Progress...

I may have bit off more than I can chew, and discovered why skirt-to-tunic refashions are not more popular!
:)  Here is my in-progress project. It's not pressed yet, and you can tell. Let me saw it looks FAR better on the mannequin than on me. Sigh. At the moment, it is looking a bit like a dental assistant is going sailing!

Here's what I did so far:

• opened up the pocket to make the armholes. This I thought was brilliant. We shall see. 
• sewed up the shoulder seam, from top of pocket to about 4" from center. (across what used to be the waist)
• the V neck is where the zipper used to be
• took a side seam from just below pocket, into waist at an angle and then back out to hem. (A big triangle cut out of what was formerly the side of the skirt.)
• I wanted the handerchief points. We shall see
• I do LOVE the mix of prints. Just might not be right yet. 

So far, that is all. The waist band here is pinned. So is the black material around the neckline. The bow is actually the collar from the shirt the black fabric came from. The collar shape as bow has potential for someone. Perhaps not me. We shall see...

I was aiming for something Anthropologie-like. There is still WAY too much volume in the peplum. I was considering an exposed zipper in the back, but was trying to keep it loose enough that I didn't need to go there. Might HAVE to go there! As I said, there is still a lot of volume!! 

I may lose the bat wing sleeves. (I'm sleeping on it!)  But wanted to share my progress. You all are so accomplished with this king of thing, I wanted to document my fits and starts on this, my first real refashion!

Suggestions welcome. As we've noted though, I may not take them! hehehehehe

Thanks anyway!

Jenni

glam.spoon intro

Hello everyone!

Thank you to Erica for the invitation to join Refashion Co-op! I'm so glad to have found this site and look forward to becoming a part of the world wide refashioning community...

I consider myself a textile designer and my main focus for the past 5 years has been my handmade women's clothing business called glam.spoon. It began in my closet as a project to rework the items hanging there that never quite worked. I really enjoyed the challenge of using recycled materials, so I started shopping for more projects at thrift stores. My process is backwards from fashion design, letting the materials inspire the new garment, rather than sketching and sourcing. I now sell my designs in local boutiques and at trunk sales around Seattle.

Although I started out with a plan to deconstruct used clothing completely and create a new garment from scratch, after a while I became obsessed with refashioning. Last fall I created an entire couture holiday dress collection using recycled and hand dyed cotton.

More images here.

I've also enjoyed refashioning jewelry and old junk, and love to mix metals and stones, fabric and leather - you name it. I sell my refashioned jewelry at Tasty in Greenwood.

I branched into home products last fall and created a collection of recycled cotton/linen hand pleated and dyed pillows for our home (below). I also sell recycled cashmere throws at a local Seattle boutique called Nube Green dedicated to all things recycled.

My latest project was a leather shoulder bag refashion, which I blogged about here. Not a dramatic transformation, but I think it has a lot more personality!

I look forward to sharing more projects

and reading about all your creative endeavors.

-glamspoon

A no-sew refashion to dye for!

Hello refashion lovers! It is Thursday again in my part of the world, which means I'm on editor duty.

Yesterday I did my first dye refashion experiment. I found an awesome tutorial on fabric dyeing clothes in a jar on BurdaStyle, an alternative to tie dyeing, and had to try it.

Here is the before and after, using a beautiful, but alas stained, Portman's shirt given to me by a friend.




You could go full-on hippie with dye, and wear with flowing skirts and Jesus sandals, or you could choose to dress it up ....


I have written my own step-by-step tutorial over on my blog. Go on readers, release your inner hippie and give jar dyeing a try!

Convertible dress

Hey! I decided to make a couple of convertible items of clothing...I love garments that can be worn many ways.

I knew I had to have this fabric when I found it at one of my local op-shops :

$1.99 for 2m ^ _^ I love bargins!

I also knew I wanted to make a dress from it but it wasn't till this morning I decided to make a convertible dress...this is a very simple dress to make with only 4 pieces: circle skirt, waist band and two straps...there is an easy to follow tutorial here. Heres mine:

I love it! I'm definately going to make another in this style when I can find myself some suitable fabric. I've made a couple other convertible dresses using a different pattern and they always get alot of compliments and are very fun to wear :)

I would have taken more pics if my rechargable camera batteries would actually stay charged long enough...grrr. So I will post more pics on my FB page sometime this week aswell as the convertible bikini top I made but didn't get a chance to photograph!

Sweater to yarn to shawl refashion

I am so excited to share this refashion with you all. It has been a first in many ways. It's my first refashion to share on the Refashion Co-op. It's the first item I have knitted using my own recycled yarn. The yarn was from the first sweater I tried recycling. Finally, it was the first time I tried knitting a lace shawl, or any shawl really.

I have added more photos and links to a post on Grey Duckling.

If you are interested in recycling your own yarn let me point you to this introduction I wrote. If you would like to join a knit-along or are interested in the shawl pattern let me point you to this post on Historic Crafts about the Echo Flower Shawl knit along (KAL).



Do you want to see more photos?

I would love to hear what you think and whether you have done something similar!