Pillow Case to Summer Top

Hi, I'm Debbie from Virginia and this is my first Refashion Co-op post.  There are so many talented contributors here and I have learned so much from everyone. I'm excited to be part of such an amazing group!  My blog is On The Banks of Stony Creek where I blog about living a rich life...frugally. I'm fairly new to the world of refashioning, but it fits right in with being frugal.  I hope you'll come on over to see how I transformed a jersey knit pillow case into a summer top.  Here's the before.....

...and the after.

 

 

I'm also currently doing a year-long series, 52 Weeks of Goodwill, where I feature different items that I purchase at Goodwill Stores.

"No Nana Panel Tee" Refashion

The job of the Nana Panel is to create a formless, frumpy and shapeless tee. "Unfashion Designers" love the Nana Panel concept as it means that no matter what size you are, you are going to fit into this tee.It is the one size fits all mentality and it is designed to help part us from our money. "Oh here is a nice roomy and comfy tee. Gosh, I need to part with my $50 to buy it and when I don't need it anymore, I can sell it to the visiting circus as their new big top"


Hmmm sorry "Unfashion Designers" but your Nana Panel Tee is not for me. I may be plus sized but I don't want to hide my figure underneath your baggy saggy Tee.

So here is the before.

And here is the after. For further pics and detail, please visit me at my blog where I give an almost tutorial(yep I have included a measurement).

Ten Second No Sew Skirt.

Seriously, this refashion only takes 10 seconds. Blink and you will miss it.

Before

After.

Full refashion @ http://recycledrepurposedrenewed.blogspot.com.au/

Anthropologie Refashion

Here is the back story to this refashion.....
My younger daughter( affectionately known as Bemily) is a world traveller. If I want to spend time with her, I need to travel to where ever she is in the world. In March 2011 we met up in the California. The U.S.A is such a long long way from Australia so we agreed to meet in San Francisco as we both love all things retro. We rented an apartment in Ashbury and spent hours in the thrift stores along Haight St.
Also spent time downtown where I discovered Anthropologie.What an amazing concept store! Upon my return to Australia decided to mail order quirky clothes for myself from Anthropologie. This was fraught with danger as I could not try on the clothes to ensure that the fit was going to be correct.


This Anthropologie mail order failure has now been rescued.


"Waist Not...Want Not" Top

Before

After

and more after.

Full story and tutorial @ http://recycledrepurposedrenewed.blogspot.com.au/

"Someone Decided" Cotton Top.

Someone decided that curvaceous women wanted to wear shapeless cotton tops.

Someone decided that curvaceous women wanted to have all the focus on the largest part of their body-their hips.

Someone decided that a drawstring on the hips was a billowing unflattering look that curvaceous women would embrace.

Someone decided that curvaceous women wanted to look like a human wine barrel.

Ummm hmmm excuse me someone, but you have decided all wrong and above is definitely not the way we want to dress.

Drawstring cut away from the bottom of the cotton top with pinking shears.

Drawstring relocated at waist-level on cotton top and sewn into place at new location.

Cotton top is now on-trend with a hint of 

  peplum styling.

"Someone Decided" cotton top now looks looks pretty and feminine worn with a faded pair of jeans.

Mezzy @ http://recycledrepurposedrenewed.blogspot.com.au/

"Darling have you seen my Tie" Long T.

Introducing Penelope Coat-Hanger. She features heavily in my 

Leopards Lay in Wai-T(ee)

blogpost and I have just realised that I have not formally introduced her. So here is Penelope Coat-Hanger's story. 

Poor Penelope in her plain grey long tee. Having purchased this tee from a thrift store some 3 years ago, Penelope loved to wear it with jeans on a dull winters day. 

Acquiring her husband's tie, Penelope knew that she could turn plain into peachy. So she pinned Brad's vintage tie to her plain tee.

Brad is now tie-less and if he asks you.....no you have not seen his tie.

Penelope's tee is no longer plain and winter is dull no more.

Another Sweater Refashion

I've been out of commission for most of this month. My mom passed away suddenly four weeks ago.
I did this refashion a while ago. I started out with this sweater/dickey combo thing.


At 1x, it was too big and I wasn't thrilled with the shiny false-shirt fabric. So I removed the dickey, took in the sides, and used scrap yarn to crochet a decorative neck edge.

I love this sweater now.

