Category Archives: Refashion

Drab Olive Green T-Shirt Blooms

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Apparently I like olive green, because I seem to have a lot of tops in this color. After awhile it gets boring though so I thought I’d apply my generally not-so-green thumb to this t-shirt to see if I could get it to blossom into something a little more interesting. Had enough of the bad puns? Me too. Let’s get sewing.

Once again I jumped right in, forgetting to take a before picture. I searched the Internet trying to find a pic of the Kimchi Blue top but couldn’t find one so you’re just going to have to trust me that it was pretty blah before I started.

I have a box of embroidery pieces in my refashion stash which I dumped out onto my top and started playing around with until I had what I wanted. The backs of these flowers are sticky which makes it easy to play with the positioning. Tip: if you have embroidery pieces that you want to play around with before sewing them on you can use a fabric glue stick on the back of the embroidery.

Once I had everything in place I tried using my sewing machine to sew them on but that was just a big mess. I unpicked my botched sewing job, repositioned the flowers and sat down to a good movie with a needle and thread.  A couple of hours later I had my new t-shirt ready to wear.

close up

I actually like that the background for these flowers is so drab. It makes the flowers pop. You can’t tell from this picture but there are way more flowers on one side of the bodice than the other. Symmetrical looked too cutesy. However this t-shirt isn’t done yet.

one last detail

I had this little rose-shaped button which I stitched on to cover the end of a vine that ended awkwardly. I love how fixing a problem often gives you a better result than your original plan.

After trying it on I realized I needed to do a couple more things to make it more wearable.

1) The neckline is pretty low. I’ve been wearing cami’s under it but I think it’s time this t-shirt was able to stand on it’s own. I searched through my scrap stash and found some pink fabric which I could make into a dickey. I really do not like that word. And technically it’s not a dickey that I made but an insert. So insert it is.

finished top with insert worn full length

 

2) This t-shirt is very long, almost a tunic and I don’t always want to wear it that long so I threaded a silk cord through the bottom hem which I can use to gather the bottom of the t-shirt to make it as short or as long as I want.

 

worn short

If you take anything away from this refashion I hope it’s that with the insertion of a bodice piece you can make a top more modest and by threading a ribbon through the existing hem casing you can make a top adjustable. Enjoy!

Ski Sweater Part 1

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Today I decided to refashion a ski sweater that I’ve loved for many years.

give me a moment before I cut this to pieces

For the last year it’s danced between my refashion pile and my closet. Every time that I place it in my refashion pile I regret it and put it back in the closet. The thing is, I never actually wear it anymore. Today is the day that I admit that I’m never going to wear this sweater again. I still love the print (or mix of prints) but it’s tragically outdated and I know that once I get past the first cut I’ll be glad I did this.

Step 1: no more sleeves

This refashion is an easy and probably pretty obvious one – leg warmers.

A couple of zig-zags later and I’m sporting a new pair of leg warmers.

gotta luv a good leg warmer

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this ski sweater refashion. It’s a surprise twist for sure.

 

Cashmere Leftovers

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This post is a rescue refashion. A bit of fabric rescued from the scrap pile of another refashion.

When I was in Michigan I stopped by one of my favorite refashion resources – the Charlotte Goodwill Outlet. We have Goodwill Outlets in Orange County but they are not as good as this one. I always find really good sweaters and this time after doing my first run through – where I through everything that I remotely like into my cart – while I was editing my finds I  noticed that I had lots of off-white sweaters and tan sweaters. Light bulb moment!  I can always use comfy sweaters when I’m in Michigan so why not combine these sweaters and make an off-white poncho and a tan poncho.

comfy but not wearable (yet)

 

 

I haven’t yet finished either poncho. What you see below is what’s leftover after blocking out and cutting the tan poncho. I had intended to toss the remains aside, maybe to be cut up into potholders or pillow covers but when I popped it onto my dress form I saw the  makings of a smaller poncho than the two I was working on. This would be a nice poncho to take back to California.

cashmere leftovers - you heard me right CASHMERE!

Before we go any further, let’s do a rewind. When I was planning out my original ponchos I used scissors to cut away the seams from the wrist ribbing all the way up the sleeve and down the side of sweater. Then I cut away chunks of the sweater which included the ribbing from the bottom of the sweater and the sleeves. What I ended up with was a poncho with a lot of right angles that doesn’t have the same line in the back as it does in the front but it works.

snip - snip

Below is a pic of the white sweater after the seam removal operation so you can see what the end result looks like before you start the poncho reconstruction. Yes I realize that this is not the same sweater I’m using for this refashion but I hope you’ll forgive me because I wasn’t even planning to use the tan sweater in a refashion at all – so we’ve got a two-fer going on here.

post seam surgery

Did you notice how I folded up the end of the white sweater? I thought it would make a nice kangaroo pocket. It would, but I didn’t end up going in that direction after all – but that’s another story altogether.

