Stripey sew-along: Simple Tee Refashion

G'day all! This here's my attempt to sew along with the 'Refashion Runway' challenge.

The weird lace inserts in the sleeves of this tee were too small/not stretchy enough, so I chopped them off.

 Armholes were bound with some scraps of black jersey, and a bit of the sleeve offcut made a false 'henley' detail at the front, with some stripey buttons to finish the look!

Denim Jacket Embellishment

I started with this classic denim jacket, which I scored for $1 on Dollar Day at one of my fave op shops.

Inspired by some previous posts here on Refashion Co-op, I spent quite a few months searching for the perfect teatowel to embellish the back of the jacket. Nothing had caught my eye until I found this dear little embroidered silk cushion at Vinnie's for $3. 

I actually didn't realise it was silk until I took it home, so that was a bit of a bonus! I chucked in the wash, then carefully unpicked it and positioned it on the back of the jacket, folding under the edges. It was almost a perfect fit, so I didn't bother trimming any of the extra - I also didn't want to deal with fraying silk! Then I just topstitched it down. 

Head over to the blog for more pictures and some adventures with my newly-serviced vintage sewing machine!

Have a good week everyone :-)

Zipper Tee Embellishment

A tiny bit of refashioning to make this classic skivvy...

.... into something a little more wearable. Still, I thought it needed a bit of pizazz....

So I added some zippers!

Basically I changed the neckline, shortened the sleeves to 3/4, and embellished with some zippers.

Have a great day everyone!

Cheers
Laura

Maxi-skirt to batwing top

Hi guys! I have been doing lots of sewing, but had a few refashion fails lately.... not going to share them sorry! here's one that did work. I loved this voluminous skirt at first sight but as usual it took me a while to decide what to make of it. It is a polyester knit, not my favourite fabric in the world, but I couldn't go past the print!

It's maxi-length in a larger size.
I turned it upside down and used a batwing-style top to rough out a pattern, then cut around the pins.

And used my 'new' secondhand Huskylock to make this breezy top!

This has got to be one of the quickest refashion I've ever finished! I love my overlocker!!

There's a bit more detail over at the blog, but the process was pretty simple :-)

have a great day everyone!

An anti-fail shirt refashion

Hiya! I've been having some tragic fails with my refashioning lately, but finally came through with the goods on this one.

Starting point was this men's dress shirt in a pretty, stretchy woven fabric:

I'm not much of an off-the-cuff designer, so I tend to use patterns to help me along with my refashions. For this I used a pattern from Burda Magazine June 2011. The pattern used a side zipper - I can't stand side zippers, I'm not sure why - but I used the existing button closure, which I switched around to the back for my shirt.

There were a couple of hairy moments when I unpicked the original darts only to find the teeny holes the pattern markers used, but the darts I was adding in just needed a nudge in the right direction to cover those up.

If you want the full story, head over to the blog. And have a happy Easter - or just enjoy the long weekend!

Tied up in Teal

I did these a while ago and completely didn't realise I'd never blogged about them! I finally wore them for the first time today and loved them.
Before: a pair of pale blue lightweight stretch jeans from the opshop. I took them in slightly in the lower leg to make them a bit 'skinnier'.

 

All scrumpled up with rubber bands.

Chucked in a bucket of dye.

Rinsed & hung out to dry!

It's poetry in denim. 

Hope everyone's having a good weekend! 

Zebra Crossing

Hi all! I have been very slack - I can't believe it's been a month since my last post! Well, I haven't really been  slack, but I've been doing other projects than refashions - trying to de-stash some of my fabric Hoard, for starters!
But I recently came across these adorable brushed-cotton PJ pants at the op shop.

Note the cute zebra charms on the waist tie.

These were a large size, so I had plenty to work with. I cut away the inner leg seams and the curve of the crotch seam, shortened the elastic in the waist, cut away the excess and stitched them up into this fun skirt.

Of course, that was last weekend, when Melbourne was enjoying a plus-30-degree heatwave. Someone flipped the winter switch on us this week tho! But I think this will also look cute with tights and boots :-)
Now I'm off to finish the hem on a (hopefully) more impressive refashion. Have a great day!

A little off the sides

Hi all! Been a bit busy with exams but here's one refashion I prepared earlier. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture, but basically... it had sleeves. And I took them off.

It cost me $3 from Vinnies. I liked the little necktie that it already had and I thought it would be great for the current fad for sleeveless button-up shirts.

I used the sleeves to make some binding to deal with the armhole edges. I also added a bust dart as it was a little gape-y. It's a really silky, lightweight polyester material that's quite lovely to wear.

Here's another quick one that I did a while back. I picked up this crushed silk skirt at a market stall for $3. The shirt, I can't even remember when, where or how much; I obsessively buy silk shirts.

Anyway, the skirt was that sort of mid-calf length that's not particularly flattering, but I love a maxi skirt (I've loved maxi skirts since the early 90's, when I made a black one in a stretch fabric. It's totally trendy again and I still have it! Heh heh.) So I added a bit of length and there you go.

The perspective's a bit out in the photo, but it is full-length on me. And it's delightful to wear! Mmm, silk.

Catch you soon! Happy refashioning.

Laura

Stripey Pencil Skirt

I've had a yen for one of those stripey pencil skirts I've been seeing all over the place. This ginormous stripey shirt seemed just the ticket.

