Naval-theme Top Refashion

This shirt was a good op-shop find, very nice cotton and in good condition. It sat down on the top of my thighs and was slightly too tight across the hips.

I loved the pockets on the front though, and the little pompom trim.

 To fix the length I made a chop, leaving enough fabric on the bottom to hem it again and not lose any of the pockets. 

Very easy refashion!

Furniture Refashion: Covering the arms of a chair

They don't make things like they used to. This chair isn't that old, but the fake leather is already peeling off...

What to do? Why, fix it with fabric of course!
Take a couple of lengths of leftover fabric:

Overlock the edges of the fabric inside-out. to create sleeves.

Trim them down because they're too big...

Find out that they're too loose because you didn't taper them at the end.

Install some elastic to pull the ends in.

Try one on for size.

Final product! Snazzy and comfy. I could even cover the whole chair... hmm. We shall see!

Op Shop Refashion - Shirt to Open Jacket

I've never been a fan of business jackets, finding that they don't fit well and don't suit me. So when I found this op shop shirt I thought it was time to change my look. Polyester, but as I am going to wear it indoors I think it will be ok.

It has big shoulder pads, not a style I need.

Very easy to remove those with an unpicker/seam ripper. Often these are sewn in separately, so you won't undo any major seams by removing them.

I'll keep them and use them for something else. They make good padded pockets.

The shirt also has pearl button and loop fasteners on the front.

They're very nice, but I want an open jacket for comfort.

More unpicking! I watch a lot of TV when I do this.

It left some stitches and marks in on the fabric, but they were easy enough to remove.

What I was left with was one side of the jacket with a placket, which is an opening used to help put clothes on in an easy way. On this jacket it tucked under the other side so as not to leave a gap in the middle.

I pinned it under and sewed it down, so that it was out of the way.

All dressed up and happy at work!

Refashioning a simple top to a funky blue one

I actually started this shirt here in an early post, and then it has been sitting on my desk for ages. I finally got around overlocking the edges to seal them so that I could turn it into a shirt.

It was going to be a simple top, but as with many of my creations that didn't last long!
I loved these different collars that I saw at a fashion show, and wanted to try one of them. 

They're just that bit different.

So I sewed it all together, made an off-centre, stiffened collar, and put that on too. I didn't mind it, it was very different. A little odd, maybe.

I decided to try wrapping the neck pieces around. Now I liked that better! A button to fix it in place.

And some stitches on the inside.

Only problem then was that the arm holes were too big and without the cover of the collar my bra was showing.

A family friend just gave me three boxes full of sewing stuff, including trims. This seemed like it could be useful.

I pinned it on and liked it. 

 But it didn't quite blend in...

 More trim from my own stash to the rescue!

A couple of lines of stitching and there's a new shirt. 

Refashioned Suit for 90s Costume Party - Harvey Dent/Two Face Costume

My husband and I are not afraid to dress up (because it's so much fun), so when our friend announced that he was having an 80s/90s cartoons birthday party we were in. I wanted to be a Ninja Turtle - Donatello to be exact - and in a rare show of creative laziness I bought my costume. I did add the purple ties to it and made the 'D' to wear around my waist. But I'm glad that I bought it because I may have run out of time in making the other costume!

The tights were a bit, ah, tight, so I added a little lycra skirt for my modesty. 

All ready to go.

Back to the real costume making!

My husband wanted to go as Two Face, a villain from Batman. It showed on TV as a cartoon when we were younger, and this was the model for the villain:

Half of every piece of clothing black and the other half white. Challenge accepted!
It would have been prohibitively expensive to buy two new suits in each colour, halve them and made potentially two black and white suits. Husband had a cheaper black suit in his cupboard, so we pulled that out to convert. He decided that he wanted the pants, jacket, tie and a vest done, but that he wanted to be able to wear the suit as-is again. This meant that it couldn't be a permanent conversion.
We bought an over-sized large shirt to craft with, something like four sizes bigger than his usual so that it would fit over the jacket.

I cut the shirt in half and hemmed the raw edge. Then it was a matter of pinning it over the jacket to match.

The front edge had to be folded over and holes cut for the existing buttons to it through.

Trying to match the collar of the black jacket was a bit tricky, but I made a good effort.

This is the jacket all pinned and ready to sew.

The fabric is all hand-stitched onto the jacket, what you call 'tacked' - a loose stitch that is easy to remove later on. He wants to keep the jacket and pants as normal clothes, not permanently a costume. It would have been a lot easier to whizz through the sewing machine, but harder to unpick late and also more likely to show marks when I removed everything.

I should have taken some in-progress photos of the tie, but really all I did was take a white and black tie, cut them in half and sew them back together into the two combinations. It's very effective, I think:

Onto the underclothes. My husband had an existing cheap vest that I cut in half and used as a template on the remaining half  of the white shirt.

It was much easier to pin and size on the dressmakers manikin. I shaped the bottom to match that of the vest. 

I left some extra at the back for overlap. 

The edge has gone wavy under the arms because the shirt armhole is bigger than the vest. I can fix this when I sew it all together. 

Once it was all pinned it was easy to cut out.Then it was a matter of hemming all of the edges and creating button holes.

I matched the tie on the black side with one on the white side too.

It doesn't look too bad, I must say. I didn't get time to add bias binding to the edges before the party, but I will later on so that it is strengthened and will last longer.

When you put it all together...

He did the makeup himself.

Thanks to my wonderful husband for agreeing to be blogged!

I think he looked amazing 😍

Watch out, Batman!