Shirt Dress Upcycle

I love doing shirt dresses! So much fun to upcycle. This one was easy. I folded lace around the button closure. The pocket and flowers were from leftover scraps from other projects. I used my Accucut cutter to cut out the flower shapes.

Here are a few other shirt dress upcycles I have done.

Enjoy! You can find me at Curiousorangecat.com

Pullover to Cardigan

So winter is over and pretty soon, pullover sweaters will just not be the ticket. But a nice cardigan is always in fashion for cool nights at least. Here is a fun and easy way to update a thrift store pullover sweater into something fashionable and unique.

You will need a washable pullover sweater, a flannel men's shirt, some lace and in the sweater above, I used cuffs off of men's shirts for the bottom hem.

Decide how long you want the sweater. I cut this one down to make it cropped. Sew around the bottom to keep it from unraveling.
Cut off the front placket (button panel) from the flannel shirt. Leave about 1 1/2" to 2" on each side. Cut off the collar.
Pin the button panel to the front of the sweater. Pin the lace along the sides of the panel if you chose to add it. Sew up each side. Unbutton the panel and cut away the sweater underneath. Add the cuffs to the bottom. You can also leave the bottom just the way it is as long as you have stitched it well to prevent unraveling. If you pull it as you stay stitch it, it will ruffle a bit.

Here are a few other examples:

This one, I left the bottom ruffly and added the button part from some sleeves off a flannel shirt.

This one I just added some fun appliqued flowers cut with my Accucut die cutter. The center button panel is from a corduroy shirt. I left the hem on the sleeves and bottom of the sweater ruffly. Just pull tight when you sew the stay stitch.





You can find me at: curiousorangecat.com

Happy sewing!!

Easy Update for a Sweater Dress

Sorry for missing last month. Way too many things going on in my world. All good but they just wore me out big time. I promise to do a better job.

While I don't look great in sweater dresses, I find them all the time at the thrift store and love to find ways to make them look fun again.
I have an Accucut craft die cutting machine. I use it all the time to update garments with fun shapes like flowers and birds. I also find a fun looking skirt or dress for the bottom.

So to make this easy, just cut off about 5 inches off the bottom of the sweater dress. Cut about 6" off the bottom of the skirt; One inch extra for tucking under the sweater bottom for a seam allowance.

Iron some wonder-under to some of the dress fabric and cut out a flower shape or anything that suits your fancy. Sew the skirt bottom to the bottom of the sweater dress with a zigzag or if your sewing machine has any; fun embroidery stitches.
As for the appliqued flowers, I drop the feed dogs, use my darning foot and messy free-form stitch them on.
 The dress above was a little narrow so I added inserts to the sides. Cut up the seam and insert fabric to widen it a bit. Then sew the bottom ruffle.

This one I just added a colorful belt along with the bottom ruffle.

Or you can just cut off the bottom of the sweater dress, cut off the bottom of the dress and sew those together. I cut off the bottom of the sweater dress and added it to the bottom of the dress hem.

Enjoy!
You can always find me at Curiousorangecat.com

Trench Coat Upcycle

Forgive me for not having the before I cut it up picture. I finished this up and thought it would be a good blog post for all you refashioners.

My friend send me a too small coat and asked me to update it for her. It was a long trench coat style, something that would hit about thigh high. She said I could do anything I wanted. (Foolish girl!) So I cut off the front and left the back with a tail making sort of a circus ringmaster jacket look. She also sent a really pretty silk dress with a wonderful ruffle along the bottom. I cut off the ruffle and pinned it on.

The back looked like this...

We didn't like it. So I trimmed it down to this and sewed everything on.

She loved it and I added a black lace strip twisted and messy around the seam line of the jacket and the ruffle.

Here is the finished product.

Just a couple of tips:

This works with just about any suit jacket. 

When you cut the front, leave at least an inch below the bottom button and button hole for the seam. 

Make sure to catch the lining when you sew the ruffle down. Sometimes I baste it down by hand with big stitches and remove them later. 

The higher the cuts in the sides the more the fabric will poof out. So someone with large hips will look even larger. 

Instead of the tail in the back, you could cut another arch or upside down U and do the same thing. It looks just as nice. However, you will have to sew the back on separate and have the fabric longer to accommodate the arch.  

Have fun! As always the link to my blog is: www.curiousorangecat.com

Hello! I'm New!

I'm so excited to become part of the Refashion Co-Op bloggers! I have a big sewing studio in my mom's basement and my creations evolve out of whatever catches my eye at the time. I'm afraid there is little planning most of the time. The above picture are some of my creations so you can see what I come up with.
Fairy lacy skirts are very popular. So I thought for my first post I would discuss my process. I always had such a hard time with the planning part. All these little pieces and snippets of lace, linens and just scraps of whatever I just couldn't through away. Here is my current pile....

I call it my Beautiful Mess. I needed a formula so I could make more of them for my shop. I finally figured it out. I took some basic muslin (you could use a white sheet or any material that won't show too much), and cut it in to three inch strips as long as you can find. I do sew some strips together. Then I just start laying down my snippets and sewing them down to the top of the strips. Everything gets smushed and bunched up along the way so it looks full. The length of your scraps will depend on the length you want for your skirt. When I have enough  of the muslin strip covered, I find a skirt base (usually white) and starting at the bottom. I wind the strip upward and around the skirt making sure the top layers overlap the bottom layers. You can go all the way to the top or leave some of the top of the skirt uncovered and do something more simple. Here is everything crammed into the sewing machine.

And here is the finished product. I just covered the top with a long strip of some really nice lace I had in my scrap pile.

Hope you enjoyed my first post. I'm just learning how things are done here, so be kind. I'll do my best to make things interesting! You are welcome to visit my blog at www.curiousorangecat.com. And again, thank you for allowing me to be here!