Lovely Christmas

Some time ago I realised that Christmas is a lot more lovely if you make it up in your mind that it will be ...and that you will accept what it is as lovely.
So, although I am still full of cold, and haven’t much energy, that has been a good thing since I haven’t had to do allll the things I normally set myself to do!
And you know, it has still been lovely 😊! Those things not actually missed. Plus other people joining in to help.

One of the things I did do was make serviettes for friends. All of it from fabric I have acquired so it wasn’t tossed. Of course I forgot to take photos! Except for these I made to add to my own collection, since the others were getting faded. They can still be used, but now I have a better posh set and practical set.

Getting ready

headed to Festival of Quilts Thursday. These shoes are comfortable, but the Velcro was never long enough on the strap to connect to the other part if I wanted them snug. And after a couple years, the two parts were not staying together well at all.

So, now, with new Velcro on the strap, they stay tight and will work fo all the walking of the show!

Pattern and sewing

I have nearly got my room back in order since the rearranging for the lift.
This week a friend is coming to get help with fitting patterns. I haven’t worked with published patterns for years.
However I picked up this simple top pattern at the sewing group recently. I need a few more tops and I thought this might be a quick make.

So firstly, trying it out on a remnant I also picked up to ‘recycle’. I hope it will work well enough for a wearable toile. The add plus being that I can remind myself of what I might need to do or say when my friend comes round. She basically wants a shift dress that will fit. And that is not so far from this simple top. 

Or that is the idea. 😉

Experiment

Instead of pouring out the pickled red cabbage juice when the jar was finished, I kept it.
Then when i was getting tired of the vinegar smell in my room....hmmm.
I put in some scraps of silk habotai that had some marking from an indigo dip.
I nuked it for 2min.

Drained it and voila! fuchsia and purple

Then I put it in the washer on a rinse cycle. To be honest, almost everything I try for an experiment comes out that colour. So I didn't really need more! But it was silk, so I could work with that.

Result:the reddish part of the purple washed out leaving a light periwinkle blue! Yes, I like this.
In true life, you hardly see the indigo markings and the silk has a lovely sheen. But the camera picks up the darker greenish blue of the indigo.

I have saved the rest for more experimenting.
my understanding of the science: Natural dyes are mostly fugitive, meaning they will fade. If you use a mordant, it is more likely to last longer. Because the pickled cabbage juice had vinegar, the vinegar works well on the silk and it will (should) retain colour.

I like experiments that come out better than you thought it could.

Refahioning a refashion

A long time ago, I used a velvet skirt to cut out flowers and make arrangements to applique to my version of a bog coat.*

all the excess is folded in like two big tucks in the back.

That long ago!

But I never did like how short it was in the front. With a skirt it was fine, but with trousers not so happy.

Happily, bog coats have plenty of room and it still fits me. But I dislike the shortness even more.

A while back I was sorting my cupboards and found that I still had one panel of the velvet skirt.

The other day, I realised I could add some sort of band to the bottom and I would be happier.

So, I cut 2 6inch wide strips. I stitched them together folded lengthwise and started pleating them onto the bottom of the bog coat. A bit of stitching...

And now, I like it much better.

Slightly peplum-ish but not over the top.

*There are instructions for a very simple version here. You can use it as a starting place to create your own!

white cami fix

So now that I have a pattern off my cami, it is time to fix it! I have been wearing it back to front because there was a stain!

I wanted to keep any fix white, so I can wear it with any other colour top. I had in mind something like a bit of ruffle, but was open to possibilities.

I dug around in my box of refashion t-shirt potential. no scraps of white. However, there was the top part of a t-shirt dress I got a Very long time ago and chopped the skirt off to do something with kids in mind - oh yeah, I think it was a t-shirt for a cow puppet. :0) Like you do.
There was a bit of the skirt still hanging in there which would give a strip of fabric.

I decided to trim out white sections to see what I was left with.

Okay, these don't look like much, but there was a bit of a petal feel about them.

So, I trimmed ends to be more petal like and arranged them in a pile over the stain...

Not too bad! The random look of the petals make it look more natural.

A few more adjustments and the addition of a button picked up from around the house. and then some judicious hidden stitching to keep the top petals from flopping too much and the button sewn to the centre and we have a flower!

Rather has a gardenia look about it, don't you think?

(oops, the button says Pierre Cardin, so it is probably from one of my son's shirts! Yikes! Okay - deep breath... If he comes with a shirt needing a button, I will hope something that posh will have a spare one in the side seam!)

And here is the new look cami top!

