My Make it in May Skirt

Thanks to Miss Curly Pops lot of skirts are being made this month that might otherwise never have seen the light of day.

This is mine.

A simple circular table cloth which had it's waist hole cut out weeks (and more) ago.

It's a lovely winter weight fabric and I am very glad that it will be able to be used this year.

For more wonderful and neat sewing try the Flickr group.

Little jobs = lots of satisfaction

They are only little bits of sewing but to my mind they equate to three more jobs off my list so three less things I still have to do.
The skirt I picked up from the op shop the other week was a size 12 which is really a tad (or more) too small unless I wanted to wear it as a corset. That was easy to fix. Simply remove the zip, cut about 3 inches off, reattach the lining and the zip and now I have a really happy skirt to wear.
Next was that long forgotten quilt top. I simply cut a piece of the corner fabric to match the over all size, sewed around it at 0ne in the morning, turned it inside-out and ironed it.
One new bed cover for those hot summer nights.
And last was the Bible cover I finally whipped up for myself out of material I found under my bed whilst seeking the backing fabric for my bed cover.
Three simple, simple jobs but so often I don't possess the push to just do even the simple tasks.
In other news I have taken the 14 days free trial on ancestry.
Lots of late night trawling, digging and even the odd skeleton in the closet being revealed.
Lots of fun.

Another t shirt embellished and refashioned

 I hope I'm not boring you with all my refashions but I'm having heaps of fun doing them. 

This one is done with a simple $5 tee from K Mart.

Why?

Because I liked the colour. 

Specifically I wanted a colour I could wear with this circle skirt which was made a couple of years ago from an old tablecloth.

But a plain $5 t shirt isn't very inspiring so I decided to jazz it up with the help of some doilies.

Unfortunately, two doilies were hurt in the course of this job.

I used two squarish ones and laid them diagonally along the v neckline then simply sewed along the original seam line and snipped the left over pieces off in the back and zigzagged them neat.

The work didn't take much longer than the typing of this once I had made up my mind to do it.

Because the top was a little long and wide I took it in on the sides and ruched it up by applying ordinary 1/2 centimetre elastic along it using a largish zigzag stitch.

I found that the elastic needs to be stretched almost to it's ultimate stretch to give the effect I want.

And that's about it.

Except that I then decided to use the scraps I had cut offfrom the sides and make a little decoration for the centre.

Psst.

Thankyou to everyone who said to mow.

I did but it's rained heaps this week and it all needs redoing.

O dear.
Looks like I'm going to have to do it all over again.

T-shirt refashion

Take one Black Pepper t-shirt with a touch of bling

Cut a couple of inches of the hem. 

Slit it down the centre.

Shape the neckline and undo and inch or so of the shoulder seam.

Sew beautiful cotton lace purchased by beautiful daughter whilst in New York along the bottom.

Sew more beautiful lace along the centre.

Do a touch of handsewing, including attaching some buttonsand neatening the shoulder seams etc.

Now you have a refashioned Black Pepper t-shirt jacket.

Hooray!

My creative space

Not much happening here this week but I have managed to cut out the pattern for a skirt for my oldest daughter. 

Thrifted wool fabric and thrifted pattern.

I can't cut the material until my nerves settle otherwise I'll make a mistake with the lines.

I hate lines!

Any ideas on how to line a skirt with front pleats?

For more
Creative Spaces please see the lovely Kootoyoo.

Job done

And here's the finished skirt.

I took the pattern by tracing through baking paper from a 12 gored denim skirt I love. 

Because I wasn't totally exact in my seam allowance I've ended up with a slightly larger than needed waistaband even though I added elastic in the waistband seam. 

Might try to correct this in the next version.

Overall I am very happy with this - even the zipper went in easily. 

My daughters hate it but my friends don't and since I have come to the conclusion that I shall return to my youthful eccentricity I don't care either way.

A project for this weekend

It started as a tablecloth and was quickly cut into odd shaped strips

then sewn back together to look like this.

It's going to be my new skirt .

What are you making this quiet weekend?

What to wear for walking.

We stayed at the Falls Mountain Retreat in Wentworth Falls. 

We had a top studio with a rear outlook onto trees and the central courtyard in the front.
It was a lovely quiet place to stay

OK Here I am ready for a bushwalk in the Blue Mts.

I haven't been bushwalking in years but I did grow up doing a fair amount.

If there are any runners in my possesion I can't remember where they are so I donned these flat sandals.

Then we came to our first off-the-track spot.

The water was divinely cool and we took advantage of it by having a little splashing fun.

Next stop down the track and I still haven't returned the shoes to my feet.

I love walking barefooted.

Even through mud.

And over stones.

I've discovered (?) that my knees no longer have that old spring in them so walking without shoes helps me to get a better feel for the surface and react quicker than I would with shoes.

Maybe I am still just a little kid but it seems like my daughter enjoys the experience too.

She did end up putting her runers back on but I walked all the way home in my bare feet (except for the bits of hot tar on the final stretch!).

My blouse is a genuine, baggy $10 top from Millers that started with a full collar, longer length and rolled up sleeves secured with tabs. 

It's one of the few things I have bought new for a while but even then my intention was simply to use the basic cut and light material and transform it into my own product.