1920's Costume

The theme for my husbands work xmas party this year is 1920's. It is being held at a hotel and it will be set out like a casino.
All the girls are a bit excited because we get to dress up. YAY!!
I was thinking of making my costume from scratch... some material, laces, fringing and bling and THEN!! ......I was hit by a bolt of BRILLANCE! and this is what i came up with.
I was originally thinking about taking the lace off the top that i didn't really wear and put it on a dress like NOIRIN did in her post (loved that idea!!) and then i thought...hmmm, if i attached that to a skirt it would be drop waisted (aka 1920's ). In the back of my wardrobe i had this silk skirt. Its hard to explain but is sorta rooshed (cant spell) with jagged hem. It was long so i cut if off and added it to bottom of shirt.
Then OFF went the sleeves. The lace insert and the top looked a little more "evening" with out the sleeves.
I then tottled off to the markets where there is a shop that sells lots of laces, fringing, patches, embroidery bits etc. found what i was looking for almost straight away and only took a few minutes of procrastinating to come to my final purchase.
Two lace inserts of 3 butterflies joined together $7.00
One elastic wide band thingo for dropped waist &3.00
SOOO very excited, i stitched them on. I used one butterfly panel to go down the centre front and then cut the other one in three and added another butterfly to the centre and one either side. i sewed them on a little uneven so that they would sit up a bit and flutter.
Thought i would hitch the side of the skirt up too so i made a flower (of sorts) out of the leftover sleeves and added some thrifted black beaded earings to centre for a bit of bling.
I found the head band at a store on spesh for $4.95 and thought that looked quite the cute.
Total price for refashion.....$25.00 YAY!! xx

Mona Lisa Skirt

Hi there.
Here's another fluffnnonsense post.
I've started making this skirt ages ago and then put it down... BIG mistake!! I've had a little bit of time these school holidays so i thought i'd get around to finally finishing it.
Its made from all recycled, upcycled and thrifted materials.
The Mona Lisa was a teatowel which was so beautiful i just knew it had to be featured in one of my skirts. The fabrics, ribbons, fringing and beading are all thrifted. I like to stick to just a few colours and add lots of texture into my skirts. Its wrap around and i use mens ties for the ties for extra cuteness. xx

Different Takes on Same Shirt

My sister had four of these shirts that she didn't like anymore - too sloppy and unconstructed. Since plus-size clothes are more expensive and harder to find at thrift stores, I thought I would try refashioning them. She had olive green, navy, and red in addition to this light blue one here. She refuses to wear olive green and the light blue one has a stain that I am still trying to work around, but here are the navy and red ones.

I added some narrow navy and white striped fabric left over from another shirt refashion. You can't tell, but I had to trim some fabric off the shoulders so the seam wouldn't hang off the shoulders, and shorten the sleeves on both. She likes the red one more because it did away with the buttons and for some reason she was averse to the buttons. (I also made the printed shirt underneath. )

A Simple Professional Skirt

Hi all! I'm Amy and am very excited to be a part of this community. While refashioning can be all about creativity, for me it is frequently a matter of necessity. By virtue of my budget (small) and my body (short yet not-so-small), I'm frequently put to the task to make do or do without it. Thus was the case here: a simple refashion that took less than an hour.

I recently found some cute knit pants at our local Volunteers of America store. Great brand, good fit, and looked adorable in the dressing room (with bare feet). Then I got them home and tried them on with my customary 2-3" heeled boots. Oh no! Star Trek was cool in the 70's but this look just doesn't work now.

So I set to work with my scissors and sewing machine, transforming these babies into a cute skirt. If you haven't tried this before, it's especially simple with knit pants without a zipper or woven pants that are a little large and ideally have a side zipper. Just cut them apart at the inseam, lay the two sides right-sides together, and restitch to form front and back center seams.

At this point, I found that the skirt tended to hug my stomach and emphasized my belly, a common problem with refashioning pants to skirts and not very attractive. Luckily, my pants had no zipper and I was able to tuck about 2" of fabric up at the center front, tapering to the side seams, and stitch along the original waistband. This neatly eliminated the excess fabric AND the unwanted tummy attention!

Next a quick hem just below the knee, and I took a look at my final result: a professional black skirt that is as comfy as yoga pants and wears like iron. I paired it with my tall black boots and fell in love. Success!

Maybe my next refashion will be using the excess fabric for a more decorative finish, but I love this simple, straightforward transformation from something unwearable to something useful. Happy sewing!

Welcome to the Refashion Co-op

Welcome to the Refashion Co-op!
We are going to launch the site on the 14th February (Valentines day) and you are all invited to come along and sign up as contributors or follow us as readers. In the days following there will be posts where you get to meet the editors and see their favorite refashions and the contributors will join in with their first refashions. We can't wait to see you all!

A bit more about us:
We came together around a shared love for refashioning, or making over old garments into new garments and accessories, to create a space dedicated to refashioning. When Wardrobe Refashion closed down, we were all sad to see the iconic blog end it's run, and this project was set up to keep the online refashion community alive.

This is a collaborative blog, a space for contributors worldwide to showcase their finished projects and share techniques. We also envision it as a place to gain inspiration, and further the dialogue around sustainable fashion, consumerism, personal style, and frugal fashion. Most importantly, we hope this will be a space to connect with like-minded folks by fostering a sense of community among contributors and readers alike.

Our contributors are our most important asset, as it is your ideas and your creativity that drive this site! As Editors we primarily provide logistical support to ensure the site runs as smoothly as possible.

Together, we can take this movement to a new level! Let’s spread the refashion love to more people, encourage one another to take creative risks, and celebrate in our successes along the way.

Welcome to our new space. We hope that you will join us on this journey.

Your Editors,

Bryony
Debbie
Eddie
Erica
Jenni
Jessica
Jillian