Hats Off

Hello everyone! It has been a while since I last posted. Life has gotten a bit crazy. Just as an update about what I've been working on:

A giant wad of duct tape? No its actually a hat block I made. Totally a hack job but it does the job well. Plus I can stick pins into it to hold the shape of the hat as I'm working on it. It also gave me a way to use up some of my fabric scraps. I don't like throwing them away, but usually I'm stumped as to what to do with them.

To make my head block I put an a scrap of jersey over my head, used duct tape to as tightly as I could tape around the circumference of my head (I used jersey material because it stretches and can me kind of molded around my head so the finished form would be more accurate). I then used a few pieces of tape over the top of my head from ear to ear and front to back in order to get start getting the basic shape. Then it was just a matter of taping over the jersey fabric, and using my hands to figure which places were sparse and needed reinforcement. After having a duct tape bowel looking thing finished I stuffed it with more fabric scraps and then carefully duct taped it closed on the bottom. Its not perfect, but definitely workable for what I needed to do with it.

I found a dark brown floppy straw hat at a second hand store, and although I loved the color of the braided straw, I was not feeling the old lady floppy hat shape. A bit of time with a seam ripper and I had a roll of straw braid ready for reshaping. This is what I have so far on my hat block:

I'd like to make a cloche style hat. I figure I'd start molding it close to my head and at the end play with molding it into a flared shape. More pics to come as I continue building it up.

Cut first, ask questions latter.

I've had a few camisoles in my remake pile for a while and have experimented with ways to make them more wearable for me. Two issues: the lace in the front does not do a very good job covering my feminine qualities which is the reason I wear these under lower cut shirts in the first place. Also the thin spaghetti straps do not cover my bra straps if I choose to wear the shirt on its own, or if the shirt I'm wearing has any sheer quality (such as the acid burn shirts that have parts of the fabric thin and almost gauzy). Out came my scissors.

Before scissors (different shirt but you get the idea)

Basic pattern for replacement yoke. Just traced around what I cut off.

After the offending top of the shirt was removed I used it as a template for a new yoke for the top, accounting for thicker straps. I cut out two of the front and back pieces that I drafted, sewed them together at the sides and top, and flipped it inside out before reattaching the bottom of the shirt.

First attempt with a lobster print. The straps tie into bows at the shoulder. This fabric LOVES to stretch. Top-stitching helped to keep it under control a bit, but I'll need to do some tweaking to get the fit perfect.

Second attempt with a pretty floral. Not much stretch so I'll need to tweak the pattern to be a bit bigger for the next one if I use a similar fabric.

Overall I'm happy with the results. I have a few more in my pile waiting for their make over.

tanks to stripes

I've had these two tank tops eying me for quite a while from my re-make pile. They are just not as long as I'd like, and well, just too plain. To solve both problems I cut both of them into equal sized stripes, then used my serger to sew them together keeping in mind the difference in width of the pieces (Girl shirts usually have nipped in waists. I made sure it went in for my waist, out for my hips, and then in again to keep it close to my legs).

Here is how it turned out. Now I have a pretty shirt that is long enough and pretty to behold.

An Introduction

Hello fellow re-makers! I'm a long time reader and can't help but be very excited about being able to share my creations with everyone here. Just as an introduction I wanted to show a few things that I remade (no before pics for these, I wasn't documenting the process yet).

 I had gotten a brown cashmere sweater from goodwill that had already been felted. I didn't bother washing it specially and it had shrunk. Again. I decided to save it so off to Goodwill again, this time for another sweater in a different color. It was a really pretty blue, but in a smaller size so I had to piece the bands for the stripes a bit. I also added two stripes to the sleeve to balance it. I cut the bottom of the sweater where I wanted to add the bands and then used my serger to attach them.

The skirt I'm wearing is also a refashion from a 70's style dress that was too small for me. I really like the drape of the skirt so I chopped it off, make a simple yoke and attached it to my new skirt. it was pretty sheer so I wore an under skirt with it at first but it kept pulling the skirt down.
A friend gave me a brown jersey under skirt she cut off of one of her projects so I added it to the yoke of the skirt. No more pulling down and it also makes it supper comfy.


The last project I'm going to share today is a restyling of an old straw sun hat. Again, no before pictures, but it was a light brown and looked like a baseball hat with a HUGE bill. I trimmed down that huge bill to a size more flattering, spray painted it blue, glued ribbon on the cut edge to keep it from falling apart, and added an old cut up belt for a special detail. And ruffles. lots of ruffles. Now I have a new bonnet any steampunk would be proud of.