Wardrobe Refashion

winter is coming in NY: hat

This is actually a refashion I did a couple of years ago but I've been wearing it a lot lately, and dreaming about putting together a winter white version, so I thought I'd post about it. 

This is a hat which I made out of a thrifted felted merino wool sweater (the blue green material), some fleece from my dad's stash (he makes some of his own outdoor gear) and some beautiful yarn which I bought.

 

The shape of the top is loosely modeled on a knitted hat my sister got at the goodwill.  Basically, I made the shape to cover the top of the head out of the body of the sweater, then attached the arms of the sweater to the sides ands shredded them up halfway, and braided the shredded parts to make the side braids.  I didn't really use a pattern, so getting the fit right involved a lot of patience and pinning.  Once you have thoroughly felted a sweater you can just treat it like fabric (sewing it with a machine, for example).  Where I wanted softer looking seams I hand hemmed (like the rounded thick seam around the face). The yarn on the sides is just threaded in and out to make the pattern.  The fleece was for the lining which I mainly sewed in by hand since the hat was pretty thick at that point.

I love wearing this hat because it is pretty windproof, and has excellent ear and jaw coverage if you tie the braids in a loose knot (it gets very very cold in upstate NY).  Also it makes me feel like an elf or something, and people compliment me on it and I get the pleasure of telling them I made it myself :)

 

  

A new green sweater

Somehow in my last 2month commitment I missed blogging my green cardigan that i sewed. you can read more about it and my other crafting projects on my blog.

I did sign up for another 2months we'll see how that goes, i'm a little crazy getting ready for my sons 1st birthday and christmas, but most of both involves sewing so we'll see how it goes!

A Pirate Parrot

with it being our son's first halloween my husband and i tossed back and forth the idea of his halloween costume. given that his whole room is pirate i was set on that, but my husband came up with the idea that he should be a parrot and that my husband would be a pirate, so we combined the ideas and he became a pirate parrot! He was super cute!!!! you can check out  my blog for the details of which patterns i used. But here are a few pictures of my little parrot...

 

Petticoats

When my daughter saw the crinoline I made to go under this vintage inspired dress, she had to have one of her own. I made her petticoat with the bottom of a vintage peignoir. She is wearing hers as outerwear. Her mother isn't so brave or self actualized. Ahh...to be four. I remember wearing something similar at that same age and I felt like a fairy dancin' princess. Come on over and say "hi", I love company and will visit you in return.

Extending the life of pants...with style!

My daughter had a pair of favourite jeans that she gave me a while ago to fix because the knees had holes in them. (Ok, she didn't give them to me, I took them so I could fix them, she would just keep wearing them with the holes)

I cut off the bottom and added new fabric.  The holes were no more and I added length at the same time so she can wear them even longer!

I posted how I did it on my blog.

Short Sleeves to Long

I used up every last scrap from my Talbot's dress in the process of winterizing these t-shirts. It was so satisfying not to have anything left over to add to my overwhelming stash of fabric.

Before: Hand-me-down summer t-shirt After: (the lighting is different, but I swear they are the same shirt.) Ready for fall and winter!  The shirts were a little short, which made adding the bottom piece necessary. One day I hope to figure out how to do a satin stitch and then finish the bottom with a lettuce-type finish, right now they're just raw. Here it is in purple. I used the tutorial from Make it and Love It. I love quick projects and especially not needing to buy fall clothes!  

More on The blog

Hullo - I finally figured this out!

My name is Michelle, I live in Toronto, Canada with my two girls and one husband.  I've been reading WR over the past few months and I'm very excited to finally be participating.

Like a lot of posters, most of my refashioning is for my kids, mainly because the results are quick and ridiculously cute. But, my goal for the next 2 months is to refashion myself some shirts for work. I've only been back to work for the past 4.5 months, 7 months since my Nico was born so nothing fits quite right.

I work well with "schedules", so knowing I'll be posting here once a week should get me in gear! Sadly, my 70's Singer is sorely in need of repair, so I'll have to either sew by hand, or visit my local crafty shop for their machines.

Yay refashioning!

Michelle

http://www.shanghaicowgirl.wordpress.com

green gifts:: snack bags & sandwich wrap

My nephew is turning 6, and his mom asked if I would make reusable snack bags and a sandwich wrap for him, and of course I was delighted!  For this set I decided to add a little reverse applique and stamped lettering on the outside of the bags and the sandwich wrap.  On the inside, I stenciled a piece of bread to illustrate how to use the wrap, and used a gallon size Ziploc bag (cut apart) on the inside.  These are super fast and easy refashions made from an old shirt (blue) and linen from my scrap bin.   

We have a number of these around our house and they get used all the time (see more here and here).  After a few uses I just throw them in the wash and hang them to dry. 

These are on the top of my stocking stuffer list this year!

See more pictures on my blog!

Fabric/Pattern Stash Bust

Technically this isnt a redo or refashion but its stash busting and thats a good thing!!

This is from a pattern I've had for quite awhile (Butterick 4790) for a cute "walkabout" dress and the fabric is from my ridiculously large fabric stash. I got the fabirc originally from a fabric surplus store and it was so cheap I got like 10 yards for $5. Since I have gobs of this fabric I also have a jumper and skirt in progress and still have lots left over!

More here on my blog!

Dreae's Dress of Drapes

Hello all,

You may not remember me - I'm that gal who pledged, way back in the summer, to make her wedding dress out of a set of ivory silk drapes that she had fished out of the home decor bin at the Sally Ann, and who then disappeared from WR altogether. Well, I'm back! And I did it!

 
Look! It worked! That's me in my tea-length, full-skirted, ruched-bodiced, goddess-necklined dress of drapes! It took a lot of fiddling, as I basically abandoned the pattern I had bought altogether and pieced the dress together through trial and error, but I was pretty darned pleased with the way it turned out. I used vintage seam binding and thread from my stash (cleared out of my mother-in-law's stash, actually) throughout. The only thing I had to buy was the zipper.

 
I made flowers for my hair using leftover silk from the dress (by the way - I had mistakenly called the silk "dupioni" before - it's actually satin-backed shantung), and I made matching ones for my maid of honour (my sis) and flower girl (my daughter), using the Wise Craft tutorial.

As for the rest of my get-up, I wore a peach petticoat from a local vintage shop and gold flats from Value Village ($6). My "pearls" are totally fake, but vintage - I lifted them from a dress my stepfather's Gran made, oh, in the 1930s, maybe? I strung them on elastic thread in case the baby decided to try to, ahem, remove them. Both of our wedding rings were handed down through our families - mine belonged to my great-great-grandmother.

My husband's suit was cobbled together, too - he bought a new shirt and trousers, but the jacket is one he already owned (we looked everywhere for one he liked better, but no luck), the vest is thrifted, and the tie came from god-knows-where. My daughter's dress was also a thrift store find. I did splurge on nice, new underthings, but a gal's got to have something new on her wedding, no?

I haven't done a proper write-up on my blog yet, but I promise to very soon. More refashioning to come!