Reimagined Raincoat

For once I remembered to take before pictures.  Sort of.  This is more a repair than a refashion though, so the base coat is the same.

This is one of a series of raincoats that are given out as part of the kit for my kid's high-school exchange.  Given it happens every year (and how many raincoats do you need in a dry climate?) this one was on its way out.  But I didn't want to donate it as it has her name and school etc embroidered on it. So firmly that it was never coming off.  I know because I tried until I made holes.

Additionally it had accumulated a large number of tears like this one.  They were very visible when repaired so they needed to be covered, along with all the identifiers.  It's a very well made coat and it's lined and cosy.  With lots of interior pockets.  So I decided it was all mine.


I spent a lot of time planning this refashion and it got quite elaborate before I calmed down.  There was going to be stenciling and embellishments and applique and embroidery...in the end I used recycled denim circles and a little embroidery for detail.

The denim circles were made with a sewing machine attachment that sews a perfect circle.  It fits into the bobbin cover / plate hole, you spike the fabric at the appropriate radius, set the stitch type and length - I've used a zigzag / satin stitch - and hit the pedal.  I made a lot of circles so I could play with placement and have many left for other projects. They're designed to fray at the edge.

I've already worn this a few times since I finished it and it's great to wear.  Unlike some raincoats, this one breathes so I don't overheat while striding around, and it cuts the wind.  It also has a hood if I get caught without an umbrella.

Happy refashioning!

Mimi

Even more distressed jeans

Here's a tip you probably don't need: Jeans, even with a high elastic fibre content, are not suitable gear for rock wall climbing.  I might have mentioned this once or twice to the family member who thought it was worth a try... Turns out fashion is not more important than function.

This is what happened on the wall:

 

Spectacular, no? The jumper remained on for the rest of that day, and she moved very carefully. The jeans were already faux-distressed, and so lots of section were already weak and wearing through, but they are also favourites.  So these other jeans (hmm, I see a pattern here) were used for reinforcing.

 

And now the favourites look like this:

And up close, the mix of faux and real distressing - successful save:












Happy sewing!
Mimi

Moth attack rescue

This is more a rescue than a refashion, because the clothes are about the same before and after.  Apart from the holes... A year or so ago, we moved out of our house while it was being gutted and renovated.  Unbeknownst to me, the house we moved into was infested with clothing moths.  I found out when I pulled my winter clothing out of storage 6 months later and found all the holes.  And the moths had great taste - the cashmere and pure wool items only, none of your cheaper acrylic blends...

 

It's taken a while, and I'm still slowly working through the repairs.  Some I've been able to mend invisibly (Yay!) but then there were some other favourites like these.  I like them too much to just give up and go straight to felting so - into the chest freezer for a few days, washed and dried outside in the UV light, then time to find the holes:

This one has safety pins marking the holes, and is a WIP. 

For some reason only the right arm was damaged on this grey cardigan, so the left side embellishments are just to even it up (sorry the detail is oriented the wrong way).  I used scraps of fleece material to secure and reinforce the biggest holes, then doodled the rest of the planetary orbits in cotton embroidery thread until it looked right:

And this one had tiny holes but the knit is so fine I didn't like the way it looked after mending.  Now it has autumn leaves falling over it.


Happy refashioning (and rescuing)!

Mimi

DIY Denim Owl Toy from Old Jeans

I’ve shared a DIYs from Old Jeans Pinterest Board with you the other day on my blog. And today I want to share my very first denim project with you, to show you how I am putting those old jeans to a good use!

The instructions are going to be pretty self-explanatory, and in pictures, but let me know if you have any questions by leaving me comments below this post and I will definitely get back to you!

Also I by no means am taking absolute credit for this project, there are tons of DIYs like this throughout the internet. I do request though that if you are going to be using my pictures, please link back to my blog! Thank you!

Some of you know that I used to babysit, and since I haven’t seen the girl for almost 2 months, I decided it was finally time to see little miss Ingrid, but I couldn’t go empty handed (that’s the Russian in me), so this morning I sat down and made this:

It only took about 2 hours, plus I was catching up on The Bachelorette on Hulu, so there 

Alright, so for this project you are going to need

- some fabric (any fabric) – I used the old jeans, some felt that I had left over from a swap and some striped fabric that came from the same swap  I am very savvy about where my fabric is coming from!

