Op Shop Refashion - Sea green top for work

This op shop top caught my eye, it's such a lovely colour. I thought I could wear it to work, but there was something just a little bit off with it.
This is the front.

And this is the back.

I tried it on. And it fit ok. I still wasn't convinced.

My brainwave: what if I turned it around?

It fit so much better!

The interfacing/lining on the new back wouldn't stay flat, so I had to sew it down.

A very easy fix.

I also removed the tag that was on the original back of the top, so that it wasn't visible on the new front.

Not bad for $6! Here I am chilling at work, having paired it with my rainbow skirt:

Op-shop Refashion: African Print Dress

I picked this dress up in an op-shop for $5. I love African-print fabrics and the cotton is nice to wear in the hot weather, even though it's long.

I could wear it as-is, but I don't like strapless things. It's a bit long to wear as a skirt, too. So I had a few options:

• add straps and make it a dress
• chop the elastic top off and turn it into a skirt
• chop the elastic top off, add some extra fabric and make it into a dress.

I made a chop, leaving a couple of rows of elastic at the top:

I decided that this would be a skirt, a casual one.

I do have a lot of skirts, mostly work ones, but that is where I spend the majority of my week so it makes sense. Instead of keeping this one, once I had hemmed the top edge and put a zip in, I gave it to one of my cousins, who I knew would like!

There are so many different ways that we can re-use clothes.

Who knew men's ties could be so useful?

I have an obsession with men's neckties. I think I saw someone else's refashion using them and I was suddenly hooked. They come in so many colours and types, and you can do so many things with them! I have a Pinterest board here where I've collected some of those ideas.

What I particularly like about ties is that they are sturdy, a good length to work with and they come in so many different colours and patterns.

One of my first projects was a dress made out of ties. I bought about 50 blue ties! Can't argue with the result though:

 I wove all of the ends together on the back and was very happy with the effect. It was a lot of fiddly sewing.

This dress was for a friend, so I'm still collecting green ties to make a dress for myself. I'm going to make it a long one, like a formal gown. Some of the ties:

Other uses
I often use ties as bag straps, because they are a perfect length.

Pockets.

And even make them into bags themselves.

What else do you think I could do with them?

Refashioning Op Shop Finds - Denim Skirt

Yet another awesome op shop find. This skirt is so comfortable, but it is too big. 

I find that a lot of skirts fit perfectly on the bottom (for me) but are too big around the waist. An easy fix! 
It's hard to see from the front, but I put darts from the waistband down to make it narrower. Long, tapered triangles.

It's more obvious in the waistband area, but that is hidden under my shirts so it doesn't really matter.

It's really obvious here, on the inside.

Now that's done, what if I put something extra on the skirt? Frills running down the length, maybe, like fish fins or seaweed? That would make it a bit fancy for every day wear though.. hmmm tht hasn't stopped me before. Well, it can wait for now.

This cute little painting was only $1 at the op shop as well, I couldn't resist.

Masquerade Masks

These masks were a commission. I was given a photo of a dress to match and asked to make a pair of masks on sticks, rather than elastic. It was a fun trip to Spotlight with a budget and a colour scheme!

Bought materials:

• Two green masks
• Two pieces of dowel (wood sticks)
• Green velvet ribbon
• Paper flowers in yellow
• Pre-made mini dragonflies
• Green feathers
• Yellow feathers
• Big gold sequins
• Small gold sequins
• Green glass leaves
• Packet of mixed gems
• Packet of glass eyes
• Green puff paint
• Gold puff paint

Own materials:

• Glue gun
• Fabric
• Beach glass
• Random beads
• Fake leaves

I bought the base mask in green and had to attach the sticks myself. I got two short pieces of dowel and wrapped them in velvet ribbon. The ribbon was secured with a glue gun, but I also stitched the ends in place to cover the glue up. I used a lot of glue to attach them to the back of the masks, and had to glue a fabric patch over them to make it more secure: my first attempt simply popped off!

Female Mask
I've made a few masks before and find that they are a great creative medium. You can pretty much stick anything on them! With the green theme this was always going to be a garden: flowers, leaves and dragonflies. 
There was no plan, I simply started sticking leaves on and it evolved from there. The dragonflies were too cute to pass up and they perched nicely on the mask. Butterflies would have been too big, I think.
You can't load the masks up with too many things, as they become to heavy to wear or carry. I try to use light materials.

I like to add touches of other colours because it can make the whole item pop. Though a certain green and gold were the main colours from the dress, I could also use a range of greens and yellows that would blend in nicely. Puff paint covered up and odd bits of glue that were visible and added extra glitter too.

The feathers and flowers on the side helped to disguise the stitches and glue that kept the stick attached to the mask. The paper flowers mean that the mask can't get wet, but you tend to avoid that anyway! I just thought they were nicer than the plastic and silk flowers.

Female masks are easier to make in a lot of ways. What is 'feminine' is more easily defined than masculine: flowers, feathers, sequins. Of course everyone is an individual, but generally the women that I have made masks for don't object to glitter. 

Male Mask My challenge with this project was only having met the gentleman the once. I didn't want to give him a plain mask, but I didn't think that leaves and flowers were the way to go. What I did was still a bit out there, but in a different way. 
Crocodiles.
We have a lot of reptiles in our area of the world. A LOT. So when I saw the packet of glass eyes at the shop I was inspired. Now to make the 'skin'.

The fabric was a stroke of genius (I thought): it was from the same print workshop as the dress I was matching, but in different colours. I tore my entire fabric stash apart looking for it, because I knew that I had that one little scrap somewhere. It linked the masks and the dress together nicely.

All of the pieces of glass are the size of coins, picked up from the beach in my town. The light piece right in the middle is the neck of a bottle! Some of what we pick up are fascinating shapes, or still have writing on them.
I used the glue gun to set the glass in place and then added super glue to keep it there. The glass is very smooth, so the glue had a hard time sticking to it. The first couple of 'shake tests' that I did on it had a few pieces falling off.
As with the first mask, I used more than just one colour. I thought that the skin effect was quite good and that the mask was masculine enough. 

Unfortunately it was a little tight across the face when it was first tried on, so I had to carefully bend it out and a few of the glass pieces popped off again. I was able to glue them back on though.

The masks were apparently a success on the night, so another happy customer!