What does the fox say?

My husband gave me his FOX sweater.
Yes it's a rip-off bought on a black market.
But he wore it for about 10 years and now the hem was getting to tight to get it over his shoulders.
And now my time of wearing it has started:

This is before:


What I did:
I ripped EVERY seam... turned the hems so they were as new again.
The front became the back, but without the pocket.
The back became the front, but now with pocket.
Because the hem for the body part was also a bit tight for me I decided to make into a vest.
I used a zipper from an old jacket of mine.
I used a well fitting sweater to cut the pieces.
And of course I got some support from our fabric loving cat!
(she never lies on the clean laundry, only on pieces of fabric!)



This is after:


I love it! It's tight, and warm, and cosy ánd stylish enough to be authorized to wear it outside the house. (remember this sweater?)

Did I say I love it already? But I'm not sure if I should make the hood smaller. What do you think?

Creating in February

Hi there, I'm back again with 2 new posts on my blog.

First a new (thrifted) sweater for my girl.
I buy a lot of her clothes online on e-bay. Cheap and a lot to choose from. Downsize is that you can't always see the right shape....

This is before and you can see that it's to short for it's width...


Now it fits her just in time to finish this winter season and she probably will wear it in spring to!

(she was sick on this picture...)

And there was a pajama that didn't fit well after washing it!
Before the shirt was to wide and to short...


I made the shirt smaller ánd added a piece of shirt at the bottom.

This time no modeling with the shirt since it's for hubby <3

Greetings from the Netherlands,
Joke Vermanen

Some warm slippers version 2015

Yes I'm back again!
I know I haven't been posting a lot these days but I've been saving my back by lying in bed every single afternoon.
So although I've been creating stuff, I wasn't able to upload or even sort out the photo's I've made of the creations...
But here's one you'll like =D

In addition to last year's version I've made new slippers for my clan for this year.
They're made from scraps of jeans, fleece, teddy, fake-fur, wool ánd leather.

My daughter got two

My husband to

And I was not left behind.


Read about them on this post.
Read about my other creations, new and refashioned on my blog.

Greetings from the Netherlands.
Joke Vermanen

A pink blouse...

... for me!
You may not know it but I don't love pink.
Yes I have a daughter who adores it, but I don't!
Now that you know that.. let's get to the refashion...

I've had 2 blouses for about 6 years now. I've worn them over a t-shirt and a pear of jeans. Loved it. One was white and one was pink.
But somehow my arms never fitted into the sleeves. It bothered me because I loved the cotton fabric, and they were fun to wear.
And now I fixed it!
I removed the entire sleeve, took off the hem of the sleeves and closed the split.
I sewed them back on, but now straight! And double stitched with matching colors of course!
And here's the result.





I now can wear it with a longsleeved shirt!


Greetings from
Joke Vermanen

Something skinny for me!

A few years back I bought some summerpants that fit me well enough to go camping in them.
These days they don't fit me anymore... so I made them smaller! I also made them shorter.







At first I removed all the extra's and almost the entire the waistband.
I took one of my well fitting pants and that helped me getting it into shape. I also used the pin method, you wear it inside out and pin where you need to loose some fabric.
After I was satisfied with the result I sewed the waistband back on and shortened the legs.







Now I was to late with refashioning to actually wear it on my campingtrip of this year. But I will certainly wear it next summer!

Greetings from
Joke Vermanen

A refashioned pleatsskirt

Years ago I bought a pair of pants for my job at the office.
It was in the time I did not own a sewing machine because my mom altered the length.
But the pants are to small for me and sadly... there is a stain on it!
But my mom gave me a new magazine full of patterns for my lovely daughter which had one for a pleatsskirt in it!
It made me so happy because the fabric of the pants is made for it!

This is the pants before:



I used the seamripper for almost all seams! A nice job with a movie!


And this is after! Waistband turned backwards, zipper and button are now on the back.



The happy model!


Greetings from
Joke Vermanen

Need some help here....

I refashioned this blouse some months ago and worn it with a colored shirt underneath.
But I'm still not happy with the collar.
Anyone here who has some awesome ideas?

This is before, to wide!



I took some centimeters of the side and the armpit and now it fits like a glove!



But please help me with the collar!

Greetings from
Joke Vermanen

Manley refashion

Sorry for not uploading any messages for the last month... I guess selling of everything you had for the childhood of your kid is taking that long!

But I did manage to do some refashions and one of them is this shirt my husband loves to wear. He has done so for 1 year and it was noticeable in the collar..



I took my seamripper and removed the collar, ironed it and zigzagged it and put it back on the shirt only front side on the back.




It turned out great. Now he wears his favorite shirt again without worrying about showing some sweat!

Greetings from the Netherlands
Joke Vermanen

A quickie...

Just a quick refashion this time. Because I'm so busy doing other stuff....

Because we (sadly) only have one child we are left with piles of clothes she doesn't wear anymore but with so many memories!
But what to do with those funny and lovely shirts? I make pillows of them!
This shirt is one of my own old shirts. Because my elder sister was the first girl to wear it the shirt is about 30 years old!


We live near the forrest and when we take the kids for a walk they wear overalls. And we also live together with my family that contains 4 nephews so lot's of army stuff to pass on to my girl! And I wasn't a seamstress if I would not do something to make the army girly!


That's it for today, not even a new post on my blog.
See you next time.
Greetings from the Netherlands from Joke.

playpants from the sidings of a bedcover.

Hannah always wears playpants when she plays outside at home. This is type of pants is old and I don't mind if she get's a hole in it or stains. Her 'old' playpants are already 2 sizes to short so I added some fabric.
Since the old pear is getting to small it was time for a new pear. I folded the old one and laid it on the fabric and took some extra width for the seams. Some extra length to because she has grown 10 cm in one year!


Because these playpants need to be strong at the knees I added some extra fabric there.


The fabric comes from a bedcover my mother-in-law gave me. This fabric was ruffled at the sides. The bedcover itself is now a blanket for our dog Bauke. He loves laying on them.

View the complete process here and visit my blog for more refashions!

Greetings Joke.

A new gym-shirt!

My sister gave me a shirt in my size that was meant for the world cup.
Since The Netherlands lost ánd the world cup is finished I'm not gonna wear is anymore.
Hannah wanted it desperately but the shirt was to big.
Lucky for her I just watched this tutorial about making a shirt from a shirt.
And that is what I did. So this shirt went from a women size to a kid's size gym shirt.



Another handy detail.. I had a piece of neckline that I've sewed between the side-seam of the shirt.
I wrote her name on it so now everybody knows that it's her shirt!



View the original post at here and visit my blog for more refashions!

Greetings Joke.

Making long sleeves short.

My daughter had a fun shirt with long sleeves. The shirt was white so the cuffs got stained very fast. Also the shirt was getting a very bit to short so now my sewing skills were getting involved.

I made the long sleeves short, removed the cuff and cut the rest of the sleeves in 2 pieces. I gave the remaining sleeves a fun edge and attached the pieces of sleeve as a skirt.



View the complete process here and visit my blog for more refashions!

Greetings Joke.