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

Long to shorts

Cleverly, while sorting and clearing my photos, I deleted my last two refashions so it's been a while...

 

These are / were some uniform pants that were no longer required. In the course of their uniform life they ended up with a glue blob? Varnish blob?  Something blob that was never coming out right on the knee (where the safety pin is in the photo).  

That combined with the hot and humid weather at the time said - shorts!

 

 

 

 

So they would be long enough I chopped the legs below the blob and folded that into the hem. And they were done, and I wore them like that a few times.  

The shorts have pockets already, one with a zip, but they are not particularly deep and I had quite a lot of left over fabric - so more pockets.

 

Just 'because' I decided to add the cargo pockets at an angle. No problems with the first one, but I flipped them over and sewed the second one at the same angle instead of mirrored. Which looked daft. Sigh. Unpick, resew, flaps and recycled buttons - done again!  And now they have phone pockets for long walks.

Happy sewing!

Mimi

Quick runs

Because my sewing life has been in a bit of a slump, I decided it was time to get some quick runs on the board with simple projects (not sure what the sport metaphor is about, I am soooo not sporty).

Apart from some mending jobs I won't bore you with (but which made me feel virtuous and reduced the piles around the house), I adjusted these jean-style cotton trousers to fit:


 

Looks like a mistake right?  Not at all - I have a sway back and I don't like the gaping I get when I sit down or ride a bike or similar.  The elastic gathers the excess in against my back and  the waistband smooths out when I wear the trousers - I never tuck in tops anyway but, even so, they don't look weird on.  It's quick and it's easy and it works.   I use safety pins to get the fit approximately right, then take a few more cm off the elastic each side as it tends to fit looser than I wanted when sewn.  This doesn't work with jeans though, the denim is usually too heavy for the elastic.

Then the hems - I'm tall and trousers are never long enough so I always check the amount of fabric left in the hem and the wear on the bottom edge.  These aren't too bad, a few more sprays with vinegar before washing and the previous hem marks will fade out - not that anyone but me probably notices even now.  I use grosgrain ribbon in the very edge (1cm or less) and turn under and blind hem by hand.  Usually more skilfully than I have here.  But I was in a hurry, and it doesn't show on the outside, so I'll live with it.

 This shirt "fix" was even easier:

 

 

I tried the shirt with the sleeve scrunched, rolled and left hanging and it just looked better left alone - so, sleeve tabs be gone!


Back in my sewing groove again.  Happy refashioning until next time!

Mimi

Jupe Holly sauce récup

J'avais en stock 2 jeans blancs que je voulais transformer :

J'ai donc décidé d'en faire une jupe, et justement dans le magazine "La maison Victor" il y avait un patron qui correspondait bien à ce que je voulais et voilà le résultat après quelques heures de travail :

J'ai même récupéré les étiquettes d'origine et les ai remises . 

Par contre le tissu est très très raide ! Pour en voir plus c'est  ici 

A bientôt, bisous

Elisa Elisa

Refashion Month: 3rd week

For the third week of my self challenge of making at least one refashion  month, I kept it very simple.
Don't know if you have seen it, but I've been making some sort of walking around the house/pajama pants for my little girl out of her daddy's shirts. So, I made one out of my own too, and had started another one, I just cut it and then left it around the pile of thing to sort out.
Since I didn't really make anything gorgeous, I thought at least I would make it to the 3rd week with a little thing, and it was the pants.
Here they are:

Click HERE to go to my page and read more.

Skinny Jeans out of Flared Jeans

I did a nice simple refashion on these jeans recently. Just finished the hems today in fact, although I have been wearing them unfinished for a few weeks now.

Full tutorial on my blog :)

My pants to tunic turned out like this.

Here's the final results of my latest refashion as promised.

Check out my blog: House of Estrela.

Calling for Guest Bloggers!

Hello everyone. 
Did you know I am having a July Refashion Month over at House of Estrela? Yesterday I have posted the very first piece I have made for this self challenge. 
I have turned this:

Into this:

New and better pictures of the after will be post as soon as possible. 

Anyway, I was talking to myself, and I thought how fun it'd be to have other refashionistas, sharing some projects they made too?! So, here I am now, making a call for all of you out there, who would like to be a guest, posting at my blog during this month?! If you are interested, please e-mail me at: edc_magda@hotmail.com

Trousertastic! - Trouser Refashioning Tips

It's fair to say I'm developing a bit of an obsession with refashioning thrifted jeans and trousers. The light tan and baby blue pairs below were used in heavy rotation during Me Made May, and it made me realise that a few more pairs of narrow cropped jeans would be a welcome addition to my arsenal of wardrobe basics. Enter stage left the dove grey pair (my current faves!) and second from right, the softest pair of khaki jeans I've ever found. (The hems are actually even I promise. It's just the weird way I have of standing in photos!)
I managed to refashion both pairs one afternoon last week whilst Elliott was at pre school, and both pairs have been worn and laundered 2 or 3 times already......

As I was refashioning away, it occurred to me that although I've covered trouser refashioning here and here before, there are a few details of how I go about it that I hadn't quite covered in previous posts. So I thought I'd share a few tips that I've developed that make this type of refashion (narrowing and cropping jeans or trousers that already fit in the waist/hips) super quick and hassle free.