Back to the tan poncho. When I originally cut it up I was trying to get as much of the ribbing from the sleeves and the bottom as possible to use on the larger tan poncho I was creating, which left me with the smaller poncho above with a very different shape than I would have planned. But I liked it. Apart from some very jagged edges, I could take it off my dress form and call it done, but it didn’t feel finished to me. I decided that I wanted some sort of trim along the bottom edge. I took a field trip to Joanne’s Fabrics but couldn’t find anything that would work and besides I really don’t like buying new items to make my refashions work. I prefer to raid my own stash or go on a garage sale safari. After a good stash pile rummage I found this t-shirt that looked to be a good candidate. I had originally envisioned a lush fringe but since I didn’t have any fringe in my stash I think this t-shirt will do fine. More than fine. It looks as if it was made to go with the color of this sweater!

I think it's a match!

 

Starting at the bottom of the t-shirt I used my rotary cutter to cut 3 inch wide strips, then sewed them together into one long strip until I had enough to edge my poncho.

ready for a future refashion 🙂

Luckily this was a tunic length t-shirt so I’ll be using the leftover top for another refashion.

I pinned the t-shirt strip to the poncho with the right sides together and zig-zagged everything together being careful  not to pull as I stitched so that the seams wouldn’t be stretched out and ruffly. I also used this as an opportunity to fix the ragged cuts that I had made in the poncho since I hadn’t been concerned when I first made the cuts that I would need the rest of the sweater for another project.

ziz-zag seam closeup

I liked the poncho but felt like I wanted to jazz up the trim a bit. I first tried a twisted rolled hem.

hmmmm - don't think so

 

Then I tried just folding the trim under to create a finished edge.

hmmmm - not loving it

 

Okay, so I’m going to leave the edge unfinished, but I can’t quite call it done yet. The trim bunches up at the sharp angles on this poncho.

hmmmm - what's wrong with this picture?

 

An easy fix though. Just cut through the trim from the corner straight back to the end of the width of the trim.

getting better

just checkin'

 

If I had thought it through I would have mitered the corners, but since that’s not an option now I added some buttons at the corners just to give it a little more detail.

button #1

button #2

I won’t show you button #3 and #4 but let it be known that they are the same size as the first two buttons with a slightly different coloring and embossed design. I like it like that. I don’t think something needs to be perfectly symmetrical to feel balanced.

 

no more lumps and bumps

You can’t see the buttons in this shot but it’s late and I need to schedule this one to post, so you’ll have to trust me that the buttons added just the right little detail to finish it off.  I wore this poncho to a wind instruments concert and not only did it dress up my jeans a bit it was nice and cozy as I sat in the cold theater.

Update: I left this poncho in my truck one day and now it’s ready to grab whenever a day turns a little chilly. Since it’s become a favorite of mine I wanted to give you some pics of how it looks on a real body instead of my dress form.

My photographer - the one on the left.

Notice my slouchy socks? They're actually the sleeves of another sweater I used to make another poncho.

 

Okay, that’s it. I’m done posing. Have a great weekend all!

 

 

Gray Slasher Scarf

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I love scarves. They can turn a drab outfit into something fabulous. They can keep you warm on a chilly evening. They can be used as a tourniquet after an unfortunate kitchen accident … That said, I do have a scarf collection that needs a little help. For instance, this gray scarf is – well, gray and so it isn’t going to turn a drab outfit into something fabulous. It needed some help. I could have dyed it but I didn’t have any dye around that I wanted to use for this scarf. What I did have was a pair of scissors. Hint – don’t give a girl with a hankering to change something a pair of scissors. Strange things can happen.

plain gray scarf

I tried out my idea on a piece of paper and when I had it down I moved to my scarf. I started by accordian folding the scarf into a flat bundle.

two steps later

After folding the scarf I used binder clips to hold each end so that it wouldn’t slip around while I was doing the cutting. I used a ruler and marked it every two inches on the top side, then offset the marks on the bottom side. Then I cut about an inch in at each mark. After finishing the project I realized that I could have cut almost to or right to the half way point on the scarf and I would have ended up with a “lacier” scarf.

After unfolding the scarf and realizing that I wanted it to look lacier, rather than trying to get the original slashes to line up perfectly so that I could cut them deeper into the scarf, I folded it as close as I could to how it was originally folded, then folded the left binder clip over so that it rested on the right binder clip then folded again in the same direction so that I had a square bundle of fabric. I then made one slash in the middle of the bundle so that when I unfolded it I had a new set of slashes that ran perpendicular to the original slashes. If that’s confusing, you can just skip that step. I just wanted my scarf to look a little more lacey and less like a slasher scarf.

After unfolding the scarf I found a couple of spots where my cuts were off and quickly darned them up.

darning

darned

Don’t worry – my mending job won’t show once the scarf is on. The last step is to insert my fingers into the holes and gently pull so that the edges of each slash curl in.

And here I am showing a variety of ways to wear my new slasher scarf:

shawl

over the shoulder

looped and knotted

backwards shawl

looped twice & knotted to the side

That’s it – the fashion show is over. Besides I’m sure you all can think of lots more ways to wear this scarf.