Denim Shorts Refashion to Bush Chooks Skirt

A common sight in local gardens is the infamous Orange-Footed Scrub Fowl, or Bush Chook. They make a horrendous mess of your garden, but they are pretty darn cute. It's a love/hate relationship.

I picked these up at the Christmas Craft Fair and have been waiting for the right time to use them.

When these shorts wore out, I knew that it was time for another denim skirt refashion!

You know when the crotch wears thin and starts to rub in an uncomfortable way?

I used pinking shears to cut the legs open. I wasn't going to overlock the edges, so this was the cheat way to semi-seal them. Denim doesn't fray as much as some fabrics.

I pinned the front and back sides closed with a lot of overlap, because otherwise the skirt will bulge in places that the shorts used to.

The napkins will patch the holes a treat!

Although, after I tried it on they still bulged too much.. had to take it in more.

Particularly on the front. It made a nice, straight skirt though.

I cut one of the pieces in half to make a smaller patch on the front. Otherwise the larger one covered my existing patches too much.

The other half of it went on the side.

I'm finishing up a bush chook stencil at the moment, so I'll definitely print a couple of those on the next time I get the paint out. 
Terrible final photos, but you get the idea.

I love these refashions, because you get a funky skirt, but functional pockets with it that are often missing from skirts. Now I can wear this to archery!

#lovelypennypatterns

Salvaging and Refashioning a Top

For my Whirligig fabric, I had created an under dress that was then chopped up for a skirt. This top is what remains of it, and I am loathe to just throw it out. Everyone needs shirts, right?

All of the edges are overlocked and the pieces are joined at the shoulders. Part of the reason that I rejected it as a dress was that the darts would not sit properly with the weight of the skirt dragging it down. It sat funny over my bust and was a little bit tight. Luckily I hadn't sewed the side seams, so it can still be salvaged.
If I don't make a long top or dress I'll have to cut the zip short at the bottom. A shame, but I don't make many dresses so it isn't likely to be worth my effort unpicking the whole thing.
So how to salvage this?
I think this will be an everyday top, so I want it to be longer than the cropped shirts that I make to match my high waist work skirts. This way I can wear it with shorts.

The shoulders and arm holes were too tight, despite me cutting very generous seam allowances, so I put inserts on both sides of the shoulders. I like quirky, which is why they don't match. I am still thinking that there may be an overlay anyway, which will disguise this. It will need to include some orange though, or it will look extremely out of place!

When I pin the sides together on the manikin it looks fine. But dressmakers manikins rarely fit every body type - I often add padding to the bust of mine to fit my figure.

This fabric is also too light for a top on its own: I had issues for the Poison Ivy Cosplay that I did with it too. Heavier fabric sits better and also disguises any unsightly bulges or bra lace. With the Poison Ivy top I covered it with leaves until this wasn't obvious anymore. I'll have to do something else with this top.

I tried it on again, now that it didn't have the weight of the skirt attached, to see whether it fit any better.
It was better but still not amazing.
I needed to add fabric in the sides to make the top bigger around. Given the orange strip on the shoulder, this seemed to be the obvious colour.
I'm trying very hard not to buy things at the moment, both to use what I have and to save money. But I did a big clean out one weekend and re-arranged everything. I now have a box of scraps, two boxes of fabric aaaaaaand a BOX OF TIES! Time to upcycle 😁I really like this idea, from Pinterest. 

I turned to my stash for inspiration.

I buy more almost every time I go to an op shop. Some of them are silk! The patterns are so gorgeous and I have found ones from England, Italy and America. It was easy to dive into the box to find some things to add to my new top.

I thought about putting a bottom fringe of ties on it, which would look cool and add length, but I might not have enough of the right colours. It looks great on this skirt on Pinterest

A couple of possibilities:

Now that's an idea!

The shapes and colours remind me of the game I'm currently playing, Horizon: Zero Dawn. It has all these fabulous geometric shapes and colours, beads and braids. Maybe this can be inspired by it.

I pinned some ties onto the shirt on the dress manikin and left it for a while, fiddling inbetween working on other things. But it just wasn't speaking to me.
And then I found this great fabric top at the op shop. 

