Don't like your jammies?

What do you do if you don't like a piece of clothing you got as a gift? Give it further, put it away and never look at it again? Probably all of the above, depending on what is in question. There are funny pieces with potential though. You can't really use them as is, but with a little tweaking they can become really cool.

For more photos jump here. Check out my other ugly to cool jammies refashion here.

Summer socks!

Who wants to wear long socks in the summer? Not me and not my kids! Actually, none of us like knee-high socks because they squeeze our legs too much. So why not shorten perfectly good socks so that they're comfortable and you actually use them?

All you really need to do is take a nice sharp pair of scissors and chop off the top. If you have ribbed socks, they'll stay exactly as is, despite wear and many washings.

See? And if the socks are regular knit, the tops will roll down, but I like that look.

Or you can get fancy by cutting them slightly longer...

...and sewing them in one of various ways to make more finished-looking socks. The ones with the reattached cuffs are a little stretched out from sewing them but you can't even notice when you wear them (as you can see in the first picture of this post).

 

And if you decide not to sew the elastic cuff back on your socks?

They make awesome hair elastics!

You can find more details (in both English and Italian) on the no-sew, snip-'em-off ankle socks on my blog and, for the sewn versions, a full bilingual tutorial on my guest post at Mammabook!

Peg Bag...

Hi, Pam here from Threading My Way...

I realise this is not a refashion, but more a repurposing, however, I thought the Refashion Co-op members may be interested to see another use for a pre-loved shirt.

My peg bag badly needed washing. Rather than work out what to do with the pegs while it was being washed, I decided to make another; not an onerous task, as all up, it takes about 3 minutes to make.

To see how I made both peg bags, click on the photo of my first peg bag above. I wish I could say this was my idea, but it wasn't. The link to my inspiration is in the first peg bag post.

... Pam

T shirt updates

Bought some plain T shirts in a sale, but they were a bit boring and also a bit short in the waist.

To lengthen them, I cut a strip off the bottom of a suitably coloured old T shirt leaving the hem and side seams intact. Pinned the strip on the inside of my T shirt starting at one side seam, making sure the length of the strip is even all round. Take up any strip excess width at the second side seam. Machine round on the outside of the T shirt following the existing stitching. This gives an authentic layered look. No need to finish the inside upper edge of the strip unless you can be bothered.

Then I rooted out some pretty buttons from my box and trimmed the necklines.

The finished T shirt

 and a few more

and

The next T shirt already had the frill but needed to be longer.

With the added strip

Another reason for saving those offcuts of T shirt.

Creative Q & A + the fantabulous fringed shawl

Welcome to the inaugural webisode of Creative Q & A! My brand new maker-meeting-diy series!

In this first episode learn all about Italian Upcycling Queen Anna of Riuso Creativo + create her fabulous fringed (no-sew) t-shirt shawl!

 

Wanna be considered for a future Creative Q & A? Click here for all of the details…