Is aubergine my colour

This top started life as a long silk skirt owned by my friend Jess. I used a pattern from the spring/summer edition of Ottobre magazine that I bought on ebay last week.

It’s a bit of a nightmare tracing off the pattern as they do so many sizes, all printed over each other in different colours and it looks like some mad Spirograph design. But it was delightfully simple to sew, even though I’m pretty bad at sewing silk. I was really pleased I could keep the little chiffon trim from the bottom of the skirt.

It’s a really simple design with two ribbons made from the same material going through the front and back casings and just tied at the shoulder. I added a little rose made from felted pale pink wool and some leaves made from sage green velvet  as I thought it was a little too plain.

The pattern would make a lovely summer top if you’re happy to go bra-less. However it’s snowing in the UK at the mo so I’ll be wearing it over a T-shirt my thrifted pink cardie.

Here’s the before pic.

In the black

My friend Jess from my running club gave me a load of clothes last week. Some I’m planning to wear just as they are and some like this one are getting the refashioning treatment.

The dress started life as a two-layer silk and chiffon from really posh dress shop Whistles. I separated the layers, added some grey knit T-shirt trim plus a frill at the front (see close up) and some cover-yourself buttons. I also added more of the grey T-shirt round the neck and armholes.

I used the main bit of the dress to make a wide gathered belt and hope to get round to shirring round the waist some time soon.

These are the before pics

Japanese couture

There’s a running joke in my family that I always come back with green or brown material from car boot sales. And, frankly, they’re pretty much spot on!

This is a polysilk retro print fabric that’s got a love-it-or-loathe-it feel to about it which I bought some months back. I think I love it. I shouldn’t have photographed it by just plonking it on over what I happen to be wearing today. But I hope you get the idea.

The pattern came from Simple Chic by Machiko Kayaki. I’ve made a few of her patterns now and the medium size fits me really well. I’m medium height and a UK size 10 – flat chested but a bit pear shaped!

The books are in Japanese and I can’t read a word of them. Also, the pattern pieces are a bit of a nightmare as they’re all printed over each other. When you first look at them you think you’re going to get a migraine – but it’s worth persevering. The diagrams for putting the items together are really clear even if you don’t speak the language and I haven’t gone too badly wrong yet.

You can buy the books from the Yes Asia website. If you order two or three at once, the shipping is free but they do take quite a long time to arrive.

Jean Genius

Well OK not a genius may be — though I am pretty pleased with this one.

I’ve tried to make a skirt from a pair of jeans a few times, but I never quite liked the V-insert. Maybe it was the way I did it. So I tried something a little different here. I chopped off the legs at hip level then separated the front and back legs and cut each piece in half. Then I sewed three of these bits together for the front and the same for the back. I did this by by overlapping them and zig zag stitching them rather than normal seaming, to stop the seams being too bulky.

I also zig zagged round the raw edge at the bottomand I rather like the unfinished patchy look of it. It’s also got quite a nice flared shape just from the shape of the legs of the original jeans. I wanted to disguise the seam round the hips and I think this blue ric rac does the job quite well — sort of blends into the fabric. The original braid I planned to use contrasted too much and would have drawn attention to the seam (and my hips for that matter, which wasn’t the idea!). I stitched the ric rac on by hand to help give it a soft kind of look.

I cut the flower out from some retro fabric and stitched round it on the machine. I put the flower on partly because I can’t resist snazzing things up a bit and partly to cover up a big blob of paint. I  stitched the stem for it on the machine. Hope you like it. The centre is a vintage button from my button box.

If you’re planning to do something similar, I strongly recommend having the line round the hip just at the bottom of the zip. I tried it lower at first and it left a rather unpleasant sort of hollow in the crotch area — not the look I was aiming for!

Hats on to Louis

After a few refashioning disasters, I spent today making a couple of pull-on hats for my friend Claire to keep her warm when she’s out on her winter runs.