Firstly, establishing where to take jeans in is worthy of some consideration. Jeans in particular will often have a Flat Fell Seam on either the inner or outer leg seams, and sometimes (though rarely) on both. Taking jeans in along a flat fell seam, in my humble opinion, is one of those "life is just to short for that kinda faff" situations. In order to blend the new seam with the old, you'd have to unpick and press flat the entire flat fell seam and re-sew it once you've finished. (Unless someone has some stroke of genius to share then I'm all ears and would be very happy to be proven wrong!) I always take mine in along the standard straight seam. Whether that be on the inner or outer seam, I let the existing construction dictate to me which will be the simplest seam to sew....

In order to sew and blend the new seam cleanly, I like to press it completely flat. The existing hem prevents me from doing that....

So I lop it off....

I mark where I want my new seam allowance to be, (see here and here for how to establish that) and sew a straight stitch along my chalk line....

Followed by a zig zag stitch right next to it....

This part is pretty important in ensuring the new seam blends seamlessly with the old once you turn the jeans/trousers right side out again. As I approach the point where the new seam is about to intersect with the old,  I gradually reduce the angle between the two as I am sewing. Once my new line of stitching meets the old seam line, I'll continue sewing completely in line with the old seam for a fraction of an inch, before gradually running my new line of stitching off into the seam allowance. Exactly the same principle applies when sewing the zig zag too  (you can just about make out the new zig zag where it meets the original overlocked seam finish)...

Then simply trim off the excess close to the new zig zag line...

Turn right side out, press the length of the new seam line on a sleeve board or pressing mitt (I find the pressing mitt works best, with my arm up inside the trouser leg, gradually working my way along the seam). Then all that remains to be done is hem them to the desired length.
This type of refashion usually takes me about 40 mins per pair. So, easy to squeeze in between toddler taming sessions as a means of staying sane!

http://portialawrie.blogspot.co.uk/

#2 - From daddy's clothes series.

BEFORE

Can you remember my last post? Well, back then I didn't show you the before picture of the sweatshirt, because I totally forgot to do it. Today though, I come back to continue with this series of pants I made her. So, here's the second pair of pants I made from the same shirt. For the first one I used the sleeves, and for the second one the body, which needed extra sewing. Here's what they look like:

The other leg is just black. They are very handy, she can freely crawl all around, though now she's more likely holding furniture and walking on her feet... 

Bottoms up...and in...and in

Easy:

Madras capris about 15 years old, formerly 18s with a back elastic/front drawstring waist now slimline with a side zip.

Easier: 

Slightly too long cargos shortened - thrift store 3.30GBP find: tags still on ‘em so never worn.

Easiest:

And the most satisfying refashion of the month so far !

IWOM

boys pants from woman's shorts

here is the refashion-
from this

to this-

I liked this refashion as the original had lots of pockets, triple stitching, epilets, buttons etc which allowed you to have fun but also cover up the refashion.
I know these are hard to see due to the pattern on the fabric- let's hope stains get hidden that well.

To find out more - visit my blog

Parsimony Pants

Definition Of Parsimony-"extreme or excessive economy or frugality"..... Time to rescue this term and refashion it to suit our tough economic times.

Before

After

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

Help! How to lengthen rise? or patch mid zipper?

I am only 5'9" but I cannot buy pants at the store due to not only the legs, but especially the rise. When I was young and had a junior style body, I wore missus, which has a longer rise and I dealt with the legs being too short. Now that I have a missus style body (for some years now) pants don't fit unless I find just the right talls. JCPennys occasionally fit with ok quality, but they are plain and polyesterish and widelegged, ok for office or conservative dressy but not otherwise. Eddie Bauer used to fit before they got 5 dif styles of fit, it bugs me to pay $10 more for tall and their talls are actually too long legged. LLBean talls are not longer rise; Long Tall Sally is always out of my size, etc etc etc. ANYWAY, ENOUGH WHINING CUT TO THE CHASE: Is there a way to lengthen a (thrifted) pair of zippered pants in the rise? I have a fantasy of adding an inch of nice contrasting fabric (or even denim if its jeans) a couple inches below the waist (and adding the same fabric on the legs somewhere.) Then I remember the zipper. Has anyone ever patched into the middle of a zipper, adding a part of another zipper? Could I just add the fabric around the back and taper it to the front where the zipper is? Am I crazy to even think of this? Do I just need to learn to sew myself pants from scratch? I just had the thought that I could shorten the zipper at the top and add buttons up to the waist. i am not great at either zippers or buttons tho. Plus tearing out and putting in a new zip is a daunting idea. Ideas? TIA Kathy

Stacey and Clinton told me not to do this!

                                     

Stacey and Clinton told me NOT to do this. They said with my wide hips, I'd look like and ice cream cone in this style of trousers. But I did it anyway! And I like it!

There is a complete tutorial on how I refashioned the thrift store wide leg trousers into some flattering new pants on my blog.

PJ time

life started as a duvet cover but transformed to join the pyjama party! Blogged about here : http://charlottesewfarsewgood.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/pyjama-party.html

Ripped jeans into slashed knee jeans refashion

I made these out of a pair of skinny jeans I had that were ripped on one knee. I just put them on and cut and ripped where I wanted to. Nice and easy :)

For more refashions and craft tutorials, check out my blog, Mammy Made.