My Brother's Japanese Jacket

I lived in Japan for 9 months, and it was one of the best experiences of my life. They also have amazing textiles... so my family members all got a kimono. I regret not buying more, now that I can do all sorts of things with fabric, because I would have some amazing dresses by now! Next trip... though I'm starting to eye this one on the wall....

As he was unlikely to wear it as-is, my brother asked me to turn his kimono into a jacket.
No before picture, sorry, this post was semi-retroactive. It was a black kimono with a patterned bottom though. Phoenixes, even.
What I decided to do was unpick all of the pieces. It was a thin, silk kimono, so it wouldn't be a very warm jacket. I scoured the shops online and found a decent men's jacket that would fit my bro.

I wrapped the bottom pattern around the body of the jacket and pinned it into place

Pretty much a perfect fit!

It sounds odd, but the blacks matched really well, too, so the addition doesn't look out of place.

There was an extra motif, which I pinned to the sleeves of the jacket for extra detail.

Because of the thickness and shape of the sleeve, it was too hard to get all of this through my sewing machine. So I had to hand-sew all of it! This is the sleeve partially done:

It was going to look great when it was done!

I ran the back of the jacket through the machine- hand sewing would have taken forever!

And here it is, minus all of those pins:

Long cotton navy skirt - fix and refashion

I’m meant to be going to a course in Tasmania in the middle of the year, world craziness pending. Given that it’s going to be COLD COLD COLD I have been keeping an eye out in op shops for appropriate things to wear. This long cotton skirt was perfect!

It also hassss...... pockets!

When I looked closer it had already been taken in at the waist. I didn’t need it to be, so I unpicked it.

Unfortunately the fabric must have worn through, because I also got a hole out of this.

Oops! How to fix it? Luckily I had these fabric flower parts sitting on my sewing table. They came off a card I took from my grandmother’s stash. I remember making little patchwork inserts for Christmas cards when I was younger.

The little white flower on top was from my wedding bouquet. I made mine out of brooches and fabric flowers, which mum contributed most of 😊

This was right on the side seam. I needed to stitch them down fully otherwise they would stick out and look odd. It was a hand-sewing job. Enter Star Trek!

Very happy with the end result. It’s very comfortable!

Refashioned op shop dress with straps

This was a very simple refashion. I saw this dress in two different op shops on the same day, in two different sizes. I nearly didn’t buy it because the fabric isn’t natural, but the pattern proved irresistible.

Problem was it’s strapless. But that is an easy fix!

The straps are the bottom hem of a pair of pants that I took up. They were just the right length.

It waa simple to match everything up.

Sew four quick lines. And then wear it out to get groceries, because why not.

#lovelypennypatterns

Shorts to Skirt Refashion with a bush chook

A friend donated me this pair of shorts to do as I liked with them.

 They had an initial printing session, but I felt that they were missing something...

 So I decided to turn them into a skirt. I cut the leg seams open, turned them inside-out and sewed straight lines down the front and back.

 It made them into a nice little skirt.

#lovelypennypatterns

Super Hero Nerd Refashion: from bedsheets to skirt

It's been a while! July, I think? I changed jobs and did 5 craft markets, which made life a bit busy. I spent a lot of time crafting things to sell and not sewing so many things for myself. Or blogging! Time to give it a go again.

You might remember the skirt refashion that I did to make my niece some superhero capes.
I started with these:

And now have these leftover:

The skirts were a bit short for me and sadly lacking in pockets. The more I looked at them, I thought they might be a bit young for me, too. The purple was too pastel for me (and the red was a better base colour). I decided to make a general nerd skirt, as I had patches from games and t-shirt logos that I could add on.

Then I found a set of Star Wars Stormtrooper bedsheets at the Op Shop fro $12 and I was inspired!

Got to keep the logo!

This top part of the sheet will make a good waist band, so I set it aside after I had cut a dress out of the fabric (but that's another post!).

I grabbed my rockabilly pattern and used the skirt as a template.

It uses a lot of fabric, so it would leave me plenty of room to sew patches onto.

But I had already cut two other skirts out of the fabric to make them for friends, so I got to use some of the Supergirl fabric from the capes to create a new panel. The more nerd the merrier!

The top of the fabric is still crinkled from when it had elastic in it! 

I pinned and sewed the patches on before I joined the skirt panels, so that it would be less unwieldy to maneuver through the machine. 

White zip for the white skirt.

It needed pockets, too, which I have decided are really required on everything. Skirts can feel so useless without them! 

But rather than add them into the seams or go any further I decided I didn't want to wear this skirt... It's sat in my unfinished pile for months now and I honestly think I'll cut it up and make shopping bags out of it instead. My sense of style has changed and I've moved away from the huge skirts for the moment.

An odd blog update, but there it is. I have finished photos of a few more things to update on posts so I had better hop to it!

Happy New Year #lovelypennypatterns

Op Shop Refashion: Denim pants to skirt

This refashion has been sitting on my pile for a while. I wanted to turn this pair of denim shorts into a skirt. The first step was to cut the legs open.

The front seam doesn't sit very well when you convert it, so I have to open it up and stitch it flat.

I has to rethink how this would work, given that it was raw edges that I was pinning down. I decided to seal them instead. 

 This would mean that the edges wouldn't fray and would be more comfortable to wear.

 After that I patched the gaps with dyed cotton napkins and a bit of lace.

 Back and front: 

 This is destined for my Christmas craft stall! 

#lovelypennypatterns

Art and Adaptation Project - Eco dye garments

I decided to submit to a local art project Art and Adaptation. I had the opportunity to submit up to 3 photos of works that could be displayed in light-up art boxes around my town. The theme was adaptation and transformation and how this applies to our local context: so why not enter some transformed garments, since the reuse and recycle movement is so strong here?
My concept was that I would take before and after photos of my dyed garments and I pictured them as mirror images. 
No other available model but myself!

 A pity this one blurred! Oh well, learning experience, and I took other photos.

This shirt.. was not flattering!

I think the ones with me in them are probably more interesting than just the clothes, but I tried some of them too.

 The next stage is seeing how they turn out after the dye... could be anything!

 The flowers are loving the bits of rain we get at the moment 😃

Another day of dyeing. Aaaaaand..... the results!

 Mixed results with the photography.

 And with the success of the dye. I had a couple that I could work with though.

A bit of photoshop and creativity, and this is what I came up with.

I didn't end up submitting the green dress, because I didn't think it was interesting enough. People are much better subjects. 

 I was really happy with this one in the end, though trying to take outdoor photographs in the tropics WHILE WEAR WOOL is crazy!

 But this is probably my favourite, especially the 'after' shot.  

#lovelypennypatterns