The never-ending and the near-instant refashion

Two refashions at either ends of the time taken scale.  

 

This first one I thought about for a looooong time as it involved cutting into a hand-knitted jumper.  I probably should have thought some more.

As is all too typical I jumped in without getting all the photos, but it was a bit like this - a long sleeve lace knit jumper in very soft lambswool.  Over time it had stretched out and the sleeves were now really long and the ribbing didn't hold them in place.  Super annoying to wear as the sleeves drooped over my hands.

I took in the sides and tried out a few different ideas for the sleeves.  I was somewhat inspired by a similar top I owned in a not so nice acrylic.

I took in the sides.  Luckily it was so oversize to start with, as the first experiment with the overlocker did not go well.  I could not adjust the differential feed enough to stop it going really wavy.  A very wide and loose zigzag on the sewing machine worked better.  I needed to go over it a more than once to catch the loose yarn.  Don't ask my why I unpicked the neck, but it seemed look a good idea,  I knitted it over with remnant wool and it now looks exactly the same.

 Tried out a few different sleeve variations and settled on short.

 Got them both sewed on and hated the puffiness when I tried it on.

Success!  I finally ended up taking the sleeves off altogether and knitting a rib edge to make a sleeveless vest.  Which I really like and will get much more wear out of when it's too hot for a full jumper but too cold for a long sleeve t-shirt on its own.  The remaining wobbliness in the sides drops out when worn.  The whole refashion and refashion again took 2-3 years in total.  Yup, 2-3 years.  I will think more than twice before cutting a lacy knit jumper again (probably).

By contrast this second refashion, for which I took no before pictures, took a day from the thrifting to  the finishing.  These are chef uniform pants I picked up because I wanted loose, light cotton pants for weekend summer wear.  I removed the last of the hook and loop tape on the back pockets, reinforced some broken seams and rolled up the hems.  They looked too chefy, so I threw them in a navy dye pot, which came out as a pale blue-grey colour due to the poly-cotton fabric, and done!

Happy refashioning!

Mimi

2 wins and a fail

I'll start with the fail, because that's the way my pictures uploaded.  I wanted to change this oversized, shapeless t-shirt into something that would suit me better.  I trialled a few other t-shirts because it was clear from the start I was going to need some extra fabric.

Got out my TNT t-shirt pattern and messed about a bit... 

 And ended up with this fail.  It's not an epic fail, more a 'meh' fail.  I just don't like it on.  I like the colour combo.  I like the sleeves a bit, apart from the cuff (but I could cut that off).  But, for some reason, it turned out much wider than it should have given I've used the pattern before.  It's also too short and the band at the bottom is just wrong.  This is going to be the problem for me re-fashioning t-shirts - they're always too short to start with.  So if I don't like different bands at the bottom I'm going to have to do some more thinking... back into the re-fashion pile for now.






On to the 2 x wins - sorry, there are no 'before' pictures.  What can I say: a sunny day, a few hours free, I was setting up the dye pot and away with never even a thought to 'before' photos.  These were done in the same navy dye pot at the same time.

The first one was a white t-shirt gone a bit dingy. I scrunched it up and wrapped it with rubber bands until it was a tight ball and threw it in the dye pot to mature.  Voila - stormy sky t-shirt.

The second one was a jumper that has been dyed at least twice before, both previous times a reddish maroon, which have washed out unevenly over time.  It was originally beige.  Now it is a purple, with a completely unplanned but awesome marbled effect from all those previous dye jobs.

Happy re-inventing!

Miri

Spruced up!

Spruced up!

Hello and happy Chinese New Year!!

I found this cute red dress which said it was my size, but it wasn't. I bought it anyway (that's what's sooooo good about refashioning!)

Slightly too everything...

I popped it in a tub of dye - Rosewood Red from Dylon to give it a less tartan-y and deeper and richer feel. I know, it's still pretty damn tartan-y...

Way too long

I then popped it on a dress form and brought it in, there was a side zip thank goodness - and raised the hemline.

It was just a little spruce, but it made all the world of difference. It will now get loads of wear instead of being looked over because it's wasn't quite right.

You can see the full details here..

2ndspin

Thanks for reading!

☽AliceSaysNo☾

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My Dandy Denim Dress

Week two of Refashion Runway has come! Be sure to head over to The Renegade Seamstress's blog to vote for your favorite denim refashion! Next week the contestants will be recreating looks found in and on catalogs, magazines, and celebrities, and you are all welcome to sew along. But now it's time for some denim.

I found this denim dress for $1 at my favorite local thrift store. It reminded me of the dresses my elementary school teachers used to wear, with its bright embroidered flowers and floor-length hem. The early '90s, it seems, were not the heyday of teacher fashion.

I think my mom had a dress like this one back in the day.

Since I had so much fabric to work with, I skipped over the seam ripper and went straight to the scissors, hacking away at the dress. After separating the different layers of denim, I started fitting the top of the dress to my dress form.

Fitting the top.

Then I cut  about 27 inches of denim to make the skirt. (For those interested, I've saved the embroidered bits, and may use them at some point in the future.)

Goodbye flowers!

Next I cut strips of denim to make the waistband and add run along each side of the zipper. I bleached these strips, so they would contrast with the rest of the dress. I also dipped the edges of the skirt into the bleach, allowing the bleach to soak up the fabric.

No cats were harmed in the making of this dress.

Unfortunately, I was not as careful with the bleach as I should have been, and I was left with a 2 inch bleach spot on the skirt. To help cover the yellowy bleach mark, I mixed up a little navy dye and touched up my mistake.

Out damned spot!

Then I finished the detailing along either side of the zipper, attached the skirt, and finished the edges around the neck and arms.

Bleached denim details.