I recognised the print from the Aboriginal art workshop in Maningrida straight away. And the top, it turns out, is from a local dressmaker, Raw Cloth. What a find for a few dollars! I rather liked how they colours all went together:

Lots and lots of pinning. The bottom edge is really cute!

And when I wondered at some point where all of my pins were, I remembered... they were here!

Hmm, really like that neckline. There is no such thing as too many colours.

And then lots and lots of sewing, but it came together! I didn't think I could keep the tail though...

I'm particularly happy with the back, it all aligned nicely.

There is still some sewing to go, but you get the idea! A completely different top is on the way.

#lovelypennypatterns

Apron Dress cosplay for a Viking Warrior!

Each year they have a Viking Funeral in my city at the local yacht club. They launch a boat and set it on fire using flaming arrows. And it turns out that my archery club do the honours.
So this year, I get to fire some of the flaming arrows! So of course, I need an appropriate outfit.
There are a lot of theories about the Apron Dress, and of course about Vikings. No one is apparently exactly sure what they looked like or wore, because not much has survived. But there is some general consensus that there was an Apron Dress and it would have looked something like what I am planning to make. The apron overdress was used to display embroidery and beads, which are usually linked to wealth in many cultures. I was planning on being moderately wealthy.

Under Dress

I found a pattern in a box and thought that it would suit it. I really needed a pattern for the under dress, because the last time I tried a free-pattern one it was a disaster!

I pulled some spare fabric out, but found that I only had black for the under dress and navy for the apron dress: they wouldn't contrast very well, nor stand out against the darkness when I shoot. And then I remembered this light fitted sheet that we had in the cupboard that didn't fit our bed anymore.

Perfect!
I chopped all of the elastic off.

And then laid it out to pin the pattern pieces down.

The pattern only went up to an 18, a bit small for me, so I marked out where a size bigger would be and then cut a seam allowance of another cm on top of that.

I pinned the curved seams together and sewed them, leaving the side seams free: if the dress was too small still, this is where I would add fabric in.

But I had estimated pretty well! I actually had to take it in at the sides to fit. It's hard when you're different sizes in the top, chest, hips AND waist! 
Back zip (not so traditional, but so much easier!)

And I used an existing top to measure out the sleeves, which I patched together from leftovers from the bed sheet.

The final touch was trim around the neckline:

It's very comfortable, being such a worn sheet.

Apron Dress

This part was easy - I used an apron that fit me well as a template and cut the overdress out. I also cut out two strips to turn into the dress straps. I would also need some longer, thinner strips to sew into ties for the lacing on either side of the dress.

I hemmed all of the edges and checked the fit: not quite right on the sides.

I had to take them in quite a bit.

The final touch for the over dress: I had picked out some trims (with some help), two that complemented each other but still went okay with both fabrics. My help also convinced me to get some fur trim... not sure what I'll do with it yet.

I wanted the trim at least on the top of both sides of the apron, and the straps, and then the bottom hem if I had enough. There had only been two rolls of the wide trim in the shop, so I might not be able to do it all.
After that I used some scraps to test where my side laces should fit.

Rather than buy something new, I made the laces from leftover trim. You fold and fold again to make it stronger. I figured if I made them a metre long they would be long enough to lace through.

Bling

I scoured op shops for weeks hoping to find beads that could be fake amber, bone and other semi-precious, as well as a metal belt that I could re-purpose a couple of discs from for my dress brooches. No luck! In the end I went to the store and bought some things instead.

 Finished dual necklace ready to hook up whatever brooches I find or make:

Like the beads, I had been looking in op shops for something for the brooches, like an old metal belt or something. But I ended up with two pairs of earrings from a cheap jewellery shop.

Very quick glue gun use to connect the earring parts and then attach the brooch bits to the back.

I think they turned out pretty well.

$10 for this leather look-alike bag that will do very well as a belt pouch. It will fit my phone, keys, etc that I need to take on the night. Costumes and practicality don't always mix! I hung it from a $2.50 belt I got from an op shop.

The final look: