Skirt lining - two ways

Since the virus I've been doing more mending, repairs and minor updates to my existing wardrobe than large-scale refashions. Partly because I haven't been thrifting / op-shopping in forever, and partly because I find it soothing to think less. 

Most of which is not that interesting to post about, but today I'm sharing some.  I keep my clothes for a long time because I like them and I worry about the environmental impact of clothing.  So parts of them wear out over time - like the linings.  

Today - one replacement and one repair.

Up first, I left this one way too long do a quick repair. It's an elastic-waisted knit skirt but office appropriate and I wear it a lot in winter (which it is right now in my Southern hemisphere home). 

 

The lining is not only ripped but wearing through, almost shattered (and impossible to photograph well).  I unpicked the whole waistband to remove the lining.  The elastic was okay still, so I reused that.

 

As the outer fabric is opaque (the lining is to stop clinging) I don't need to match the colour.  When this is the case I pick a bright colour to make me smile.  This one is butter yellow (paler in the photo than real life) and adds to the scarlet, aqua and hot pink linings I've replaced in other skirts.

The second pencil skirt lining is also well on the way to destruction.  It's ripped along the seam and the lining fabric is starting to wear thin either side.  But still reparable for many more wears before I need to replace the lining completely.

 I keep the fabric that is still in good condition for repairs and pocket bags when I replace a lining.  In this case, I used a sleeve lining from a jacket refashion.  I fused it over the damaged areas of the skirt lining with double sided fusible interfacing - is that what it's called?  The one you fuse on one side to fabric, take off the paper backing, then fuse the other side to a different fabric eg for applique.  That stabilised the fabric so I could sew it back together as normal.

Sewn back together and all finished!  For good measure I added a couple of hand sewn arrowheads at the top and bottom of the seam in embroidery thread to take some of the stress.

Happy refashioning (and mending).

Mimi

A trio of skirts

I inherited some skirts from my Grandma - she liked a classic skirt as much as I do but I've been, until now, reluctant to mess with them.  But I like my skirts shorter, so I took a deep breath and took to them with the scissors so I'd wear them.

Obviously, a hem shortening is not the most exciting refashion, so I'm bundling them.  The lilac linen blend and black wool blend skirts were straight forward - just cut and sewed both the outer shell and the linings.  The quality of them both is excellent and I've already worn them a lot - I love to save on work clothes.



On to the grey-green poly-blend skirt. I didn't love this skirt - the polyester generates static cling, it's not lined and the elastic was gone in the waist so it was going to be more work.  I later did a burn test with an off-cut and found it wasn't pure polyester as I'd originally thought but it's still mostly polyester. 

But it does have those great pockets and it's my current favourite colour.  I'd marked the hem line before I remembered to take photos.  I didn't like the buttons but decided to keep the tabs over the join between the elasticated waist and flat front sections.

I then went and cut at the final hem line rather than the cutting line - honestly!  Luckily in the kick pleat but it did mean I had to take in the back seam so I could add a back slit for walking (which had to be moved up in any case) and get around my mistake.  I was hoping to do a Dior style kick pleat but I couldn't take in the back seam that far.






 

On to replacing the elastic - not so easy as I thought. The original elastic had been sewed down with 4 lines of stitching which had to be unpicked.  It was completely perished, as was the waistband interfacing so I picked all that off as much as I could.  Even a long wash cycle didn't remove all of it. Then I had to resew the side seams and neaten everything up before adding a lining.








In a really bright colour that will make me smile and be seen by no-one else.  Then I restitched the waistband and threaded through and sewed down new elastic.  I hand sewed the tabs back on as there are so many layers and finally it was done.

Happy refashioning!

Mimi

Back in Rotation

It's been a while and that's because some of my 'simple' projects are taking me a looooong time to finish.  Like this one - all I had to do was cover the school logo on this ex-school uniform skirt, alter the length of the stitched down pleats so the skirt was a bit roomier over the hips, and sew up the hem.  How easy is that?

I'm not putting a before photo as I don't want to identify the school, but I think you can all picture this skirt with those circles gone and a school logo where the light blue one was?  Right - so first I had this idea of a print fabric panel over that whole pleat with thread-painting over the top.  I interfaced it all down and started in with the free motion stitching on the machine - but it started to wrinkle up and looked awful.  Once I was about 1/2 finished stitching.  It took me an age to unpick all that stitching and then remove the interfacing glue (actually the glue is not all gone, but it's enough gone).

