Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Tiny T-shirt Refashion

So many refashions seem to be taking big clothes and making them much smaller (example: adult clothes to toddler clothes) But I found this too-small long sleeve t-shirt in the 50-cent bin at the thrift outlet and I couldn't resist the cute print...

So I rummaged around until I found another 50-cent shirt in the teal color. It's an old men's polo.

I disassembled the shirt and sewed the sleeves between the front and back pieces to be come sides.


I made a pattern for the front and back yokes using the neckline and sleeve-hole portions of a burda pattern, and then cut the yokes from the teal fabric.

Then the bottom was cut from the print fabric. Since the front yoke ends higher than the back, the print fabric needed to come up higher in the front, so the previous shirt-back became the shirt-front.

The tops of the original sleeves were still left-over, so I made them into short sleeves, and sewed on the (already hemmed) bottom of the polo shirt sleeves as trim.

Lastly, I mimicked the circles from the print fabric by stitching in white onto the teal yoke... it was pretty simple, I'm not sure that it even counts as embroidery.



Shirt front:

Shirt back:
Here's a detail of the lazy-embroidery:


I'm very happy with it, especially for a $1 shirt!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Let's start at the very beginning...

(channel your inner Julie Andrews)
...a very good place to start,
When you read you begin with A, B, C,
When you Wardrobe Refashion, you being with...
green drapery reminiscent of Sound of Music!



No really, here's the curtain I found while thrifting:


The starting point for this project was a tutorial by My Mama Made It, but I wanted to incorporate more of the curtain fabric, so I put trim around the back and under arms (bias) as well as along the bottom (not bias)


The curtain was scratchy, especially on the backside, so I lined it with some white cotton from my stash.

I had to take the next picture, I assembled much of the shirt before sewing the pieces together! It was pretty comical.


End result:

The back needs a bit of work, notice how the bottom is a bit funky? It was difficult to pair the stretch green fabric with the stiff curtain. I think some darts or gathering will solve it.


Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Taking the plunge... err, pledge


Why is it so difficult find time to sew in the summer? I’m certainly struggling! So many trips, BBQs, and days where the weather is too nice to be sitting at my sewing machine.

So, for the next 4 months I’m joining a Wardrobe Refashion blog.



You can follow my journey here on FSDS, but I’ll also do be posting on the WR site. I’m concentrating on clothing right now because I think my motivation will be restored if I can see a few projects from start to finish!



The Pledge

I, Jerilyn Fabulous, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 4 months. I pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovated, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed J-Fab



The website says that many aspects of the challenge are up to the pledger’s interpretation. My main goal will be to work the garments and fabric that I already own, along with thirfted items. I may, however, need to make some new item purchases (thread, zippers, trim, etc) to ensure my projects are of high enough quality and craftsmanship that I will actually wear them :).



I’m also going to try to do 3 garment repair or hemming project per month because I have an embarrassingly large “good intentions” pile that needs to be dealt with. Does anyone else do that? Buy something knowing that it needs to be tailored or hemmed and then NEVER get around to it, and eventually there’s a box of such items with the tags still on?



Lastly… Why this challenge? This encourages “green” sewing, saves money, and gives the opportunity to improve sewing skills. Garment sewing is certainly not new to me but I’ve been quilt-centric recently and would like to make room in my life for both activities.



So from now til Halloween, it’s on! Wish me luck!