- magic fluff, or filling, mine came from a couch pillow that we no longer use 

- a sewing machine

- thread, pins and a needle,

- paper for the pattern (I created my own and had to readjust it throughout the process)

- scissors

- flexibility and creativity

So here we go:

And we end up with this:

I hope you had fun looking through this, again, please let me know if you have any questions!

Hope you all had an awesome day 

Xo,

Zhenya

The Rainy Day Cap

We've been having a horribly humid summer in Berlin...

30°C + thunder storms = hot, humid, muggy ew = frizzy, huge hair for me 

the only solution to tame my unruly locks? 

jam a hat on & hope for the best

 here’s how to cute-up your own frizz-cover in 10 minutes flat

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.

Hiding a Stain with Embroidery: Round II

My new favorite solution for salvaging stained clothing: hide them behind some embroidery.  This pale pink skirt actually has a stain hidden behind the large pink center flower.

twobutterflies

What are your thoughts about hot glue on clothes??

To glue or to sew.... that is the question.

I mess around with my clothes in between working and taking care of my family (which is waaay harder!)   So, I'm inclined to take short cuts on things that don't really matter too much.   This sweater fell into that category.


This light purple “boyfriend” cardigan was given to me.
It was nothing special so I hot glued a bunch of flowers to one side with pretty beads in the center.   I knew that sewing the flowers on by hand or machine would never happen.

The idea of hot glue gun on clothing makes me cringe; you too, right?   However, I was super impressed with how the girls flowery dresses held up in the wash.


I expected these funny little dresses to be worn to a tea party once and the flowers, beads would be destroyed in the washer/ drier. Much to my surprise and the girls delight, those glued on flowers and beads stayed put over and over and over and over and over and over in the wash.

P.S. I didn’t paint a wall that insanely vivid green color. It’s is a green screen that my husband has set up in the basement for when he makes video tapes for his blog, Tech Vines.


Amy Jo at The Little Moments

"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

Handbag Refashion

The 1970's are now quite often considered the era of bad taste. We had big hair, clashing colours, skin tight jeans and leather patchwork handbags. These handbags scream out iconic 1970's style and every woman seemed to have one. Too young for a handbag then, I finally managed to track one done in great condition(at a thrift store and at the bargain price of only $5.00) I had to have it.You have to remember this pre cellphone days(there is no compartment for your iphone or any electronic gagdget for that matter), so we just had to make do with our no compartment handbags.

It is a simple transformation, but there are many steps involved. So here is the before.

And here is the after.

For full story please visit(and step by step pics) please visit "Rosie's Romantic Rose" Handbag

 

Denim Tote Bag

I made a tote bag from a pair of old jeans a while back (original post here), but I felt it was missing a little something something.

 I finally got around to added that little something.  I used some flowers from an old ripped dress of my daughters and a few buttons from my stash.  I think I will use the dress to line another one of these bags in the future. 

 This became a gift for my daughter's friend.  I added a journal and writing utensils and off it went. 

Hiding a Stain with Embroidery

I had a white skirt that had gotten some sort of discoloration/stain on it that I just couldn't get out.  Even bleach couldn't touch it.  So, to salvage the skirt, I covered the stain with embroidered flowers.  (This probably wouldn't work for dark stains)

The stain is virtually undetectable now with the yellow flowers covering it.
My embroidery was inspired by this dress:

 

from eShakti 

twobutterflies

The Perfect Playsuit

No matter how hard I try or how many how-to’s I follow I can’t shirr…there…I admitted it & whew, what a load off my mind! I’m sure I can’t be the only shirr-challenged refashionista out there so I came up with a shirr-cheat guaranteed to fool even the most professional of shirrers:

Looky that! Shirred bodice, shirred sleeves & shirred hems…all without any actual shirring going on!

Get the super simple secret here.

Feeling a Little Nautical....

I was feeling a bit nautical the other day and there was no blue and white striped knits to be found. 

So, thanks to Justine at Sew Country Chick I was inspired to make my own by refashioning another thrift store t shirt and using fabric paint.

Now I'm ready to launch!!

You can see the entire refashion tutorial at Chic Envelopements.

Recycled cardigan from maternity top

 Now that I am not pregnant, this size 14 top is boring and unflattering.

Step one was to cut it up the front. I could have simply top stitched at this point, but I wanted to embellish it, so......
 I added some machine embroidery to jazz it up a bit. i thought i would have to add a strip of elastic to bring it in at the back waist, but its ok as it is ;)
step two; top stitch the front;I used my coverstitcher  on the front as this gives a nice shop bought look.