Copycat Plaid Skirt (and More)

 

When I saw this skirt on Instagram last week I KNEW that I had to have it!  It was $98 plus shipped!  I knew that I could make a LOT of cloths for $98 so I decided to see if I could make it for less than $10.  In the end it cost me about $4 in materials.

I wasn’t sure how many old shirts I’d need so I bought 8 from Goodwill.  My plaid purchase included shirts and old lounge pants in red, grey and black.

It was pretty easy to make a quilt from the shirts and sew a simple skirt.  The original version had too much fabric to be comfortable for me.

With a bit of tailoring, I made the skirt less blousy and added a pocket.

After the skirt was complete I found that I had a LOT of scraps left.  Here are the projects that I made from the scraps:

Not to shabby for an $8 investment!!!

For more details you can check out my blog:

One Brown Mom

Halloween Refashion

Halloween Refashion

It's Halloween Time aka The Superbowl of Crafting!  When a friend asked me to make the 1990s jacket from the hip hop group Salt and Pepa I wasn't sure that I could get it done.

Basic Pleather Jacket

This Halloween Refashion turned out to be really fun to make and not too difficult.

Inspiration

Ready to party

More details on my blog

OneBrownMom

Circle skirt from a duvet

Circle Skirt from a Duvet

I usually make circle dresses from bed sheet or other linens.  This weekend I discovered this duvet at Goodwill and I HAD to have it.  PLUS, it was only $6.99!

Daisy helped!

Daisy loves to sew!

I separated the 2 layers of the duvet.

I folded the duvet into a square,

Fold into a square

and then into a cone.

I cut the top and bottom edges to create a seamless circle.

Seamless Circle Skirt

The complete tutorial, plus information about circle skirt calculators and how to make this a one size fits all / maternity skirt are on my blog:

www.OneBrownMom.com

Skirt to Bag ReFashion

This Anthropologie skirt cried out to be a bag when I saw it!  It took a couple of tries,but I finally made it into a bag that fit my lifestyle.  I LOVE that its brightly colored, fashionable and sturdy!

Anthropologie Marimekko Mini Skirt

Originally I turned this mini skirt into a bag to hold my yarn collection.

1st Draft

Craft Bag

It was great and functional as a craft bag, but I felt like Poppy (that's what I named her) was pretty enough to be seen.  So I added handles.

Added Pre-made Handles

 I recycled the handles from another bag.

2nd DRAFT

This version of the bag was nice, but the fabric was too floppy and unstructured.  So I added a canvas liner.

The liner gives is structure

NOW, Poppy is street ready!

Final Version!

The tutorial is on my website:

www.OneBrownMom.com

ReFashion Student Project

I teach sewing/reFashion classes in my home.  My student Ayana made this lovely dress from a sheet.

I'm a very big fan of making skirts from sheets.  They're inexpensive, plentiful and they come in great colors.  I'd never worked with sequinse, but for this project it was no big deal!

For a step by step tutorial, visit my blog:

HouseholdHowTo.blogspot.com

Rit Dyeing for a Deep Pink Dress

Color Transformation

This dress comes with a bit of backstory.  It's actually a double ReFashion.  Before this dress was a dress the skirt was a white bed sheet from Goodwill.  The bodice was a white duvet from Goodwill.  I used the sheet to make a circle skirt (tutorial here).  I sewed the circle skirt to a simple tube top that I made from an old white duvet.

Deep Pink Dye

Before I made this dress I knew the color that I wanted it to be.  I wasn't entirely sure how I would create a deep dark pink, so I pretty much made up this process as I went along.  Turns out, 1 bottle of liquid fuchsia and 1/2 a box of scarlet did the trick!!

The step by step tutorial on using Rit Dye is on my blog.  

HouseholdHowTo.Blogspot.com

This is NOT a sponsored post. I just happened to use this kind of dye.

First Time Refashioners Takes the Plunge

First Refashion Ever

A newby seamstress and refashion virgin friend showed up at my house on Sunday wanting make a dress.

We decided to start with a very simple project.  Turn a skirt and blouse into a dress.

The Step by Step in on my Blog:

HouseholdHowTo.blogspot.com

This project took less than an hour and my friend was very happy with the results!

I usually do plus size refashion and refashions for pets.  Turns out doing a size 12 human refashion was pretty fun!

Plus Size Refashion - Upsizing

Plaid Skirt Refashion - Upsizing

I'm a plus size woman (size 16/18).  When I first started playing around with refashioning clothes it drove me CRAZY that plus size refashions were so hard to find.  Sure you could take something too big and cut it down smaller, but how do you make smaller garments larger?

I felt like there needed to be a change so and I decided to become the change I sought!  I've done a couple of other upsize refashions.  This is just the latest.

Turns out making clothes, especially skirts and dresses, larger is easy once you know what to do.

Ankle length plaid skirt

Cut off the too small parts

Add elastic for a tea length skirt!

So easy!

I have lot of other plus size refashions on my blog:

HouseholdHowTo

I give lots of tips and tricks for making clothes larger whether you're plus size or not.

Dress from a Shower Curtain

Shower Curtain Refashion

This dress is a great plus size refashion!

I found this shower curtain at Goodwill and everything about it screamed DRESS to me!  And so, I turned a humble shower curtain into a nice plus size dress.

You could really make this in any size, but using this curtain gave me LOTS of gathers even on my plus size frame.

All of the details are on me blog:

HouseHoldHowTo

Meanwhile, here are a few more pix!

Shawl Refashion - Faux Fur Fab #muppetchic

From simple Shawl to easy vest

I needed a little shawl for a red dress I was wearing last weekend.  So I ran to JoAnn fabric and grabbed 1 yard of faux fur and 1.5 yards of white sparkly fabric for a lining.

The shawl was a big hit at the party, but it kept slipping off and I found it hard to wear.  It desperately needed a REFASHION!

Using a sweater that I had in my closet this fun, furry shawl, got a quick refashion.

I found a sweater to use as a pattern

I folded in the arms to make a vest

I cut around my "pattern" (leaving a generous seam allowance)

I used the back panel as a pattern for the front panel

Cut the neck line for the front of the vest

10 minutes of sewing later - Voila!!!

Great for going to a play date

Great accent for a party dress

While this vest is very muppet chic, no Elmo's were harmed in the making of this vest!

For a complete tutorial, visit by blog:

HouseholdHowTo.Blogspot.com