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

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

Star Wars Bedsheets refashioned into a dress (and three skirts!)

I'm going through a dress phase again at the moment, and I'm not afraid to wear interesting things to work. So when I found these Star Wars Stormtrooper bedsheets in an op shop I had to make something!

Cue favourite pattern: 

There was plenty of fabric for a full-length dress, so I folded and pinned my pieces. I wanted to get more than one garment out of it, so I didn't necessarily follow the grain of the fabric... but hopefully it won't stretch too much.

I also cheated and combined a couple of pieces- sometimes I'm lazy! It's for me, so it doesn't matter so much.

The other skirts that I cut out:

1) Rockabilly pattern, just needs the waist band on it in this photo:

Finished:

2) Rockabilly pattern for my nerd skirt, in progress:

3) Flared skirt:

Four garments out of two bedsheets is good recycling! 

Keep an eye out for the finished dress!
#lovelypennypatterns

Upcycled denim jacket with rust dyed fabric

This denim started out as any denim jacket does: plain and blue. But though I like blue, I'm not so keen on plain. 

So I started adding eco dyed lace.

And then some eco dyed patches, because these spring prints needed a garment home.

A sleeve unpicked from a rust dyed shirt.

Some grumbling from my machine about sewing through denim!

That scrap of eco dyed lace that I loved, that just needed the right thing to go on.

And there you have it: ready in time for my stall.

 

#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