FESA Plans

Hello!
Bit late posting this up as I was away on holiday last week (Switzerland; It was fabulous!) but here are my initial plans for FESA 2014 with bad illustrations to make up for the tardiness ;)

I am starting off cautiously, as I can always do more if there is time, so I won't be listing items for all categories.

First up is - Fashionable Foundations for Frosty Weather

Right, once you're finished giggling over the pics (it would have taken me weeks to draw these on a computer so I did it the old fashioned way with a pen, paper, and scanner) they are trousers btw!! :)
They will both be made with Simplicity s2700, with the pair on the right modified from the original pattern. LHS will be made up in black corduroy (in stash ready and waiting) with the heavier fabric supporting the wider leg. I hope. The RHS will be made from a grey stretch gaberdine, made to be more tightly fitted around the butt/thigh area.

This picture is my only imagining of how to draw the "Tania culotte" style culottes. I have yet to blog about it but I made my own pattern up for these, and have a lightweight summer pair in the wardrobe already. I am thinking a nice tweed? Lined? All up in the air at the moment, but I have been ogling some nice wool blends on eBay, and tossing up the pros and cons of making a pair of silky bloomers to wear underneath slip style, or just lining them making them cold weather only. Any help/opinions greatly welcomed here!


Next is Chic Chemises for Cooler Climates

Well the top one is meant to be a Myrna cardi (By the fabulous Andi Satterlund). I have one on the needles already in a charcoal grey, and it is a really great pattern, especially for a less advanced knitter such as myself. I have yarn to try and make a second one in black before FESA is over, but no promises!

The middle is a long sleeved t-shirt, which I will make with my own pattern, and perhaps also have a go with one of the free patterns available that I am probably one of the last bloggers to try! I love a plain black tee, and a longer sleeved selection (3/4 probably) are in desperate need for the colder months. You have probably worked out, dear reader, that I did not colour in the pictures because most things are going to be black! It may be boring for some, but I love the simplicity and elegance (ha, not that I am elegant in any way!) of black. No fussing over colours clashing, or pattern mixing, or worrying it won't work with leopard print ;)

The bottom one is a maybe project. I have made a peplum blouse already in black (again, unblogged at present) and I like it a lot. So I thought I might make one in white as I have a few white bed sheets in the stash, all pretty crisp if you follow me. But I also have some black pin dot poly cotton that is in the stash too. Decisions, decisions! I will have to get back to you on that one.


Moving on to Underneath it all

Pants. Panties. Knickers. Whatever you call your undercrackers, they are essential for protecting one's bottom against the chill. I happen to need some new ones, so this is very timely. I have a self drafted pattern, but I might try out the Rosie Ladyshorts, or the Sew Vera Venus grannie pants. Or both. I have the elastics in my stash, and have some jersey floating about, so perhaps just treat myself to 1m of a patterned jersey to throw in with the black.



Those Cozy Nights

Much to the disappointment of the OH, this is a dressing gown not an outfit for reenacting Mortal Kombat. I will save myself many blushes when an early Saturday morning delivery man comes knocking at the door by making a nice cotton dressing gown. I have some sheets in my stash earmarked for this. I considered making one in fleece. I don't want to get in the habit of living in it though so maybe stick to a slightly less cozy one!

Last of all - Tender Tootsies

If I have time, I will start a pair of socks. They might not be finished, but I will at least try to start some! I have the stuff to make them all in the stash, and a pattern (a REALLY easy one!) so maybe this one will sneak in as a little bonus! Perhaps a lunch break project?


Well I guess that is all but 2 categories, but I think this is an achievable amount of items for the period of time...and if I go a little bit over - never mind!
It is the taking part that counts after all.

Is anyone else up and running with this yet?

Sew For Victory!

Well I thought I would have to miss out on this but as the lovely Rochelle kicked back the deadline by a week I had enough time to get my project photographed. I made it at the beginning of April so it is just laziness that meant it didn't get photographed before....oh well!

First up my inspiration. I pinned a few different patterns on Pinterest HERE.

If you know me well, you will know I am all about the shirt-dress! I L-O-V-E them! So it seemed at first that this would be a no brainer. But then I decided that it wouldn't be anything special to crank out a TNT pattern for a sew-along. As I am not a frivolous sewer, I had to make something I would wear, and preferably that I need. One of my pins answered that, I needed a blouse!

So my inspiration is this -

(source)

And from the four on here I went for a version of the bottom right hand one.

I didn't have a pattern, so I kind of maybe just bodged one....and by bodged, I mean really bodged!
However, it did work! I wanted to have some kind of bust dart for a bit of shaping, and some darts in the back of the blouse too. As I am a lazy SOB, I didn't want to change up my overlocker threads and french seamed it. Which was okay until I realised I could do with taking the sides in a bit (read as quite a bit). As a result my back darts are too deep but a belt/ my hair disguises this nicely ;)

I would also like to note that I do not have a suitable looking skirt so have opted to make this a contemporary look, Rochelle had mentioned about doing so and I think it is a good idea, especially for separates. It shows that a vintagey pattern is not a one trick pony, and allows you infinitely more choice when wearing it.