Bring on Spring!

refashioned botch or girl's skirt no.7

Sometime back I made an attempt at turning some lovely blue fabric into a bog coat. It is basically a simple rectangle cut and sewn to include seams,etc without waste. You can see how the fabric is cut on this website where the lady has made a paper mock up of the pattern - she used the plan to develop a crocheted jacket. Called a bog coat because ...strangely enough...they pulled a mummified chap out of a bog in Denmark or somewhere, and his coat was made in this manner! Really!

Anyway, I wanted a longish one if I could. So, I was trying to wing this one out of the top of my head without referring to anything resembling a pattern or even one I had made ages ago. Which meant I botched it. So I covered the botched parts with lace. then pinned it together to see if I got the sleeve length right. And decided it was looking too much like a bathrobe. and so it never got any further.

Here it is with the pins still in!

So, I took the pins out and discovered if I cut it apart at the place where the cut for the sleeves had been, the bottom was enough length for a skirt for me... and the top could be redeemed as a cute girl's skirt.

and here it is!

The skirts are for the girls in the orphan village where my friend works in Ethiopia.

refashioned strange trousers or girls skirt no.6

I had these weird trousers in my stash - picked up because I liked the fabric. They were even torn. I decided they would make a good skirt for a young lady. (I am making skirts/shorts for children over 10 in the orphan village where my friend works in Ethiopia.)


Trim the crutch point after cutting up the inside leg.


Chop off the bottom of the legs.


This left triangular sections needing filled in at the Centre Front and Centre Back. So I cobbled together some bits from the chopped off legs and sewed them into place. The patterning means it isn't obvious.

Stitched up the front and back seam. inside view... it even has pockets.


Then hemmed and put in an elastic waist.


Definitely a rescue!

girls skirt no.5

I caught up on tidying away glasses and dishes from my Mother-in-law today. Feeling alot better. but soon gave up for a nap again.

But tonight while sorting the ironing that didn't get done at the weekend, I decided I would sew up one of the skirts I had cut out yesterday. I think the fabric had originally been a curtain for someone. But I think it looks pretty good as a skirt.

I am finding a method that makes it pretty quick. I am going to have to send some off soon so I can get some feedback about the length of elastic in the skirts. Not sure just what size girls these will fit.

girl's skirt 4

If you are counting, this is the 4th skirt I am doing for Ethiopia.

I took the wrap skirt, cut off the waistband and ties, opened up the waist darts, sewed the wrap ends together as a seam, turned down the top about 2cm and put in elastic!

Just enough of something to do today after fighting the crowds at Sainsbury. That place sure is noisy. It does my head in. Usually the Thoughtful Man does the shopping, but he is being thoughtful for others today. It was a relief to get to Aldi, which is the shop near me, for a quiet chanceto think about what I needed for next week when I start shopping cooking. (sorry, my head was on the news when I typed that.)


*****
Just gutted about the stuff happening in Connecticut. I know people who live in that area. All you can do is Pray.

Too cold

I couldn't face going out in the cold to shop. I don't go into town normally, why would I want to go when it is so cold?

So, I played with some origami ideas that may lead to some ideas for new work - or may not. somehow when I do what the picture shows in the book, it comes out not quite the same. maybe I am not serious enough? I think you have to be serious to do proper origami.

I also dug around in boxes to find a few 'already made into clothes but relegated to possible fabric sources'. and also a couple lengths of fabric that will make good girl's skirts. (not skirts for good girls, but good skirts for girls)

Loved the fabric on the black and gold weird trousers so picked them up in a charity shop or something ages ago.

Made this sample length of paisley fabric into a wrap skirt even greater ages ago.

Both will transform pretty easily into girl's skirts.

Then bundled up warm enough to go round to my friend's house for the evening - just me on my own. That was a nice change. I haven't done something like that for absolute years. Her house was warmer than mine anyway and not more than something like a 2 minute walk.

jeans bags

Some time last Spring I was asked to teach a refashion sort of workshop. So, I did one about taking a pair of jeans and turning it into a bag.

I posted quite a while ago about the first one of these I made to hold a project for City and Guilds. For a very long time, it was the only bag I used for going down to the shops. (Oops, looks like it needs thrown in the wash!)

1-Chop the legs off the bottom of a small size pair of trousers. This bag was made from a small size pair of stretch velvet trousers. Chop it just above the crutch.

2-Turn inside out and stitch across the bottom.

3-Make straps from strips of fabric from the legs. Pin to see where you like them placed. Then stitch them on firmly.

