M is for marimekko

Snaffled a lovely girls's Marimekko t-shirt at the Chiswick Boot Sale last weekend, only to find small hole in the front. So rustle up plan to hide it in a reverse applique 'M'. I get busy while the little one slumbers and take

• one vintage pillow-case, from a Secret Thrift Shop up north



• one reverse applique tutorial - gazillions out there!



• fusible interfacing from stash



• embroidery thread from Brick Lane

and have all sorts of fun and games over three days learning how to do reverse applique in short sharp bursts (eg when my daughter is asleep and when the muse takes me).

Once done, grapple with the thorny challenge of a small, determined model, who is skilled in roaring and independent movement. Visit us in blogland for a bit more detail and an action shot.

Short trews from shorts

From a pair of unflattering shorts comes a pair of short trews for our little miss. The shorts are low rise, pegged and cut my thighs off at their widest - so rarely get worn, funnily enough. And I just couldn't bring myself to pose in them for a photo. Does the smiley, chillaxing 14-month-old model make up for this infraction?


A few hours of refashioning transforms them, in which I...

• remove 20cm from the overall waistband and leg width
• fake a ruffled hip pocket from the spare fabric trimmed off
• insert elastic into the waistband
• insert new but thrifted button on waistband
• remove 5cm from the legs at the back yoke seam (this brings the back waistband down so the difference between it and the front is only about 3cm)
• reposition the back pockets, having sewn in small pleats at the top to reduce width
• gather the leg hems into an elastic

The shape is by eye and I make it up as I go along. The 14-month old figure is pretty straight up and down, so the side seams are at a right angle to the bottom hem. Levelling out the waistband - again by eye, but also using another pair of shorts for reference. Back pockets are pleated so they fit onto the back leg, but keep the lovely curve and point of the original design.

With hindsight, it is a pretty easy project. But I am mightily pleased to have finished these, as I'd forgotten how faffy refashioning can be - realising you could have done something better, dithering over whether to unpick and redo, not measuring my daughter so not knowing how tight to make the waistband and regretting sewing while she's asleep but knowing it's not possible when she's up and about. Beginner's mistakes after decades of sewing, but they return time and time again.

Pop on over for a little more bloggy detail and a surprise ending!

hello and three in one!

hello!

i'm returning to sewing and blogging after birth of my first daughter last year.

delighted to have found another way to inspire me to write what i do (and DO it too!) - and to see what lots of other talented needlefolks are doing around the world too.

cheers!
georgeina

*deep breath* - here goes

I bought a couple of ginormous nighties from Primark while pregnant and, hating to see these swathes of perfectly acceptable cotton jersey go to waste, I got my sewing mojo working again. Now my blogging mojo is revived, here I am to tell you about one UK size 22 nightie that has become...

one dress, from McCalls M5916 pattern. I used the existing frilly placket and cut the rest of the dress around it. Sizing slightly skew-whiff - it's big on Little Miss but that's acceptable as these baby-people keep growing, don't they?

It's a super-easy pattern and I'm sure if I keep making it, I'll be able to bash out a dress in an evening before long. We hope. Motherhood, sadly, has not taken away my capacity to sit and stare into space instead of sewing.

one matching pair of panties, from the same pattern.

At this point I had to start piecing the fabric - thankfully only once, and the stripes hide the seam perfectly. I used jaunty fuchsia satin binding on the elastic casing, which may not show but *I* (and now you) know it's there.

one floppy brimmed sunhat. The pattern is by Enid Gilchrist, who I'd have remained ignorant of but for the Internet - an australian who wrote excellent books on DIY pattern drafting.

This sun bonnet just tickles me - cute but practical, AND rocking a somewhat Amish/dutch nun vibe. It was great fun working out how to eke out the remaining scraps and only piece them twice! I recommend giving it a try - the pattern doesn't have instructions but it is do-able.

To catch up on past sewing exploits, drop by http://www.georgeina.wordpress.com/ for a mooch around.