So Plan B is what you see - in progress with the logo covered and the new pleat stitching line marked in soap where it wanted to be:

 

Of course, then the interfacing I used to keep the circle fabrics stiff while sewing with my circular stitching foot wouldn't rip away from the stitches like it was supposed to (sigh!).  I got the owner of the skirt to unpick that as much as possible and it looks okay (if you don't get up real close).  She's usually in motion and likes it the way it is, and it should improve with future washes.

I'm happy if she's happy.  Happy sewing yourselves!

Mimi

Happy sewing in 2018!

I was pretty slack and barely posted in 2017, so I'm hoping to do much better this year. 

This is not a radical refashion by any means, but this skirt is now back in rotation (it actually looks better on me than Gabbi the mannequin in the photo).

I made this 8-gore skirt a loooong time ago, and I wore it a lot.  But I made some odd decisions at the time and then it shrank in the wash (I swear, that's the reason it became too small). 

Then, the zip broke (under some stress).  I have a love / hate relationship with invisible zippers, they look (or maybe don't look?) really good as they disappear into a seam, but they are so fragile I am always replacing them.  I have learned the hard way not to put them in trousers, mid-working day wardrobe malfunctions are the pits. 

So I replaced the zip, but then those bits at the top of the zip kept digging in my back when sitting in chairs - hence the tab with velcro. 

Then, and this is odd decision number one, I put inseam pockets in this skirt originally.  Even though it has a fitted waist and hip line.  Pockets are great of course, except when the shirt started to 'shrink' they popped out even more than usual and looked awful. 

And odd decision number two was to make the lining much smaller than the shell.  I mean, it made sense to make a straight skirt style lining instead of an 8-gore one, but when I released the side seams on the lining the skirt suddenly fit again.  It was always the lining. Unfortunately that was after I'd cut the pockets out or I might have been able to save them.  I've added knit panels to the lining to make it bigger, which is not my genius idea but from here: judith turner - alteration genius  Not only does the skirt now fit, it's sooo much more comfortable especially as I like to stride about and usually wear trousers.  I might start doing that all the time.

Happy refashioning in 2018!

Plaid Skirt

I took a freebie skirt that I got from a coworker...

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And turned it into a more fitted skirt. I used Vogue Pattern V7937

Folklore skirt

I was very lucky to get vintage traditional clothing over 40 years old - from West of Slovakia (where I come from). The embroidery is just...fantastic. Every item is different, carrying stories of someone great-grandma, or grand-ma. With material like this, refashion is not that hard. I had to fix lace, some stitiching, lace, and I added satin stripes for wrapping. The skirt became overskirt - I love overskirts with leggings! (because leggings are too tight, yet comfy, and skirt gives me more comfidence!) On top of it, high waist and ruffled sides and back equals fantastic feminine curve shape. Who wouldn't like that? I have new favorite in my closet - and I'm on hunt for more folklore clothing. I think these pieces are not necessary good only for museums.

I have more pics on my blog. Cheers to our great-grandmas!

Refashioned skirt

Hello!
I made this skirt out of men's skirts - cotton ones. It turned out to have high front waist, sort of in half round. I found it soooo comfy, especially for hiding belly after huge lunch!
Finished with vintage buttons, overlock stitch and drapping on sides. This is very feminine skirt - I like how it looks with tshirt in.
I love men's shirts refashions - endless options for our new garments, right? ;)

Skirt From a Sweater... Second Time's the Charm

This is my second attempt at a sweater skirt. My first one was a flop, but I did learn a couple of valuable lessons along the way. And knowing is half the battle, right?

Lesson number one: When sewing a sweater, it is MUCH easier to work with a fine gauge knit than a chunky sweater. The first sweater I tried to work with was made of a thick cotton yarn that easily fell apart when I cut it.

Lesson number two: Sweaters tend to stretch when you sew them. I was able to prevent the stretching by increasing my stitch length.  I also used a "straight stretch" stitch for this project, which is one of the stitch settings on my machine.






This is where it all began.  I found this large men's sweater and intercepted it just before it was sent to the goodwill. Score! I also used the sleeves of a stretchy knit shirt to make the waistband.

For more details on this transformation, hop on over to my blog. Thanks for reading :)

And the final touch!

I realised I didn't really share here in this blog, what I first have made out of two shirts, then I used the leftovers and did this here too. But since I wasn't happy with the fabric left going to garbage, I realised something else, so the outfit for my baby G. would be complete. Here's her latest top. 

Read more of it, here!

Crazy pants refashion to skirt, 2 bags and a top.

This week has been a lovely trip down memory lane for me as I have transformed a pair of pants that haven't been worn in about 10 years into four wearable items that I love. I held onto them for so long for sentimental and historical reasons, but the time had come to give them a new life.

Here are the pants. Crazy awesome patchwork fabric made for me when I lived in Ghana, with lots of memories attached, and ill-fitting.

First I took the seam ripper to the whole inside seam and made a cute skirt - I've already worn this twice this week.

And then I made two bags and another top from the rest of the pant legs. There's barely a shred of fabric left now.

You can see how I made these in more detail over on my blog - 365 crafty if you want. 

Thanks,

Sharon

Leather Mullet Skirt

Well, that is what I nic-named it anyways...

I love working with leather. Love it. There is something so satisfying about recycling a cast off jacket or pair of pants or even a purse into something stunning. I've made bags, pillows and cotton shawls with leather pockets but I have never made a piece of clothing. Until I made this skirt.


I call it the mullet skirt because although it is business up front with the pencil skirt lines and colour blocking....


It is all party in the back with the western style panels and three rows of leather and suede ruffles. I love it. And although I almost messed up (I learned about zipper placement!) It fits perfectly. It started out as two very unattractive leather jackets:

 

I hoarded these two jackets for over a year, waiting for the perfect project. I actually cut off the arm of the red one to make some pretty amazing pillows. But that was all I would allow myself. I am so glad my patience was rewarded. 

I hate to leave you with those photos, so I'll just post one more of the ruffles. 

Of course there are a few more photos over at my blog Until Wednesday Calls. I have lots of tutorials in case you feel like staying to browse. I love to sew and to repurpose and have been on and off again refashioning since the days of Wardrobe Refashion. In fact I met some of my best blogging friends on that blog. So now that I have finally made my inaugural post, I hope to post a lot more here.

Cheers, Melissa

A Skirt from Two Shirts

Somehow I managed to find two identical shirts at the thrift store on two separate trips that were months apart. I had worn the first shirt until it was starting to stretch out and so I snagged its twin as a backup. Only, it wasn't quite identical....it was actually a size smaller than my original and slightly tighter than I liked. But the color and fabric was so pretty, I decided that someday they would come in handy and put them away for a rainy day. 

This week I finally hit upon the perfect project for them. By fashioning a waistband from the sleeves and a skirt from the front and back panels, I created this swishy, comfy skirt. I'm in love with the deep raspberry color! My camera just didn't do it justice. :P

Kaitlin @ Wunderbar

Refashion skirt - adding length Quick & Easy

I am 5'9" tall and this skirt was the exact wrong length.  Because I am no longer young, shortening it to above the knee was not an option, especially to wear to work.

I had some fabric that I was going to use to make a band of color around the bottom, but kept putting off figuring out how to do it.  I wanted to have it quick and not have to think much.

So I used my 50% off coupon and bought some dark blue blanket binding.

Voila!



Now I just need a bunch more plain tops to go with all the patterned skirts I have for work.

Thanks for looking.

Kathy

Two skirts refashioned into a bag

You know that feeling when you find a scrummy piece of clothing in a charity shop and you just *know* that it will come in useful?

Well, I found not one but TWO skirts like that in the same shop on the same day! 

What are the chances, eh?

I didn't really have any plans but I knew that they would go together beautifully.

As I only wanted to use one half of the pink skirt I was limited as to what I could make.

But I do love to make a nice bag or two!

So I set about designing a bag to incorporate both skirts.

And this is how it turned out :

It's softly padded throughout.  I even figured out a way to make ultra-padded handles which have a nice feel about them.

The top of the bag on the inside was pink and I also utilised the skirt lining as the interior fabric.

I had so much fun with this project!!!

More details on this and other refashions and projects can be found on my blog:

Sew Selena

Happy refashioning!