For the chair

It seems that I have passed on some of my love for old things to at least one child.

Kara, my eldest, keeps appropriating my precious finds. This chair cost me a mere two dollars at a garage sale years ago. 

It was quickly recovered and then served as a dog chair downstairs at our last house. It's been sprayed for fleas many times and lately washed with a gentle bleach solution. The rain hit it often and possibly even the rottweiler and some native birds have sat in it. 

But now it serves as a cushion holder in Kara's bedroom. She claims she is taking it when she moves out shortly along with some of my other vintage bits and bobs. 

OK. I've agreed but only because I have too many. 

The latest batch of cushions were made from recycled skirts - one from a swap and the other bought at the thrift store - and filled with brand new inserts gifted by a friend who bought the covers cushions but didn't like the fact that they were so plump. 

The map at the rear is a piece of printed fabric found on the net and turned into a throw with a backing of fabric from Ikea.

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.

Slightly inspired

OK
 Maybe not so inspired but at least it got me out of doing the dishes. 

I promise that the colour looks better in real life.
What is really good about this refashion of a dated jumper is that I have just rescued it from the huge pile destined for a trip to the op shop.
Originally the top was bought with this sort of idea in mind but what happens to so many of my ideas also happened to it. It got hidden amongst all the rest of the garments that were bought secondhand so as to be refashioned.
I finally got tired of the huge pile. I had no idea what was in there and we have just received a no-fault termnation of our rental premises set to take place in about three months.
So it was either cull everything again or move huge unknown piles to the next place.I chose thw first option as the last move nearly killed me and I want this one to be easier.
Then tonight, while reading this post over on the Re-Fashion Co-op I got back enough mojo to actually do something.
A quick cut up the centre, some complimentary lace zigzagged on and I have a new cardi.
Maybe I'll hang on tho those bags for a couple more weeks and see what else pops out before I take them back.

 I didn't realise when I cut the jumper that it had a button closure in the back. 

But really, you would have to be a contortionist to know that my new top has an opening in both the front and back! 

         

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 And here is my wee helper.
 He's not deep in thought, just enjoy off cuts from the sour dough bread.
Nearly as good as chicken.

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!

Refashioning - How to enlarge a too small t-shirt

This tutorial will only work if your t-shirt is longer than you would normally wear it. I am a short person so am quite happy generally to shorten my tees. Or you may wish to use co-ordinating or contrasting fabric from another tee. I have also seen this done simply to featre a favourite piece of woven fabric so that is another option for you.

I generally wear an XL but found this perfect size M at the oppy today. I knew that I really wanted to spend some time playing around with unfitting clothing and doing some refashioning so this was a perfect start for me.

First I cut off the hem just above the stitching line. 

Then I cut a section approximately 7 cm from the bottom of the t-shirt. You must work out how much you will need to add according your t-shirt size.

The best way is to measure your bust. Then measure the bust of the t-shirt when it is lying flat and unstretched. Take this measurement away from your bust measurement and you will have the overall difference. Next you need to divide this for the two sides and add on two seam allowances. This will tell you how wide your inserts need to be. Hopefully you will still have enough length on your finished t-shirt for your height as well as inserts that are long enough to go from waist hem to sleeve hem. Please calculate these before proceeding.

 

After that I carefully removed the side seam being sure to only cut off the smallest amount. 

 The 7cm (0r whatever size you are dealing with) strip from the bottom of the tee is then split into two pieces by cutting the side seams out.

One piece gets sewn into the gap at each side, being carteful to align hems at the waist. 

After that you simply cut off the extra pieces at the sleeve and hem according to your taste. 

 If you want to turn over a hem at the sleeve you will need to leave enough allowance for this when you cut off the extra bit.

Please don't forget to clean your seams according to your favourite method.

If you are a novice when it comes to sewing with knit fabrics like I am then I would suggest taking a slow speed and gently feed the fabric in from the front and side. 

DO NOT pull from the back or you will stretch the fabric.

I used a 1/4 inch seam in size 3 stitch length (Brother machine) and cleaned the seams with a simple zigzag, feeding the seams in slowly again so as not to buckle them. Of course if you have an overlocker or serger and know what you are doing with knits this will all be a breese for you. As it is the project does not take a long time.

Enjoy!

I may or may not be back to show you how I further embellish this top. (that's if I even do!).

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.

Tablecloth to dress?!! Nooo!

This started out as lovely skirt kindly made up by a special friend who does these things.
Delicious, full skirt and O so feminine.
But was it good enough?
No.
Too full for my petite 22 year olds taste.
So back to the cutting board time and again until we pulled most of the fullness out.
And I have to say it still looks delicious and feminine.
But it nearly killed me to have to cut such a perfect vintage cloth.
Never mind.
You win some and lose some.
My daughter looks gorgeous in a dress that is all her own design and now I have heaps of left over fabric to use as my heart desires.

Real life - or sewing in my nightie

Saturday.
Not a lot happening
Or is there?
DD1 decides it's the day to start on all of her sewing.
I'm not even up yet but here we go.

(Love that hair - his and mine.
He had a haircut yesterday - I need one too)

One doily on one old but much loved skirt.
Worn today at the beach.
Wish I could have shown you the finished outfit - it looked real cute.

Stay tuned - more to come.

T shirt transformation is finished

Well, here it is.
Just a cheap oppy find in some of my favourite 70's colours (from when I lived back then) cut up the middle , slightly shortened in body and arms, neck shaped and a touch of lace around some edges and hand sewing with 3 strands of black floss for the others.
Too easy! And very wearable.
Just have to work out how to clean the stabilisaer off from inside and promise not to use it again in such a situation.

