One-shoulder Chevron Dress

My only "before" pic

I made this dress out of two large t-shirts I had originally intended on refashioning into a self-drafted (read: disastrous) dress. I took the print of the tees, cut them in strips, alternated them with strips of plain t-shirt, and then re-cut them in biased strips to create the chevron.  In retrospect, and with more t-shirt material (read: had I not butchered the shirts earlier), I would have made two squares of strips and cut them both in opposing bias directions to facilitate the chevron pattern.  I would also recommend using a serger/overlock for the strips, as cutting them again for the chevron resulted in some unraveling.

The dress is based on the One Shoulder Knit Dress pattern by dixiediy over at Burdastyle and is super comfy. A little extra was added to the front skirt panels to account for some baby-belly action.

If you want more to read, you can visit my blog post.

Shirt to Skirt, stripes

You know how Mena has her "Mena test" for clothes, when she determines whether she actually needs to put a zipper in?  I think I have a "Seeks test" for refashions: If a top can fit over my hips and stay put, it is fair game for a skirt. In fact, it is almost automatically going to be made into a skirt.  See the first example here or here.

I picked up this Old Navy shirt at a Goodwill by my parents months ago. Loving the stripes, but not wanting to just wear it the same as usual way, I tucked it away in my far too big stack for refashions and stewed on it. But the refashion itself is quite simple: Cut off sleeves, Sew a skirt-appropriate silhouette, Wear.

Super comfortable, soft and a little more fun than the standard stripy shirt. :) Blog post here.

Octopus Clutch

I have a gift exchange coming up requiring a gift that is handmade.

Using bartered pastoral upholstery fabric, swiping a couple thrifted purse straps for shoulder and wristlet slings, and cannibalizing a zipper from a duvet from Value Village, I made this purse.

The lining was gifted, the bias tape from Goodwill (neither are shown). The D-rings were the only new purchase for this project.

The upholstery fabric was perhaps more worn out than I had realized, and there were some holes developing in certain spots. I embroidered an octopus on the parts where there were holes, backing it with another layer of the fabric and with some fusible webbing. The recipient loves octopuses, so I thought it'd be a nice addition. I used only what embroidery thread stash I already own, so I have mixed feelings about its efficacy on the fabric. But then, cephalopods are known to blend in well with their surroundings when they want to.

No post on this project at my blog until tomorrow night, so the recipient doesn't get to find out her gift before the party. But you're welcome to check my blog out in the meantime. I even have a post on sewn cephalopods.

Update: The post on the bag can be found here.

Zippered "Sleevies", Shrug from Leggings

 

I had bought these leggings ages ago, but they didn't fit well because they're made for long-thin-legged women/girls and I'm more short. But I didn't want to have them go to waste, since I was fond of the zippers at the bottom.

I ended up taking the legs and making them into sleeves for a shrug. I used ribbons as facing, but should have sewed them down, as they keep turning out. I also used ribbon for the ties. The shrug was also too short, so I took this tank top and used it for the lower portion, and to add a little bit of an accent for the expansion up at the top center back.

The end result worked out pretty well, though I apologize for the poor pictures of the finished piece. I had not gotten the chance to take pics until I was far away from my decent camera and decent lighting. You'll have to bear with the iPhone pics at night indoors. And I'll love you for that.

You can read a little bit more (or just see the other pics) here.

Steampunk Skirt

I had a dance to go to this weekend that had a steampunk costume theme. So I took a fitted black sheet and some white lace curtains to make a bustled skirt. The most amusing part was using one of the fitted corners of the sheet to be the actual bustle.

The tutorial/pattern I used can be found here.

My blog write-up can be found here.

The Year's Still New Reversible Dress

I made this dress using a vintage Vogue pattern and two curtains gifted to me by a neighbor. The fabric is reversible, so I made the dress reversible to take advantage of it.

You can read more on it here.

Frankenstein Skirt

This is Seeks again, and I have another refashion-as-gift-for-cousin to show you. This one consists of parts from two dresses and a shirt. I only have pictures of two of the three original components, but it's construction was super easy (at least, once I got my hands on a serger).

This skirt is for another cousin, who had commented on how much she loved the blue lace dress that I didn't photograph, but how it just never fit well in the top. She especially noted a love for the material itself. It's super soft, stretchy, and the laciness is really quite lovely. Taking it from the original dress is really a blessing, because the contrasting sleeves were rather itchy, so now she can just enjoy the material for all its good characteristics.

The waist provider

The lining provider

To summarize the process, I took the skirt from the dress not shown, sewed it to the waist of the second dress, and lined it with the body of the shirt. The shirt was easily converted to a skirt by cutting off the sleeves and feather neck thing (don't ask me) and then sewing up the sides to taper to a waist.

It was totally gratifying to make with the serger. The seams were all simple, totaling only four in all. All three of the fabrics are super super stretchy and comfy, so it will work out well for a range of body shapes and feels good on. The lining does peek out a bit at the bottom, but I like how it helps to tie in the waist with the bottom of the skirt as well. I also like how the dark lining helps the lace design pop a bit more.

Happy refashioning!

Refashioned Sweater to Skirt

 Hello, Refashioners!  My name's Seeks, and I'm one of the editors here at Refashion Co-op. I have a blog, The Seek Speak, at which I ramble on about sewing, food, and art. This is actually my first post on a refashion I've made, so I am excited to share this with you.

We started out with a favorite sweater of mine, that I never seemed to find a good time to wear. It had a few holes at the neckline and armscyes, so I often would just pass it over.

My cousin reluctantly passed up on taking it at a recent clothing swap, so I took some inspiration from Bartinki, and transformed this sweater into a skirt and leg warmers.  The sweater worked out very well for this, as the neckline was able to stretch easily to waist width without any alterations.


Since this is a still ungifted present for Christmas, you can read a little more on the refashion and find more pictures at my Crafty Christmas Club post.

Thanks!