So eek! Here it is! I don't like pics of myself, they remind me about how fat I am that I try to forget ;)

Well I guess I should have ironed it! But never mind. White on white is hard to see in pictures but I decided to only have the frilly trim round the neckline, it would have been a bit much round the arms too I think. I trimmed either side of the button placket with lace and sewed a 3mm white ribbon on top to give it a little something extra. The buttons were in my stash having bought them for my doomed Mad Men Challenge dress (I'm not ready to talk about that yet haha!) and in true make do and mend style, the fabric used to be a flat bed sheet. It is unlikely to have been used much before it ended up in the charity shop, the fabric hasn't gone "old bed sheet soft"  yet and it is still very bright white.

Well, I'm glad to have joined in on Sew for Victory, big thanks to Rochelle for doing it again :)

Any one else joined in this time?

Stripey Dress - Sweater Refashion

Hello!
Thought I would share a refashion that I did a shamefully long time while ago, before I got my overlocker last summer (Okay, this is from 2012, I admit it!!). It started life as a sweater type thing, huge with long sleeves. I was going to take pictures for a tutorial but I obviously forgot!
All I did really was to get a vest top that fits well and draw around it with some chalk, not including the straps and extending the bottom to make it dress length... okay, short dress length!
I then cut another panel out, around 6" wide. I cut up the middle of the dress and sewed in the extra panel. This made it not quite so much like being in a sausage skin, super tight fitting dresses are only for the slim and alas, I am not one of those girls!

Here is a close up of the straps, I cut out four long rectangles from one of the sleeves, and then sewed each pair together with the right sides together. I shaped one end to be rounded, just freestyled it as total perfection was not necessary! I then turned them inside out and attached them to the dress. To ensure they were the right length I sewed on both straps at the back and then trundled off into my bedroom to try it on and pin the straps in place at the front, I just looked in the mirror to gauge how even they were. They then got sewn down and buttons sewn on for decoration only. As you can see the raw edges aren't finished, they won't fray though so it's ok.

I then added some pockets because I love skirts and dresses with pockets on. They are infinitely more useful that way and if it is just casual every day wear then practical is always good! I cut out the two pocket shapes (I think I may have actually made a paper template shock horror!) and then a rectangular piece to strengthen and neaten the open part - I just sandwiched the pocket in there.
I sewed the pockets on using the regular patch pocket method.

So it was as easy as that! Don't be scared to refashion old/ thrifted clothes, even if they get messed up you haven't lost anything except your time and maybe a couple of quid! You will have gained experience even with something that turns out wrong and that alone can be worth it :)
Be brave and have fun!

That Mod Podge Shoe Thing

I jumped on the bandwagon and tried that mod-podge shoe nerdifying thing. I did this quite a while ago and never got around to blogging about it. It came about in the usual way of it being really late at night and me being on my own and deciding it would be the perfect time to try out that time consuming craft project I pinned months beforehand.

So I got out a stash of Neo magazines and set about snipping a pile of cute pics small enough to fit on the shoes, as well as a pile of multi coloured bits to be fillers.
As you can see they turned out all bright and funky, and despite them not being the kind of thing I would normally go for, I thought they looked pretty awesome and were definitely going to be worn.

Front view - I love the Junko Mizuno mermaid picture <3 br="">

Side view one

Back view

 Side view two - showing some less than perfect sizing on the back shoe.

If you know me, you will know that sometimes when I get the urge (you know that urge) to make something, I often don't think about it practically and end up with some pretty silly things happening. The biggest mistake was using magazine pictures instead of comic book pages. The magazine pictures are thicker and do not "become one" with the shoe fabric. This was not helped by a big shoe issue - these were shiny shoes and the pvc cheap nasty surface was not the best for gluing things onto, even mod podge is weak against them. So when I finished applying the pictures (some which were just unsuitable which I should have replaced, as in the above picture) and slapped on a couple of coats of mod podge (gloss) and let them dry, I was about to encounter my next set of problems.

First there was an incident where the shoes were placed too close together (they were dry, it was about a week after) and they fused together, this resulted in some of the mod podge coming away when I pulled them apart. Then when I started walking about in them to wear them in a bit (I had only worn the shoes a couple of times before so they were still a bit tight and ouchy) the subsequent creasing made one of the pictures come away. This showed me that I could effectively just peel the whole lot off as they weren't really bonded to the shoe as I explained before.

Now I just have the shoes sat in my craft room being a decorative feature that nobody except myself ever sees. And I am torn as to what to do with them. Do I rip it all off and try again with comic book paper? Or keep them as an odd ornament?

