Shorts, Dyed Pillowcase and Shirt refashion to Skirt

I am once again in the familiar position of having too many clothes. Part of it is that I wear work clothes five days a week, of course, and I generally wear comfortable clothes when I get home, I have nice going out clothes, leaving the two day weekend for all of the other clothes. Not enough time to wear them! First world problems, I know. Luckily I enjoy refashioning things.
Recently Mum made a maxi skirt out of two pairs of jeans that really inspired me, so I wanted to remake some things in my wardrobe. Drastically.
Two pairs of my jeans shorts while they started out fashionably worn on the front are now becoming frayed beyond repair. I don't need three pairs. They're also quite stained because I have a tendency to wipe the mud from my arrows off on them at archery....

I also had a few shirts too many, that I just wasn't wearing. T-shirt material would be too stretchy to pair with the jeans, but some of the other shirts would be ok.
I like the lace in this top. But I like wearing it as a top.

This cotton shirt from my dad was a much better candidate! Nice, heavy cotton that will go well with the jeans.

I'm thinking about these pillow cases as well. Thinking that they would look great dyed blue and included in this skirt! They're cotton, perfect candidates for dyeing.

I was thinking that this would be a long, patched shirt using the top of one of the pairs of shorts as the zip and waistband. I could keep the pockets then, too. There's a box full of scraps to cover whatever needs to be covered. I'd love to use the top of the second pair of shirts for the pockets as well. You can never have too many pockets.

Onto the dyeing! My dye kit for cotton is very simple: Rit and salt, to set it. I do it in the washing machine.

Import to pre-wet the fabric, otherwise your result can turn out patchy. I threw some other shirts in with the pillowcases.

The results are also better if you pre-mix the dye.

Then you throw the dye and salt into the machine with the wet fabric, on a hot cycle for about an hour.

The hardest part? Not dyeing myself!

I was very happy with the colour result of the pillowcases. And I had wondered if the yellow thread of the flowers was cotton or not: as it was cotton, it was dyed as well and came out green. Still happy.

I sewed the pillowcase closed rather than pick it all apart, which made the fabric thicker and more stable to work with.

Onto the pants that were the basis of the skirt. A quick cut to open them out.

I cut all of these seams out so that I didn't have to sew through them because they were too thick.

They don't look very impressive on the mannikin, but that is certainly going to change.

Hmm, this worn patch needs to be covered up.

A seam in the back to straighten the curve that had previously been in place.

One of the pillowcases patched the gap in the back and I loved how it looked a bit mermaid-tail-like.

I wanted to cover up these stylish rips as well, because they were gradually expanding.

I'm not that into flashing my thighs...

Add a sleeve from my dad's shirt. Then subtract one of the pillowcases because it just wasn't working. There was too much of the dyed blue. That's ok, it can become something else!

I took part of the legs from the second pair of shorts and was happy to find this darker fabric under the pocket when I unpicked it. That pocket will go on somewhere as well!

I'm sure that I can find a use for this for another refashion.

After the base was ready it was a matter of adding different pieces until I was happy. I remembered that I had dyed these squares previously and couldn't wait to add them.

An early, pinned version.

The ruffle on the backside had to be moved...

But it gradually took shape, and as I was happy with things I sewed them down so that I could keep layering over them. I don't want too many layers, because when it's washed the thick sections won't dry out. Too many layers are also harder to sew through.

Add some kimono obi from when I lived in Japan.

And get into some hand stitching on these bits of dyed fabric. This was initially because something with the weave was jamming my sewing machine, but now I love how it looks and want to do more.