Sweatshirt fleece to cropped cardi/jacket

It's been all about the cozy around here. Temperatures as we know have been less than balmy and Shedquarters (my sewing room/summerhouse) has been a little chilly to say the least. So an extra layer (or two) has been a prerequisite recently. So I turned this oatmeal coloured "blah" fleece!

Into a cute little cropped cardi/jacket with simple lines, that sits just on the hip at the front and dips down at the back. 

Couldn't be simpler really. No raw edge finishing required as the fabric doesn't fray. Just a few cut's and minimal sewing. You can apply this to any similar fleece or sweatshirt. Full step by step on the blog!

A New Paganoonoo Design upcycled from men's dress shirts

My favorite version of the Paganoonoo Cindy Blouse pattern so far is this dark grey and white beauty. I scour the thrift stores for large and/or broad stripes and when I spotted this one I knew it was a winner. It's a poly/cotton blend, as is the white one.  Both have a nice hand yet do not hold on to wrinkles. I used some of what I learned in my fashion class, Principles of Design, to create the shape in white.  It mimics a mock hourglass silhouette echoing bust, waist, hips on the left side of the blouse.  It's impossible to look at the blouse without focusing on this shape. Besides creating a pleasing design, it also breaks up the width the blouse, giving the impression of slimness.                    Happy Thrifting and Happy Upcycling!

 

Flower Power Part 1

Hello Refashion Co-op. It's Chickie here. I was snowed in for 5 days and did a lot of sewing. Here is the first of a floral top refashion.

It started with this pretty top. The bold design is great. I love it. The ruffle and full cut of the top really looked awful. It was so puffy. I am a little top heavy anyway, this top just made it worse. I looked like a balloon. A pretty floral balloon.

I decided to put part of it together with a plain blue T shirt. It was a nice color and it was long sleeved. It would be much better for winter. It's really cold out there.

Here is the finished top. I thought the dark color would help me look less puffy and the T shirt means both my shoulders are covered. I like that too.

For more pictures and details go to, I Can Work With That.

Thanks for reading, now go make something fun for yourself.

The easy DIY dress refashion + quick mistake fix

I’ve had these two less than stellar dresses hiding in my stash for ages:

Ugh, the grey one is shapelessly stretched out and the other, although adorable, shrank in the wash and is now too short to cover my bits so a refashion is definitely in order!

So much better! Discover how I combined those two dreadful dresses + my quick fix for the refashionista mistake I make far too often in my groovy video tute.

Denim overall dress

For a while now, I've wanted an overall dress, sort of like this one. When I saw this huge, lightweight denim dress, I knew it was the perfect based for such a dress.

I started by chopping it in half so that the bottom part was the right length to be the skirt.

I decided to gather the skirt, since that's more flattering on me. I also thought a waistband would look good, so I removed this one from an old pair of too-big jeans.

I used the top part of the dress to fashion the front and back panels of the overalls. It was a bit challenging to get my stitching to match the existing stitching, but it was worth it.

I cut the waistband into a front piece and a back piece, then started to put the pieces together, like so.

I wanted to look of the patent leather straps, but not the risk of them being destroyed in the dryer, so I opted for removable straps. I took two belts I bought for $1 each from the thrift shop, cut them to size, and glued big snaps onto the undersides of both ends. 

 

After hand-sewing the other halves of the snaps onto the dress, and a few small snaps at the waistband, my new overall dress was ready to go. 

Front view

Back view

I started this refashion way back in November, when it wasn't so cold, but I hope to get some good use out of it when it warms up again. Or I may just wear it with fleece leggings and a sweater!

Thanks for reading!   -Amy