 I was in the home stretch, and I was pretty pleased with my dress. That is, until I tried it on and made a horrifying (at least horrifying at 10:30pm on the day before the dress had to be finished) discovery. It was almost identical in style to last week's dress. Dun-dun-dunnnn...

Look familiar?

Obviously, that just wouldn't do. Something had to change. At the urging of a friend, I tried something I'd never done before - an asymmetrical neckline. I was a little hesitant at first, but after some late night chopping and stitching, I was finally ready to dye.

I tossed the dress in a bucket of warm water with some aqua, teal, and navy dyes. After swishing it around for about 15-20 minutes, I tossed in the the washer to rinse out the extra dye, and then dried and pressed it.

At around 3:00am Friday morning, I was finally done!

Refashion Runway week 2: denim

Next week's challenge is to recreate something we've seen in a catalog, magazine, or celebrity. Won't you sew along?

 - Elizabeth

   aka The Hungry Octopus

Dye hits and misses

So I bought some dye to do a pair of jeans that had faded but were in great condition, navy to get them as dark as I could. And the jeans turned out great! I tried a little ombre effect on a couple of other pieces just to see how they'd come out...one, I knew wouldn't take the dye very well as it was a cheap rayon piece...the other was 100% cotton but still didn't achieve the depth of color at the bottom that I was looking for. So, I may need to rerun that through a navy and black dye bath to see if I can achieve the look I was going for. Well, here a few pics of the pieces as they were and now are!

This is an identical of the before of the now sleeveless jacket.

Taking a dip!

Another dip!

The rayon...you can see the gradations...sort of ;)

The jeans are super dark! Love it! (the darkness of the photo helps add to that, hehe) but they really are dark!

 I've got an XL denim top to jacket coming up in the next couple of days, so stay tuned :) Here's a sneak peak of the before...

Hope you all are well and keep up the refashions, because I love seeing everyone's ideas and the creations that come out of those ideas!

Peace,
Andrea

LittleDidYouKnow

A Little Something Patriotic

Well, I had jury duty ALL of last week, so all I have to share is an old shirt I had made for the 4th of July. I took another of my husband's old shirts, cut it into a somewhat fitted tank, and did a sort of sideways hi-low cut.

Forgive the bad pic quality...

For the dye, I used masking tape and spray bottles for a soft, vintage-y look-- the colors are faded and a little blurry, which was, for once, the look I was going for! I absolutely love this shirt; any day that's not the 4th of July it's just a cool statement piece.
Have a good week, everyone!
Julia

Funky fall jackets

Hello everyone!

Hope you are having wonderful summer! I started to make some more jackets just to be ready for fall. I've already posted some 'refashions' for jackets before - now I took it to the next level. I played more with design - the jeans I was upcycling were mens Pall Mall, darker ones. I did acid wash to lighten up, but the color was still not good, so I tie dyed it in most possible brights. It turned out great. I wanted to finish with hand embroidery, but then I changed my mind and used studs. We are going to rock after all this fall, right?

I have some more pics of both jackets here.

American Denim Flag shorts

DIY American Flag denim cut off shorts.

Materials used:

Bleach Pen

Denim shorts

Tape

Be sure to check out more of my DIYs on my blog.

American Idol Style

Last season on American Idol, the most striking fashion statement for me was not from J.Lo or Stephen Tyler. It was this guy:
Some cowboy guy in Hollywood week. He was a pretty big jerk and went home.

But can you see his shirt? It's plaid that's been tie-dyed!! I've been swooning for months.


Finally, I had some leftover dye and a nice-fitting plaid shirt, so I took the plunge!

Mine came out a lot more pale and less allover blotchy than his (the bad photo quality doesn't help-- it's actually darker in real life), but I love how it took a nice preppy shirt and made it a little surprising. Hurrah for tie dye!

Julia

"The Magic Faraway Trees" Tee

What do you do with a thrifted tee that is just totally the wrong colour for you? Firstly you wear it a few times to make sure that you really really really don't like the colour and then you dye it. But.....what if after dying it, well it is still not right? Well how about you do something magical with the plain flowers on the neckline? How about you transform them so they pop!




So here is the tee just after the dye job. I love the patchy colour(I want it to look lush like a forest), but it still remains a bit bland for my liking.




And here is the transformed tee. To see how visit me at recycledrepurposedrenewed

The Coolest Undershirt Ever

So my husband recently gave me a huge pile of old, stained undershirts-- sorry there's no before, but you can imagine. I left this one to soak overnight in a bucket of leftover dye and was pleasantly surprised that it covered the old pit stains*. Then I took in the sides, cut out the neck, and used some stripey inspiration from this tutorial but using plain old fabric paint.

*It left the shoulder seam threads white, which was a cool effect I couldn't get a good picture of.

This is definitely going to be a summer staple for me!
Julia

Dyed skirt and taken in top

This is gardening time for me and I have another arts project with a friend so I've not been refashioning much. I have plans and several things started to show soon because I need a summer work wardrobe! So unfortunately no before pic. Here is a thrifted skirt that I dyed green. It was lovely before, white and tan, but just not me. I like to sit on park benches and on the ground and it just wouldn't work. I did it in a bucket with hot tap water and salt with the dye. I left it in for hours to get this fairly dark color and swooshed it around every half hour or so. Not quite enough to get a perfectly even color, but I like it. Sorry about the wrinkles. I had just worn it all day. The tan parts turned olivey color which please me. Here I am after wearing it on casual Friday at work. I've got to get my dh to take my pics for me. The mirror ones are terrible lately. And here is a pull over blouse I simply sewed a couple inches up the side for a much needed work top. It was incredibly simple and I always get compliments when I wear it. I wore my pansy shoes that I last posted about to work and they got noticed! The pic I took is terrible. I'll take another next time I wear them. Thanks for looking. And happy refashioning! Kathy