Archive for the ‘refashion’ Category

Refashion Fail – Mostly

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My internet pal Laura sent me a few seriously awesome gems to refashion a few weeks ago. This is the first of them. I love the stripes and the placket (Funny enough, Hello Holiday has something similar in stock). I also liked the mix of horizontal and vertical stripes. 

They’re not nearly as dizzying in person, FYI. Since the shirt was too big in the shoulders, I thought I would take it apart and use the Banksia pattern to make it fit me. It was an epic fail. I didn’t follow the pattern like I should have and got a pretty wonky result.

I’m not sure if you can tell from here, but my darts are lopsided. WHAT? And they’re really pointy. The neck hole is a bit too tight for me to button the placket up, too. I sort of halfway used a pattern and halfway winged it which makes for a disastrous end. It’s not entirely unsalvageable, fortunately. I think I’ll take out the darts and take in the waist. If all fails miserably, Penelope is pretty much just straight lines at this point and would look so adorable as a candy striper.

I’ve hit a bit of a rough patch recently with sewing and creativity. I keep telling myself: I’ll only fail if I don’t do anything creative.

 

Mini Trousers to Skirt Refashion

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While at the Sewing Summit Thrift hop, Carrie came across these adorable pants and suggested I get them for Penelope. It was a no brainer. Especially at a whopping $3.

They were about 3 sizes too big to keep as pants, so I made them into a skirt. And I did this in about 20 minutes from start to finish.

Aren’t these little details just adorable? I love the paper bag detailing on the sides and those little pockets.

I love those little embroidered flowers.

It fits her just above the knee when it’s at belly button height, which is really fortunate because I just eyeballed the length.
Doing this on your own takes very little time. Jen summed up the easy steps on her latest refashion swap tutorial. If the trousers are the right fit in the waist, it takes just one snip, two seams and a little bit of hemming. Seriously, you don’t really need to know how to use a sewing machine for something like this. It’s just straight lines.

 

Girly Boy Clothes

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I found this adorable linen jumper at a garage sale a while back. It was originally a boy’s outfit, but I just added lace to the collar. It’s a simple project that took me about 10 minutes to do.

How come it’s so easy to girl-ify boy’s clothes and impossible to boy-ify girl’s clothes?

On the other hand I totally buy girl’s jeans for Felix. Target and Walmart don’t really carry skinny jeans for boys, but they do for girls!

Refashion Swap Results

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The pants Carrie made for me arrived on Saturday. I have to admit, the elastic cuffed pants sorta scared me a bit, but I’m always willing to give something new a try.

The fit around my waist is perfect. even through the thighs. I think I might take them in a bit around the knees and ankles for more of a skinny effect, but they’re just fine as-is. Carrie did a fantastic job thinking outside the box for me. Make yourself a pair using Carrie’s refashion tutorial. Thanks for making me something awesome, Carrie!!

As it turns out, the skirt I made for jen has not arrived yet! I can’t wait to see how they fit on her, though. Below are all the ladies participating, see how their refashions fit:

Trouser Refashion Swap + Tutorial

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Another refashion swap is underway! The first swap was with button-up tops, it was so great to see the fun things that everyone made for one another. I’m equally excited about this go around. The idea with this Refashion Swap is to make something out of trousers.

Interesting thing, Chris was about to throw away these tan Armani slacks. They were too small and looking pretty worn in the back. It really was quite a beautiful suit that Chris would wear on occasion while we were dating; I couldn’t bear to just throw them away. Plus, the fabric (besides the backside) was in amazing condition.

I wanted to make Jen a simple skirt, something that could be worn in fall and transition into the colder months. I also wanted to use one of my metal zippers for an exposed zip back.

The skirt is designed to go from true waist to mid thigh. The finished length is 16″ long, perfect for a 12″ zip, a few buttons and a little slit for more movement. I did a slight high-low hemline here. I was planning on doing a cuff all around the hemline, but I wasn’t loving the look. Simple is sometimes the best solution.

I used biased tape for button loops and natural wood buttons that were given to me from NearSea Naturals at Sewing Summit last year. I’ve been meaning to use them in a project. Combined with the leather zipper pull, I think it creates a nice earth-meets-urban feel. I sure hope the skirt fits Jen like I planned! Here are all the ladies participating this go around. Be sure to check out their blogs for their creations:

Read more to learn how you can make your own pencil skirt from a pair of slacks.

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