Upcycled Tees

Ever since I started my sewing journey I have tried to upcycle/ refashion existing garments. Over the half term holidays I spent a day doing just this. I had several of my hubby's t-shirts that didn't fit him, so I had a look at them to see what could be made, rather than ditching them.

3 of them I made into t-shirts for me. I had to choose a pattern carefully so that I could fit the pieces on the existing body/ sleeves of the t-shirts. I considered both the Stellan T-shirt pattern and the Basic InstincTee.

Both of these are free patterns, but I found that the stellan pieces were a touch too wide so I used the size small of the Basic InstincT tee. This fits my frame well and the shoulders are a good width, which is always my issue with T shirts!

The Blue and Black Tees had a graphic print on, so I had to be careful to place the front in a good position to have the print placed well. I cut self bands from the T shirt hems to create the neckline.

The grey Tee was plain and I used some contrast ribbing from my stash to add a neckband and sleeve bands.

These are already getting some wear with my new wide legged Dawn jeans.

The other couple of Tees were desitined to be made into underwear. I used my TNT Watson pattern by Cloth habit. I thought I had nailed the fit on this, and I have with the regular band, but the longline version fits very differently. The hook and eye is very low at the back and this means there is not as much underbust support, which is where fitting is key in a bra. The longline version is wearable, but the fit is not great. I really like the back version though. Lingerie is fab to make from t shirts as the pieces are so small.

All the elastics and hardware I had in my stash. I lined the cups with mesh and used cotton for the inside of the front band, making it stable.

I enclosed all the seams so it looks pretty neat! I really should have different colours in my bobbin thread to ensure that it matches the elastic - but life is too short.

The knickers are also the watson pattern, but the waist is raised by 2cm. I do need to find a good source of suitable elastic for knickers as my options are not the best here.

Summer Linen T shirt - Hoodie Dress Hack and refashion

Who doesn't love a light linen top when it hot, hot, hot? I had been wondering about making a Linen top for some time, but couldn't get my hands on fabric that I liked - I need to feel the hand of fabrics like linen to check they are the right weight - I had all but given up on the idea when I devoded to clear out my wardrobe. Lurking at the back were a pair of white linen trousers I bought several years ago from Asda. They were a size too big and initislly went into the charity shop pile as I just don't wear them enough to keep them. However I remembered my desire for a linen top and decided to try and refashion the trousers into a top.

First up I needed a woven t shirt pattern. I knew I loved The Assembly Line Hoodie Dress and I'd made two hooded versions which you can read about here and here, and a short sleeve hood-less version that I made last year.

I used the bodice pieces, the neck facing and the short sleeve that I drafted last year. The trousers were prepared by removing the waistband and cutting up the inseam and crotch seams, leaving the outer leg seams intact.

This allowed me to cut the bodice fronts from the upper part of the leg. Then the sleeves from the lower part. The facing was cut in sections, where I could find enough fabric. There was enough fabric left at the bottom of the legs to add onto the bottom of the t shirt (just over 10cm). I was glad about that as it would have been VERY cropped without it.

You can see the side seams of the legs have ended up just off centre, but I kind of like it - I deliberately mis-matched these with seams on the bottom extension.

This top certain fits the Refashioners 2020 theme of #usewhatyouhave. I was so glad to wear this today as it was super cool to wear at work. I really needed it - It was hot and sticky! I certainly think this will ge far more wear as a top than it ever got as trousers.

In fact my whole outfit is refashioned. The necklace is one I made a few weeks ago with some repurposed buttons and My culottes were made 2 years ago from an Ikea curtain - burdastyle pattern. I love it when I can give something a new lease of life, don't you?

Zero Waste Culottes

Happy Easter! I've had two weeks off work and lots of time to be creative. I've helped my daughter with some fundraising and made her prom dress. I've done a fitting for a wedding dress I'm making and I've altered another wedding dress - lots of selfless sewing. So this Easter weekend it was time to refashion the pile of Jeans I've had lingering in the wardrobe.

I used some old jeans and offcuts from previous projects. This pile of denim had been destined for the bin until I decided to reuse some of it. The rest has not gone to waste and I'm in the process of piecing it together to get some usable yardage.

I pulled out my trusty culottes pattern, which is #114 from 03/2016 edition of Burdastyle magazine. This requires just 1.5m of fabric. after harvesting as much of the jeans fabric as I could I pieced the scraps together to make big enough pieces to get the legs out of. I took a pair of back pockets off one of the pairs of jeans I was using and kept them for the back of the culottes. I quite like that you can see the dark patch of denim where one of these pockets was placed originally on the front of the finished pair. I used offcuts of cotton for the pocket bags in order to reduce the bulk.

This pattern is an easy sew. The straight cut of the legs means that it is quite easy to cut from regular fabric with very very little wastage and made them a perfect option for a refashion. The legs are shaped at the waist using a pleat on the trouser front and darts at the back. I cut a size 38 but I increased the back darts by about 1cm each and took off about the same of the CB seam at the waist. It's what I need to do to make sure they fit at the waist and the hip. I also drafted a curved waistband to help with the fit. 