Assault on a T shirt

Just a $3 Millers t shirt. Chop the hems off because they are yucky.

Then cut it up the centre and shape the neckline.

More to come when I get there.

Add a touch of lace

I'd love to show you the dreadful state this basket was in before I tackled it but I don't seem to be able to upload all my photos. Needless to say, it was bad. And dropping old paint flakes everytime I looked at it. But it still had my heart so I kept it and continued to vacuum up little pieces of pale pink paint flakes.

Then I decided that it would be useful for DD1's wash basket so I gave it a good soak and scrub. And soak and scrub. And soak and scrub.

You get the picture.

I managed to clean out all the soil in the base (it must have been a plant holder in it's previous life - I wouldn't know, though, because I picked it up off the side of the road a couple of years ago) and scrapped heaps of paint flakes off but it still seemed to keep coming.

Now I am not a long term painter because I haven't the patience for all the preparation. I sort of trust that a good thick coat should keep all the old stuff together for as long as I need it to stay there. But this baby was a bit ridiculous.

Not knowing what to do, I set her out in the sunshine to dry, then came up with the brilliant idea of banging her on the verandah railings.

Brilliant!!

What a great way to get rid of flacky paint. I tell you, you should try it one day! Really makes the paint fly.

Only I would advise you to stop before the basket begins to fall apart. Yes that would be a good idea.

Well I finally stopped and had a breather, thought about tying the base back on with fishing wire but that would mean trudging down a million stairs to the garage and I didn't want to. So the base will have to stay partly unattached.
It should be fine so long as no kids try to use it to carry their siblings around.

Fortunately my darlings are all too big for that now. So on to the painting. White paint of course and possibly two coats. So far all the old bits are holding together nicely thankyou.

The lining is made from scraps I already owned, possibly oppy finds. I made beautiful lined openings for the handles. Pity one was on the inside but I am not starting again. No way. I'll just add a touch of lace to the edge and everyone will think it is fantastic.
And after all, it really doesn't matter because it is only a dirty wash basket after all.

PS For more colour in your life you might consider heading over to Ange's Ramblings to join her vintage sheet swap which will probably take place around July. Plenty of time to scour the op shops for that extra sheet or pillowslip!

More from the $2 tissue paper

Here in our little cottage we believe in colour co-ordination. (Really?! Is that why I have to sleep on this bed now? Sigh.)

This lamp shade was a lovely mid green suede which totally did not go. A couple of licks of paint and a layer of that cheap tissue paper did the trick.

Likewise this shelf in that cute little cabinet. The shelf is made from part of a pin board picked up at the oppy for $1 and given a layer of tissue paper and a couple of coats of glue/water solution.
And this tissue box used to be a soft pink with pretty little frangipanis on the front. It was roughed up with a green scourer, coated in black craft paint and imediately covered in more tissue paper. A little rubbing with the finger has helped the black to come through and given it a character of it's own. The little box behind it was also a light pink with darker pink ribbons holding the corners together. DD1 decoupaged it before she moved up and replaced the ribbon.

Being so co-ordinated might seem over the top, but we are cluttery people and having a lot of things in the same colourways means that that the overall effect is not one of mess.

From a tablecloth to a.....?

Finally I have some refashioning that is not all about bags.

What do you get when you cross a round tablecloth with a cotton-on singlet?

Why: A dress of course!!

In an effort to not overuse my girlfriends sewing skills, I have been fluffing around this week (and not sleeping properly because off thinking) doing all sorts of things to do with circle skirts, including dyeing. I'll leave the dyeing for another day because I did a big woopsie with that one but here is what I made in less than half an hour this morning. including multiple try-ons and back patting.

Just a simple singlet from cotton-on with the straps shortened (because I am not a fashion model, thankyou very much!), the hem turned up 10cm and attached to a circle tablecloth that has had a circular hole cut in the middle. Dinner plate size with an extra inch all round!

(The extra hem piece inside has a bit of elastic threaded through the hem casing. Easier than cutting it off and strengthens the white colouring in that area.)

Voila! I can now do my own circle skirts...or dresses.

The top is far too flimsy to wear without a cover so I topped it off with a cute little knit cotton top that I talked the ladies in the oppy down to $2.50 instead of $3.5o because the neckline was pretty chewed. Easy refashion that: I just too the neckline off - me and my trusty scissors and quick unpick. Only one slip but the washable fabric glue has looked after that.

I'm thinking of crocheting a new edge there latter but my girlfriends were so impressed with my outfit that I think if I don't get around to it I shan't worry too much.
O! and a little modesty touch with a folded over doily sewn onto the singlet.

T-shirt makeover

From a $3.50 Best and Less t-shirt to a - well still - a $3.50 t-shirt with a couple of scraps for the bin.

In my before photo I have already cut off the bottom hem and lettuce hemmed it. This is the first time I have ever done this and let me tell you I might grow a few more muscles now. There is a lot of stretching involved but otherwise it is a really simple procedure.
The same technique was used around the sleeves.

I did not stretch the fabric while zig-zagging around the reshaped neckline but it still enlarged slightly anyway so I inserted a small piece that was stretched while sewing. Then, to hide the zig-zag stitches I cut the ribbing from the former neckline, stretched it to billy-o and simply sewed it down flat over the edge.

The bow was made using further off cuts from the neck. It will be interesting to see how the garment washes.

All the ideas for this makeover were garnered from Nikki Shell's fabulous blog

Wardrobe Refashion.

Here is the finished garment with a skirt that was originally a round tablecloth (made by the amazing Jacinta who is blogless).