Suggestions welcome!

Shorts to Skirt Upcycle

Good afternoon folks!

First of all I would like to say how sad I was to see the news about the terrible destruction in Oklahoma City, such a heartbreaking thing to happen :(

Today I am sharing a little project from last year, you know how on the ball I am with these things. A while back I got some weird shorts from a charity shop (I have since discovered they are gauchos) that I liked but could not find anything to wear with them that looked okay. So I thought sod it, I'm going to have to make them into a skirt. And I did!

I forgot to take a before picture but just imagine some really odd wide legged knee length shorts and you're good to go. I unpicked the inside hems and just re sewed them to meet like a skirt. You have to chop the little crutch bit out but otherwise there isn't much to do other than getting the join smooth.
I top stitched for strength along the front and back seams. There is also one of those vents (? is that the right term?) at the back to allow leg movement - always a useful thing to have! I added the lace at the bottom to jazz it up a bit, I think it works quite well!

I even covered (badly) my raw edges as it was fraying like a S.O.B!

I haven't worn it many times, maybe three or four, but I do still like it. I wore it to my first OU tutorial thinking people would be all smart casual, I might have made too much of an effort....and the top I paired it with is actually a bit see through...oops! So errmm yeah, librarian chic... I rocked it baby ha ha ha! ;)

Something Old into Something New

Here are a couple of things that older readers might  recognise...

This skirt used to be a bit longer and look like THIS. I simply chopped some fabric from the top and sewed on a length of elastic as a waistband.

This skirt used to be a DRESS and was just hanging around unworn in my wardrobe. I chopped it in half and made casing from some scrap white fabric to house some elastic. I also put in a small amount of lining just to stop it being so see through. I wear this regularly now it is in skirt form, so don't be afraid to chop up your hard work into something more suitable - what a waste to have things unworn and unloved!

Dress Upcycle

Happy bank holiday everyone! I hope all of the UK readers are enjoying the sunshine! I am stuck indoors doing a lengthy assignment - booo!
Just a quick post to share an upcycle I did in January for a works retirement party. Ignore the dodgy hair, I have no idea what I was thinking with that parting! I do have some before pictures of me wearing this dress 8 years ago but I am way too embarrassed over them and I also can't be arsed to scan in a photo. The dress in question was from when I was a bridesmaid at my Mum's wedding. It was plain purple and was tea length. I looked like thew worlds biggest (quite literally the biggest) muppet. As you can see I chopped off about 8-9inches off the bottom to make it a far more flattering above the knee style, perfect for us shorties who like to give an illusion of being taller. I also handmade 35 black acrylic net flowers with beaded centres that were hand stitched around the bottom.

Recognise this Mum?!

You get a better idea of colour here, it also looks a lot shorter when hanging up but I assure you I am only 5ft 2.5" so this is not that bad! I rolled the hem very painstakingly but it looks a bit shoddy so I didn't want to photograph it - good job I'm not on the Great British Sewing Bee isn't it ha ha!

A bad close up of a flower, simple to make, I'm sure you have seen tutorials for them around the blogosphere/ Pinterest.

All together a successful transformation. Just goes to show that sometimes you really do need to hang onto that thing in your wardrobe for a bit longer!

Upcycled Jeans -> Pouffe - No Spend Project!

Hope everyone is enjoying their bank holiday weekend!
Here is a little project that was 90% completed on new years eve (Yep...I'm that cool ha ha ha!) and finished about a month ago. It is a pouffe made from old jeans, it is completely eco/ purse friendly though because it is filled with spare bedding - duvets and pillows. I was actually going to buy some of those vac pack bags to store the duvets in as they were getting on my nerves being thrown from one cupboard to the next taking up so much space. We hardly use them and if we need them then they can be whipped out of the pouffe ready for action!
As you can see from the pictures, I made up a large circle out of wedge shapes cut from the old jeans and disguised the hole with a circle making an attractive sun pattern. I basically sewed the pieces together with a straight stitch then used a zig zag stitch and top stitched for strength. It is, after all, going to have arses a plenty on it.

The side panels were made up of alternate rectangles and two piece rectangles, there is only so much fabric on a pair of jeans so I had to fit bits in where I could! I seamed it together as before then zig zagged the hell outta it as these joins will be under more strain.

For the bottom I used larger wedge pieces, this was where the 90% complete stage was, I wanted to use it new years eve and therefore safety pinned the bottom up... and left it!
Eventually I got around to finishing it and sewed on Velcro to fasten the flaps down, it is pretty strong, it doesn't fall open when it is picked up.

Well, I would recommend everyone make one, it is a bit time consuming but it is satisfying to know it cost nothing and is a handy storage facility! You could try making a smaller one as a footstool, perhaps fill it with a few pillows if you don't have spare duvets kicking around.

Hope this has given some inspiration on upcycling jeans :)

Happy Easter!