The culottes came together quickly and I used some grey extra strong thread for topstitching as It seemed to fit the faded denim quite well, rather than use a new brashy gold. Most of the topstitching went well but the waistband was problematic. My trusty Bernina struggled to go through all the layers and the tread caught frequently. From the right side, it looks ok, but the inside is a mess, despite hammering the seams and steaming the heck out of them. I really need to do the stitching again, but I think I might leave it until I've washed them a couple of times and the fabric has settled. I think using a bigger sized needle might help too.

I haven't added a button or buttonhole yet. I couldn't find the back to the Jeans button I had and I need to sort out the topstitching thread to get a good finish when I do the buttonhole.

I love the shape of these and I'm sure they will get quite a lot of wear over the summer months.

Cambie refashioned

A couple of years ago I made this Sewaholic Cambie dress. I know we don't see many around the blogosphere these days, but a few years ago, everyone was making it. I was drawn by the line drawings and the makes that I saw online.

So I jumped in and made it out of this fantastic IKEA fabric. The instructions were faultless and I finished this dress beautifully. fully lined - even I'm impressed with the finish I did on this dress.

It fitted fine, but there was just something off with it and I couldn't put my finger on quite what was wrong. Hence I have only worn it a couple of times and that is a waste! I've since decided that it's the proportions of the bodice that was wrong for me. The balance of the design just didn't suit my frame.

I considered sending it to the charity shop, but the truth is I love the fabric and the skirt part. I also had a small piece of the fabric left - just enough to create a basic bodice front. I found enough white cotton in my stash to make the lining. So inspired by "The Refashioners" Inspired by... theme I decided to remake this dress with a nod to 1950's style. and I just love the neckline on this dress worn by Audrey Hepburn, so this is what I aimed to recreate.

I took the bodice apart and carefully reused the back pieces and cut a new bodice front with bust and waist darts. I made a slightly extended shoulder to fit the original Cambie back pieces but widened the neckline to a boat neck. I used my self-drafted block for this.

Miraculously the new bodice fitted the waistband perfectly. I was expecting to have to do a bit of

adjustment, but not so. I attached the new bodice and lapped zipper by machine and then slip stitched the lining back into place.

I think this is a much better style for me and I think I might just wear it more than I did the last one.
(Photos were taken by my daughter whilst on a rather windy dog walk with Daisy our Wheaten Terrier)

How to make garments a little more interesting

It's close to the end of April, which means Me May May is just around the corner. Are you taking part?

I am and this year along with pledging to wear me-made clothes every day I decided to embrace my creativity and wear what the heck I like - expressing my inner artist.

So how do you do that?

Well for me it goes back to my days as an art student in the 1990's when I would take items I found at the local Flea Market and adapt them. I remember having rainbow dyed dungarees (which were at least 3 sizes too beg, but I didn't care), purple jeans, Dunlop Greenflash trainers, DM's, I pinched a floral shirt from my hubby (then boyfriend) and also wore his leather jacket loads - I loved the smell of Patchouli. I also wore long skirts, baggy crepe de chine trousers, short skirts or shorts with black tights and a range of different t shirt and tops, some of these things I made (badly), some were second hand. One of the items I bought from the flea market was a green army jacket which I embroidered with flowers and wore with everything.

 25 years later and I'm back to embroidering jackets. A couple of years ago I chose this jacket at a clothes swap. I quite liked the style, with its 3/4 sleeve and felt it would be perfect for spring/ summer wear - but it was just too Brown and Boring. So a few weeks ago I began to embroider it with patterns and textures - making it up as I went along.

I haven't done any embroidery for years, so it's not the neatest or most exact work I've ever done and although I know how to do many stitches I'm not actually very good at them, especially the filling stitches - something to work on.

Even though it's not perfect, I'm now looking forward to wearing this and embracing my art student style again.

So it's back to the Long skirts, patterns that don't match, Layers and lots of colour and as much as I can get away with at work - hey I'm an art teacher - I can get away with lots of things. the only thing I'll be shying away from are my high heels. After my recent hip op I cant spend a whole day in heels - a couple of hours is fine, but it's flats all the way for work.
So are you doing Me Made May?

Sunny Sunday

What a stunning day!
Warm enough to walk without wearing a coat.
I decided to take the dog for a walk along the beach.

It's on days like this that I really do appreciate the fantastic location that we live in. Sometimes I can take it for granted, but I love that I can be on the beach in 5 minutes. It feeds my soul beaing near to the sea.

In other news - I've started to refashion a blouse that is rather shapeless and too long. I'm creating lots of small tucks/ darts to add shape.

Now that's Cowl!

This is a quick refashion I did today. It's the first time I've worked with knit fabrics and the results aren't perfect, but they are wearable.

I got the skirt at my last clothes swap, but it was a small size 8 and was rather too tight at the waist. I thought it might make a nice cowl dress - I was going to do one with Kimono sleeves, but there wasn't enough fabric.

I've been on the lookout for a cowl pattern in jersey and low and behold there was one in this month's Burdastyle magazine. (11/2013 #112) I traced off the pattern and made up the dress. it was rather too big at the waist and lacked definition, so I took about two inches off at the waist on both sides.

Not bad for a first go - I'm thinking this will be paired with leggings, boots and my teal coloured cardigan.

Flower Applique Skirt

While watching the Great British Sewing Bee last night I was reminded of the Skirt I refashioned a while ago. Stuart, one of the contestants, refashioned a skirt with flower shaped pockets and free motion embroidery. This is similar to how I created this skirt - but it didn't have any pockets on it!
You can find the original post here.