4- If you like, stitch round pockets, along straps and other areas with a machine stitch or by hand.

5-If you really want to get funky, make a bag pocket and stitch it to the inside parts of the zip...then open the zip to have a cool pocket so you can get to your phone or keys easier.

I made a few samples for my workshop using some of my son's old jeans. I added simple trims because it was only a 2 hour workshop. They have been on the 'to do' pile since then because I wanted to add more to them.

So, yesterday and today I have been working on them. I hope to use them for gifts.

Here are a couple with lace trim.
front

back

and they all have the secret pocket where the fly zip is.

I had also developed a different type of bag from the left over legs. These I trimmed with fabric.

I really like how they came out. They have a large pocket on the front and on the back.

Not sure if I will make any more before Christmas or not. Those were the ones cut. I need to work out who else needs presents. My Thoughtful Man and a Certain Young Man have gone to York to move my mother-in-law's things to different locations now that she is in a home. I may spend tomorrow or Friday doing Christmas baking!

I am going to add this to Off the Wall Friday when it comes up. It is over at Nina-Marie's.

Fleece Refashion

So, I had this black fleece with a hood. It was a pullover. The only reason I got it was because I had to have an MRI and needed something without metal on it. and as the appointment was at 7:00am, I knew I would need something warm.

Here is what it looked like on.
Flattering - not!

So, keeping in mind I may need another MRI at some point, I decided to make it so I could actually use it this winter, but keep metal off of it.

I had some lovely tartan blue/green/purple fleece, so I cut a strip from it. Then I cut the fleece open to make it more like a cardigan, I removed the edging from the neck and hood part...just cut it off. Then covered the edge with the tartan fleece. It had a kangaroo pocket, but I had chopped right through it, so putting the edge on, closed it up on both sides.

Then tried it on. Okay, long arms. But, it was mostly because the shoulder was too big. So I pinned where my shoulder was, took it off and added about 2cm more to that for shoulder length. Then I cut it up from the point where you would generally find the front notch, but through both layers. you can see that it has removed a wedge.

Then I cut the wedge off, and inserted a folded strip - like flat piping. Here is the strip pinned in,

and the result of it stitched into the shoulder.

I had a bit more strip left, so I put it on the edges of the pocket.

The arms were still slightly long, so I chopped off the hem that was there, and bound the edge with more of the the tartan fleece.

And here I am! Much happier. It is warm and the black doesn't make me look like death warmed up.

I cut a few scraps into squares and stitched them on the front for decoration.

Refashions

Sorry in advance - fuzzy mirror photos. No time for a photographer because I was going out. Tomorrow I will tell you about that!

Here is the dress turned blouse being worn. edit for a better photo!

Here is the Cardigan not so easy to see black, but it fits and feels nice.

And a detail of the button beads treatment on the lapels. (Thankfully not a mirror photo.) Subtle but interesting.

Refashion

One of the things I have wanted time for was to do a bit of refashioning. Actually I have a pile of things that aren't quite right. I have given several bags of things to charity that I know I won't be able to change or won't wear. But now I have a bit of time to do begin this pile.

The question was...where to start! So, finally I settled on this dress.

Which you may recall I made earlier in the year. Looks fine standing up. But when I sit down, I am very uncomfortable with how far above the knee it ends up. I got a brainstorm the other day. Rather than trying to think of a way to make it longer...just chop it off and wear it for a blouse.

Much better. I will try to get a photo wearing it tomorrow and will add it onto this post.

The rest of the day I was getting ideas for sorting out this cardigan I made from a remnant of t-shirt fabric. I originally copied a cardigan I already had.

Only there wasn't enough to do the sleeves on the lengthwise grain so I did them on the cross grain. I seldom work with knits and it wasn't till I tried to get it off and all the sleeve seams popped that I realised the stretch was not around the arm, but up and down. So, I used some old shoelaces to sew on the seam as stay tape. That was fine, but at the time, the sleeves still were quite too snug.

also I was trying to copy a refashion idea I saw where someone opened up a t-shirt into a cardigan and put lace on the edges. Their's worked...mine...well it was a bit too twee.

I dug it out of the cupboard thinking to chop it up and use it on something else. Well, in the meantime from making it, I have lost weight and the sleeves aren't snug! So, I have unpicked the lace and have been auditioning ideas for what to do instead. I still feel it needs a bit of something. I think I have found the answer, but as I had a meeting tonight, I will need to stitch it tomorrow and show then.

Do you ever revisit garments you have made? something isn't quite right and eventually you think of a way to go in and do something so you are more likely to wear it?