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!

Blogging...

....It would seem that I am stuck in between having no time to blog but being unable to give it up!
I even started a Kollabora account, but after a couple of days messing around with it have found that deserted too!

The lovely Rochelle over at Lucky Lucille has just posted about being in a funk, a very timely post as I am in the funk to end all funks right now and am finding it so difficult to do much other than aimlessly waste time. So I am taking her advice, and pulling myself out of it, one step at a time. Fingers crossed!

My Dream Come True...

It is no secret that I am in love with Dr Michio Kaku. He is my pretend boyfriend. For real. He built an atom smasher for his high school science fair project and is one of the founders of string theory - how could you not be besotted with such a man?! 
It is also no secret I love yarn. Almost as much as I love my imaginary fancy man. So when I saw this whilst watching SciFi Science on youtube, I almost died with the awesomeness of the situation!

So ladies, or gents if there are any out there reading, have you ever had a similarly glorious image of your pretend boy/girlfriend with yarn? I know there is a Ryan Gosling pic out there, and that is pretty awesome too ;)


p.s. I know I'm a bad blogger, it's back to O.U. for me now and the first month is always hectic! I have many things that just need a photo, and as I'm trying to improve those I have to wait for a weekend (for daylight!) when the other half is about to take the pics.

Russian Doll Tea Cosy

This is the first of my two entries to a local tea cosy competition, it is a crochet babushka/ matryoshka/ Russian doll (whichever term you like best!) cosy.

It was fairly quick to make, however, I was unaware that the deadline for this was being extended so I rushed the embroidery and am fairly disappointed by it.

It is based upon THIS pattern over at I'd Like To Be Original. When I made up the pattern as instructed it was huge so I adjusted it to be smaller. It is probably just me not checking tension or something, but it is easy enough to scale down.

I got to enter two cosies to the competition because of a low amount of participants, I won't have a picture of my other one until I go and collect them from the cafe at the weekend.

Any one else out there with the tea cosy bug?

The Polka Dot Trousers Conundrum

Hey guys!
I have been having a little internal dilemma for a few months now, and that is whether or not I can pull off polka dot trousers. The fabric I have is navy with small white dots on, since I got it all I can think of is trousers, trousers, trousers! I worry that it would be too faddy, or silly on a bigger figure as opposed to the more slender wear anything and look good brigade.
So I did a bit of Pinterest searching and found a few inspiration pics - 

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So I guess this is the kind of look I'm going for, wide leg, or, if the fabric will hold it, a kick flare style. I will have to some how check to see if it can hold it, but I have no similar weight fabric for a muslin, and am reluctant to just go for it! Maybe I could just cut a wide leg and try pinning it into shape? Any suggestions would be most welcome!

I still have no idea if they will look silly, or if I will just feel uncomfortable in them, I try to rationalise it by telling myself that I wear patterned skirts, so patterned trousers shouldn't be too much of a difference!
Anyone else got any polka dot/ patterned trousers? If so, or even if not, were you reluctant to wear trousers that weren't plain?

P.S. Just noticed that this is my 100th post! Took long enough to get here ha ha!

DIY Dressform

Hello everyone, this is another very quick post, and it is in response to the lovely Kelly over at Make, Sew, Do who asked in a post I just read, have you ever made a dressform?

The answer to this is yes! I made one a couple of years ago. Sadly I found the gaffer tape method to be a poor choice for keeping its shape and it has been disassembled and recycled/binned since the beginning of the year due to its lack of function.
So just for a laugh at my own expense, here is the evidence!

Apologies for the middle finger, I was not wanting to have a photo at the time!

Maybe one day I will make a gummed paper version, although maybe setting aside a little every month for a proper one some time next year is a better plan :)

Twinkie Chan's Radish Amigurumi

Hello folks!

I'm sure everyone has heard of the crochet genius that is Twinkie Chan? Well if not you are missing out!

I brought her awesome book "Crochet goodies for fashion foodies" and wanted to make something very quickly to satisfy my need to crochet. So I made a variation on her radish scarf, to be a cat toy. The radish body is the same, I just didn't make the leaves as long.

It is stuffed with a carrier bag and the eyes are just sewn on with some embroidery floss.

I only wish that I had made the leaves a little bit longer so that when I am playing with the cat she doesn't get quite so close to my fingers!

Awww.... she's so adorable! I totally did not just sneak the radish in there for a photo op......

....but it sure does look cuter than when she is trying to  kill it!

Has anyone else made a Twinkie Chan pattern?