Then my son Louis, 12, wanted a hat, too. Only he didn’t want something quite so simple. He wanted one with ear flaps, plaits and a pom-pom in grey. Luckily I had an old grey fleece and some bright pink acrylic yarn (I was wondering what the hell I was going to do with it so I’m glad he favours pink).

It was a bit harder to make than the others because of the six darts at the top. But he’s a lot more pleased with it than he looks in the picture and he’s had it on all evening.

A touch of festive bunting

I spent most of today making an absolute hash of a skirt I was trying to make from an old T-shirt and an old duvet cover. It worked brilliantly in my mind but went badly wrong.

In an effort to save the day, I whizzed up this bunting for my kitchen. Nothing like a nice bit of bunting to start of the festivities. It was meant to be green and red and Christmasy. But I didn’t have enough of those sorts of scraps in my stash. So it’s green and pink mostly, and not actually all that Christmasy. The ribbon is a 3-m reel of green spotty cotton ribbon I bought for another project yonks ago. Knew it would come in handy.

Best thing: Really, really quick to do and cheerful

Worst thing: Neither my other half or son have noticed it, in spite of it being hung right across the  middle of the kitchen for several hours!

Warm fuzzy bag

This bag started life as an old grey woolly jacket that was my Mum’s and a bright pink T-shirt that was my fashion-conscious son’s.

I wanted a bag that would hold a paperback, my notebooks – and a few other essentials as well. So I made it the size of a small tote bag.

I’m pertty pleased with it. I tried not to cut as many corners as I usually do so I added some iron-on interfacing (can really recommend this to all you tote-makers out there). I also seamed a little rim rond the top which gives it a bit of substance and means it doesn’t flop over much.

Best things: the cheerful bright pink lining and the plastic vintage buckle on the pocket.

Worst thing: wish I had enough material to make the straps a touch longer.

Two tight tops become one

This is two tops merged into one. I bought the flowery blouse from a local charity shop – it’s a nice make (White Stuff) but was regrettably too small. The vesty T-shirt was a Monsoon one I picked up at my local carboot. I loved the fabric and the fit but unfortunately it revealed my midriff and I’m of an age where that bit of my body is best covered.

So I chopped off the blouse sleeves and sewed them into the vest – I was lucky that they were a good match for each other. Then I made a border from the leftovers of the shirt and simply added it to the bottom of the vest.

I made the funny little flower thing from one of the waist strap pieces from the blouse – gathered and rolled it and added a vintage button.

All in all I’m pretty pleased with it – particularly as it was quite an easy thing to do.

Drab coat to fab jacket?

This jacket was originally a long, dark brown coat that was languishing at the back of my wardrobe because it was so drab and unflattering. It was a reasonable quality (Great Plains) and a nice moleskin fabric – but that was about it.

So I chopped off a load from the bottom, re-hemmed it and added some wide claret ric rac braid and smaller lime green ric rac braid from my stash.

I replaced the original smallish dark brown buttons with larger bright green ones (the largest size that I could force through the buttonholes). Am I the only person gobsmacked by the price of buttons these days? My local dressmaking stores charge about £1 each for big buttons but I managed to find these at £1 for the lot on Ebay – and still less than £2 when the postage was added.

I think I’ve turned the coat into a much more useful and attractive garment that has yet to be aired in public. Sorry about the not-so-great pic – my first attempt with the self timer on my camera as the rest of the family is getting a bit fed up taking what they consider to be odd photos of me.

This is what the coat looked like before

Bag lady

This little bag started life as a thrifted wool cardigan – I loved it and wore it for a few years but it got ripped and past its prime so I thought I’d reinvent it. I felted it by washing it in a really hot wash.

The handles – formed from a strip folded in half lengthways helpfully curved themselves as I zig-zagged along the edges. I lined it with some nice flowery blue material from some vintage thrifted curtains.

 

I was particularly please with the rose made from a strip of felted cream wool and the leaves made from some old green moleskin fabric left over from this. I just sewed a leaf shape on it and trimmed round it – really quick but I think quite effective.

Don’t think I’ll be working with felted wool much more unfortunately as it made me sneeze so much my lungs still ache this morning!