shirring to fit around my waist.
Et voila! The easiest (and quickest) refashion I’ve ever done. The original dress thing was a shapeless mess that I couldn’t breathe in, at least I might get a bit of summer wear out of it, if it stops raining long enough.
Beccy
The college I work at has a fashion department and not surprisingly I’m quite friendly with the members of staff who work there. Every year they have a sale of old student work but inevitably some things don’t sell and those in the know get to rifle through the pile and take their pick.
I got this shirt and a few other things too – boy, does it have crazy sleeves but in every other respect it fits fine.
All I did was rip out the sleeves (which were huge, that’s about two feet of sleeve right there) and follow Rosie’s easy peasy tutorial on Craftster for making cap sleeves.
And this is the result:
Much cuter and more wearable!
Beccy from Wipster
I hadn’t heard about Refashion Co-op until Elizabeth Abernathy mentioned it on her blog. I took the Wardrobe Refashion Pledge about 3 years ago and I was gutted when it was announced to close but that didn’t mean I was about to abandon my pledge. I haven’t bought a single piece of new clothing in all that time. It’s hard sometimes, there are some beautiful clothes out there, but nothing compares to the compliments you get on clothes you have made yourself or snagged from charity shop oblivion!
I have a blog called Wipster (as in I’ve always got a few WIP’s on the go) which is full of my past refashions, some tutorials and other bits and bats that catch my eye…
This is my most recent refashion – I tend to buy things that have fabric that catches my eye and then sometime later decide what to do with it (there must be 1000 yards under my bed!)
I started with this too small, too long 70’s/80’s skirt…
…and made it into this cute A-line by removing and sorting the waistline and cutting about a foot off the bottom.
It’s not the most complex refashion in the world but there is a step-by-step on my blog if you’d like to take a look.
Beccy
