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

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

Un jumper dans un pantalon

Cette fois je suis désolée mais j'ai oublié de prendre la photo "avant" mais je suis sûre que vous aurez assez d'imagination pour visualiser ce que ça pouvait être : un pantalon à jambes larges dans un joli pied de poule !

Alors même s'il était à ma taille je ne pouvais pas le porter comme ça aussi je l'ai transformé en jumper car je n'avais pas assez pour en faire une robe.

Voici le résultat :

Je me suis servi du modèle 106 du Burda de septembre 2012 que j'ai rectifié un peu ; encolures inversées, pince restifiée, et manches rallongées de 10 cm avec poignets élastiqués.

Alors il vous plait mon jumper ? à moi beaucoup et je pense qu'il fera de l'usage très bientôt !
Si vous voulez en voir plus c'est Ici 

Bisous, Elisa Elisa