Scarf to Sheer Pullover

I collect scarves. I don't wear them, though. Oh, I put them on sometimes, but I always second-guess myself and remove them before I make it out the door. So, my new goal is to turn the scarves into something that I will actually wear. My first project is a definite winner. Here's a project in pictures:




This is the original scarf. It was square, black with bright purple and yellow and red abstract flowers.




I used a t-shirt as a pattern to cut the neckline. I think that I made it too big (I didn't realize that it would stretch so much!), so I'd make it smaller next time. Just big enough to fit over my head would be perfect; this one keeps slipping off my shoulders.




I handstitched a rolled hem on the neckline and sewed the sides together to form sleeves.




Voila! The finished project. It's a great way to dress up a tank-top without having to actually put on any more clothes, which is awesome in the 95+ degree heat we've been having lately.

A Girlhood Dress Revisited

This dress is bit derivative, but only in the best possible way. I thought that I got the idea from here, but when I showed my mother, she said, “I made dresses like that for you all the time when you were little.” So maybe Lex's dress touched a long-forgotten chord within me. Or maybe it was just so freaking cute that I couldn't resist making one of my own.


I began with a t-shirt that was far too short. I don't particularly like it when the bottom of my shirt and the top of my jeans just brush each other, and there was a missing two inches between the bottom of this one and my waistband. Plus I have this amazing slightly metallic red fabric that, let's face it, I'm never going to make into a dress on it's own. It's been sitting on my shelf for at least 4 years. I don't think I even have the pattern that I was going to make with it anymore. It was perfect for a nostalgic dress that reminded me of jungle gyms and eating way too much candy and playing on the swingsets and not even caring if anyone saw my underwear.

I did change it up a little bit to make it more adult, though. The gathered skirt sewn directly onto the shirt looked terrible, bunchy, and messy, so I ripped out my stitches reverse sewed it, and turned it into a paper-bag waist. Add a black velvet belt, a removable fabric flower, and I looked like an adult but felt like a kid again.

Want to see more of my projects? I blog at iMade.

Upcycled Sweater with Flowered Embroidery

I’ve been seeing fancy embroidered sweaters all over this spring, and I wanted to try my hand at one. I had a lightweight wool sweater in a beautiful light teal color, but it was a little bit boring. In my head, the flowers blanketed the shoulder and looked like a field of wildflowers. In reality, I think they are too big. I used a nickel to trace circles on the sweater, and then filled each circle with a daisy-stitched flower.

Just imagine how great this would look if you traced a pencil eraser instead and made tiny flowers! It would also take you many, many more hours. I have another sweater in my closet, and I think I’m going to try a single color of embroidery floss for the flowers.

Read the full post on my blog iMade.

Ugly 80's Suit to Awesome Jumper Dress

If a hideous piece of clothing is made of beautiful fabric (why does that happen so often?), I can't let it go. I have to fix it! Often that just means shortening, removing some out-of-date details, or just tailoring the piece to fit. In this case, there was not much worth saving other than the fabric. And the bottom hem, which I kept because I am lazy and hate hemming. The label was long gone from this thrift-store find, but it is definitely some sort of woven silk blend.
I wore this for a romantic date with heels and lots of red, chunky jewelry, and I wear it with boots or flats for everyday. A longer explanation of the process is on iMade Blog and here is the finished project: