Modern Chair Reupholster

This is my first time posting to the Refashion Co-op, and I am so excited! I have a chair recover tutorial to share.

What do you do when you want a cute new chair but hate spending money? Go thrift store shopping, of course! I found an antique dining room chair at Goodwill for $3.99 in great shape, but it did not match our house, even a little bit. I bought some paint and a sweater at Salvation Army to recover it, and armed with re-upholstery books from the library and my staple gun, I refinished and recovered the chair.



I hope you enjoy. Happy almost Fourth of July!

Cream on Cream sweater

One of my friends gave me a cut up white tee shirt.  Her son had a bloody nose and wiped it all over her shoulder.  She cut that part off and saved the rest for me knowing that I’d love that embellished little flower thing!

Someone else gave me this cream turtle neck sweater.    I cut that baby right up the center and hand sewed the beautiful embellished flower on one side.  

I sewed along the edges so they looked more finished than the raggedy scissor cut.  I think it’s called a “lettuce” edge, because it curls up a little into a wave.

Looks just like lettuce, right? 

Love,
Amy Jo @ The Little Moments

Gold Sweater Refashion

Ok another refashion is on its way! Unfortunately we did not have much of a winter here in Alabama. But I still decided to refashion this flashy 80s sweater. That cowl neck was horrible!!!

   

 Chop, chop.... I turned it into this simple casual sweater b/c the gold is bold enough. :)  

 For more information on how I did this please check out my blog here. Thanks again for reading! Until next refashion! XOXOXO, LaLaLauren

30 Minute T Shirt Refashion

Here's a quick and easy spring t shirt refashion you can do in less than 30 minutes.

There is a full tutorial here at Chic Envelopements

The Cheeky Charlotte

Thanks to Anthropologie for creating a gorgeous lace cardigan. A big thanks also must go to Jennifer Brasher of http://mytwobutterflies.blogspot.com.au who inspired me with her amazing version of the Anthropologie brushed lace cardigan. Below is my version.

Gorgeous moss green cardigan but overall quite dull. Pretty pretty vintage petticoat. Let's combine the two and see what can be created.

The Cheeky Charlotte can lift the plainest of jeans and can make casual look chic. The Cheeky Charlotte is also classic and would look sweet and demure with a vintage pencil skirt.

Mezzy @

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

Last of the Winter Refashions

I haven't done any spring refashions yet, so here are two older ones. Both of these were free - given by a friend or swapped at a, well, swap - both did not require me to buy any notions, and both ended up with little or no waste. The sweater was an XL, but fit like a medium and was fine everywhere except that the sides of the waist were too big. The pants were those ultra-trendy ones of a few years ago, where you had to wear them with boots. I never liked the way this pair was so low-rise (and felt silly in them), and thought that since the legs were so wide, they would make a good pants-to-skirt refashion.

You can see on the before picture where I have pinned the sweater. After I sewed this and cut off the extra, I had two curved pieces. The sweater had seams up the sides, so I carefully ripped that out and ended up with 4 curved pieces, which I rolled up into 4 flowers. On the pants, I decided to use some of the extra fabric from the bottom (there was a lot in those cuffs) to insert 4 godets, one on each side and in the front and back. Thanks for looking!

Gooby Bean and her Magnificent Sweater Refashion!

First of all, I must say hello, because I am a new poster here to refashion co-op. I love making things from cast offs that were intended for the landfill! Below is a refashion for my mother's dog Grace, aka Gooby Bean!

The sweater was constructed of an old sweater, some felt scraps I had on hand, and some ribbon that I thrifted at a goodwill store!

As you can tell, Gracie is not too thrilled with the hat! But I think she did an excellent job posing for the camera, don't you? Next time I will try to get before pictures so you can see what I started with! Thanks to refashion co-op for allowing me to post to their blog, and thank you for reading about my latest refashion attempt!

Spring sweater refashion

Get Out of Jail Free Sweater.
Just needs a ball and chain to complete the ensemble.

Check out the entire refashion on my blog.

The Polyester Dream Dress

The Polyester Dream Refashion!

Here it is before:

Not bad, but it ain't great. I also snapped a halfway point pic which compares short sleeves to sleeveless. I'm glad I got rid of them all together. One shouldn't try to look like a frigid librarian or British boarding school mistress, lol. I didn't expect to like this so much! I may have to remake it in a better fabric. One that won't make me sweat to death!

More info here!

How To Sew A Baby Hem On Delicate Fabrics

I needed this technique for my latest dress refashion:

Thrifted dress ($2) - I removed the extremely pouffy sleeves, cut off about 6 inches of length, and then used the baby hem technique to sew both the arm holes and the new hem.

Here's how I do a baby hem:

front side

Spring Cardigan

I found this oversized cardigan on a thrifting adventure. I pinched and pinned the sides and arms to fit. To make it shorter, I cut off the ribbing, chopped off some length and sewed the bottom ribbing back on. Now I have a new sweater to wear for spring time : )

jillians refashions

Ruffle Refashion

This is the rather quick refashion I did on a rather long and frumpy cardigan.

Before:

And after:

More details over on my blog.

First Post - trousers to shorts

Hi, I'm Ravs. I live in Brisbane, Australia and have loved sewing since childhood. My 21st present was a Husqvarna sewing machine! I found this site via Reana Louise at Curves, Patterns & Pins. It is very inspiring.
I don't get as much sewing done as I would like (who does?) but hopefully that will change as soon as I get over this 'flu. My second (& final) has just started school and I only work part-time.
Anyway, here's a little refashion I did just before succumbing to the dreaded lurgy.

From disreputable, worn out (and too short) jeans

To a pair of 'cool' (according to Mstr 7) shorts.

If you want to see more - come and visit at ravscreations.blogspot.com and ravsrecreations.blogspot.com (I've just recently separated the sewing etc blog from the garden / environment blog).
All the best
Ravs

Sweater + Camisole = Better sweater

This black cardigan was one of my first "interpreter dress code" items. I can throw it over any outfit and instantly have the right backdrop for my hands to sign. (American Sign Language)  It's super warm, but ridiculously plain and boring. I haven't worn it much lately.

I took a pink camisole from my mom's discard pile, cut it up into strips, ruffled them and added them to the edges of the cardigan. It's so pretty and feminine! I added black lace to the inside to cover my messy seam and a little eye hook in case I want to wear it closed.

It's no longer something I can wear to work.
It's retired.
Refashioned.
Recycled.
Yeah, it's better now.

Amy Jo at The Little Moments

DIY leather chain link necklace

With the left over leather from a skirt I refashioned here, I made this cute new necklace. I’mloving all the inspiration I’m finding online at the moment, could keeping me DIY’ing forever!

Check out my blog, The Life of Clare for the full instructions.

More Gray Refashions

I have a lot of gray things I've refashioned. This skirt is something I've had for years but rarely wore anymore. I got the idea to put buttons down the side after watching the 1933 movie version of "42nd Street", where the chorus girls are dancing in black skirts with huge white buttons down the side. I also took 5 inches off the bottom. It already had the slit up the side; in the first picture it's on backwards since I had already put the buttons on. Simple, but I think it makes a difference.

This sweater is actually a very dark gray, and casual - with a hood and front pocket. I took off the pocket, trimmed off the hood, then cut it up the middle but slightly off center. I used a piece of the hood to add to one side of the sweater so that the new cardigan fronts would be able to overlap. Then I sewed a shiny-ish gray ribbon around the edge. It's actually not easy to find gray ribbon. This was a little too stiff and my original plan of ruffling the ribbon did not work at all. Then I added buttons (although it really closes with a snap) and the tie, which came from sewing together the two straps I had cut off a gray sweater jumper (American jumper) dress.

Note the cute doggie!

Pin-spiration

Like many people these days I've been inspired more than once by my Pinterest explorations. This shirt is no exception.

 

You can see the entire transformation on my blog

Visions of Sugar Plums

I had a plum colored sweater that I haven't worn this season because it is wool and it has been too warm. I wanted to try refashioning it into a cardigan.

I found this B.Moss shirt at the thrift store that was a perfect match for the sweater. Since the fit was a bit off at the bust, I cut off the sleeves and made a belt.

Finished ensemble : )

more on the process at jillians refashions

Make mittens from an old sweater

Last Tuesday, I taught a class on making mittens from old sweaters. I've now posted a tutorial on how to make mittens from an old sweater on my blog.