The main body of the shirt got made into a tube skirt. As the material was really thin, and as I'm not a fan of VPL, I used the sleeves and the remaining bits of the body to make a lining. An elastic waist (I'm all about comfort as well as fashion!) and here's my sexy new skirt!

There's a bit more how-to on the blog if you'd like to stop by. Happy stitches everyone!

Sundress refashion.

Hi all! I've been rather busy with some study I have taken on, plus I have been madly making Christmas presents for friends and family. However, here's a dress refashion I finished a little while ago.

I have been inspired by The Renegade Seamstress's  dress refashions, so I decided I would give it a try. I loved the colours and the floral print of this dress, and the gather detail under the bust - but it was a bit big, and the crossover front didn't do a lot for me. 

So I cut the bodice off at the under-bust seamline, keeping the gather detail. I turned the bodice  around and cut a lower neckline, making the back the new front. I used a piece of fabric from a pair of ripped shorts to break up the pattern, cut the skirt a bit shorter and put a zipper in the back. New sundress!

I'll get this up on my blog in a bit more detail in the next week or so if you are inclined to pop over for a visit!

Happy stitches!

T-shirt time!

It must be the weather for i! I have managed to refashion a couple of t-shirts. First up is this basic square-cut animal print t-shirt, which cost me $3. I removed the collar ribbing and the pocket, cut the sleeves shorter and added some random darts for shaping.

Here's a detail of the inside so you can see a bit better what I did:

Then there is this band shirt which I picked up at Salvos for I think $4. I love Tool!

Originally I was just going to shape it and wear as a t-shirt, but I was inspired by Erica's Kingfisher dress and decided to make a dress out of it.
I cropped the sleeves, took in the sides a bit, and unpicked the hem (I wanted to keep as much length as possible). Using the sleeve offcuts and the leftovers from another black t-shirt I had chopped up, I created this dress.

I have to say that this was actually one of the most fun refashions I've done in a while! Plus of course I was listening to the Tool album featured on the shirt while I sewed. I can honestly say this refashion took me "10,000 Days" to complete! Heh heh.
Head over to the blog for a psuedo-tutorial.

Tie Bleach Jeans

Like Andrea I'm a fan of Charity Shop Chic. I was inspired to try tie-bleaching a pair of jeans. These jeans were on the $2 rack at my local Salvos so I knew I wouldn't be too worried if they didn't turn out!

I did a bit of 'research' (ie. bloghopping, heh heh) to find out more about using bleach, but in the end I scrunched up the jeans with some rubber bands, and chucked them in a big bucket of water with about 2 cups of laundry bleach. I turned them over a couple times during the 4-5 hours I left them in there.
Then very carefully using my rubber gloves I tipped them into the sink and rinsed them a million times. I think they rock!

Although if anyone has any tips for getting the bleach smell out of clothes it would be much appreciated :-)
Laura

Quick & Dirty Shoe Refashion

I found these plain chunky black heels for $6 a while ago. Last week I finally got around to giving them a new life.

Some leopard print fur fabric added a bit of pizazz:

But there was still something missing. To the rescue came my recently-acquired (from an op shop, of course!) collection of retro clip-on earrings:

Check the blog for a bit more about these shoes (and their tenuous relationship with the extremely cool teddy boys from the 1950's)
Hooroo!

Spring sweater skirt!

Now that the weather's finally started to turn down here in the southern hemisphere, I have finally finished my sweater skirt!
It started out with this wounderfully fugly wool jumper which cost me $8:

I realised after I bought it that the knit was too loose for me to be able to cut it up without it just unravelling completely. I put it in the thinking pile for a while, then was inspired by Resweater to have a go at felting it. 

A couple of turns through the washing machine on hot and it felted up quite nicely (it also produced an amazing amount of turquoise fluff!)

Then I chopped off the sleeves and cut across just below the neckline to get a tube shape. Out of my stash came some previously thrifted green stretch satin fabric, which I sewed into a matching tube shape to line the skirt (I love wool, but this one was a bit scratchy).

My poor retro sewing machine didn't really love making this skirt, but eventually we managed to limp through  a casing for the elastic (just a tube using the lining fabric). Some elastic at the waist and voila! 

I didn't bother finishing the hem - Ms Janome would probably have exploded, but I think the felting will prevent any unwanted unravels. 

A bit more detail (and a fair bit more silliness) on the blog. 

Steampunk-ish Skirt Refashion

I thought I'd try to add a bit of steampunk style to my wardrobe. Here's a plain black, woven stretch cotton skirt I picked up at Savers for $4. Sorry the pic's a bit dark!

I made a panel of ruffles with some scraps from a dress I'd made previously.

I cut a panel out of the back of the skirt. (I measured it quite a few times first!)

Then I sewed in the ruffles!

For a bit more detail on the process, head over to the blog.

have a great day everyone!

Winter Coat Refashion

So here's an old coat. This cost me about $12, at Vinnies,  back in the mid-90's, when I was at uni.

Here's the new version.

I reshaped the collar, cut a new hemline, and used the offcuts to make epaulettes, button flaps and big piratical cuffs. The buttons were in my stash, also an op-shop find from ages ago.

I managed to use most of the original coat, the only bits left are the original tie belt and about a 30cm square piece of material. Maybe I'll make a matching cap.

The little patches cover an original buttonhole and a couple of mothy/worn spots, as does the little strip around the collar.
For more detail on my process, have a look at the blog: http://makebakesisters.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/the-epic-coat-refashion/

Cheers, have a good weekend!