I've shirred about 2 inches at waist height between the back darts, shortened the overall lenth as well as the sleeves and replaced the collar with a v-neck. 

The crochet detail was originally a round doily. 

There was only enough for the front of the blouse so now I know that I would need a bigger doily or a smaller width from the outside of the same size doily to go around the full neck.

I simply cut it in half after removing the centre, sewed the edges down and bound the whole neck with a bit of bias made from the leftovers. 

The central crochet flower is to hide the fact that I've stretched the neck a bit in the making.

The other piece of material

I can't believe I have used two fresh pieces of material in such a short period of time.

If I had gone to the shop to buy fabric it would have sat for so long that I forgot what I bought it for and ended up giving it away. Apparently that is what happened to Karen from and-so-i-sew which was really lucky for me because she sent me some of her forgotten pieces and it came at just the right time for me to be inspired enough to do something. 

First off I gave one piece away, then I made the red dress and now the last piece has been made into a tiered skirt for number one daughter.

Here she is wearing it on a cold, wet day on Bondi Beach. 

We had never been there so checked it out on our way home from the Blue Mts.

Today I'm........

....finishing off this skirt for a friend. I found the dress, a size 12, and knew instantly that it belonged to Mellie. Unfortunately, she is a tiny size 8.

So with the help of a mutual friend who does her ironing I cut the skirt down to size yesterday.

Today I've done everything except sew the final hem and finish the waistband.

Haven't decided what i will do with that yet as I want to keep the fabric from the top of the dress to make something else with.

......receiving this in the mail.

I bought these from an etsy seller called Needle Creations.

These are divine. Perfectly made and so tiny.

I think I am going back for more.

Happy, happy, happy

Kate from Foxs Lane suggested we tell the world our reasons for happiness today. 

I have to say my number one happiness today was learning how to crochet ric-rac which I learned from Kate's very own tutorial. It is so simple. I've made it using some thrifted cotton I picked up last week.

And can you beat these gorgeous cushions at only a dollar each. I didn't even know their price but I knew they were mine as soon as I saw them.

So creamy and rich in their crochet.

They are dfinitely keepers.

I am also very happy that we can get secondhand clothing here so cheaply. Many ideas here for me, my daughter and friends.

And I am happy for the lovely small circular cloth my friend dropped on my lap this morning.

And above all I am happy for having such wonderful company to enjoy every Friday morning.

Such great friends whose company inspires with it's intellectual, spiritual or trivial content depending on our joint moods. 

I never fail to have been lifted emotionally when I part from them.

Three in one hit

Preparation for three dresses that is!

These are the centres of four tablecloths that will be fitted onto singlets to become dresses for moi. 

I've had that orange one forever. 

Wait till you see the whole dress. 

What an eyeful!

That's probably why I was drawn to the pink and white combo - a checked laura ashley table cloth combined with an almost sheer white and pink floral. 

Hope it isn't too little girlish for me because this really appeals to me at the moment and is looking so pretty draped a round my white bedroom.

Now for the real work - sewing!!

Wonder how long that will take?

CFM or Clothes For Mum Challenge

"The brief is to spend the next month (October 23rd - November 19th) focusing on sewing clothes for yourself."
Now isn't that wonderful.
I'm sure most of us do heaps of sewing for others, markets, etc but seldom use our talents to adorn ourselves.
But for nearly a month we can take on the challenge of caring a little extra for us too.

My creative space - cardigan overhaul

I'm working on transforming this lovely cardy. So far I have tea dyed it so that it is not grey but an ecru sort of colour and attached gathered lace. I am still not happy with the colour and will probably end up dyeing it brown and changing the buttons.
All in time for next winter.
Grrrr.

For more creative peeps try here.

A vogue skirt for zilch - almost

Friends brought me make a swatch of fabric from their holidays reminiscent of my earlier taste because they still think of me that way. What is funny is that this is rather like some fabric I used in a dress about 25 years ago. At the same time, I had just picked up some super cheap patterns (think 20c and 50c) from the op shop.
(If you are not the smallest size on the list it would be good to check whether your size has been cut off or not. I wasted a whole 50 cents because I didn't!!)
Being all hyped up with the idea of actually using these patterns, I decided to combine the Vogue skirt with my fabric.
Now, ordinarily, I wouldn't use backed curtain fabric for a skirt but I though this would be a good chance to make a muslim style trial and still have something pretty to wear.

I really cheated with this so it would be finished today - just a row of black lace instead of a hem and the waist is simply lined with some old black bias and turned under. I learned how to make proper waistbands way back when but I prefer to not have any as I think it gives a nicer silhouette.

Not sure how often I will wear this but the exercise has certainly boosted my confidence.

Another circular tablecloth dress

We seem to have joined the ranks of the sickies here but before we did we were able to attend a goodbye party for some friends who are off to Thailand. Knowing the family who threw the party I expect that this was a good excuse to show off the newly fixed garden before the long awaited baby arrives next week. Because I had just bought this tablecloth on ebay I decided that it would be nice to wear that night so transfomed it ito a dress during the morning. These are really fast to make, 20 minutes or so, and even look reasonable on plump old chooks like me.