Upcycled kimono fabric top

I originally bought two of these pieces of kimono silk to use for my wedding dress, almost 8 years ago. The concept didn't work out and the fabrics have sat in my stash for all this time. The white piece was a gift from a friend that I have used as a scarf. I needed the extra fabric for this project though so it was time to refashion it.

This Simplicity pattern is a new favourite of mine

- one of the few that is generous rather than stingy with its measurements. 

There was just enough fabric to cut the top out! The front and back both have seams down the middle, but they look fine.

Kimonos are made from panels of fixed-width fabric, which is why I knew that I could use the two completely different pieces.

The embroidered piece is stiff and has a lot of loose threads on the back that would catch on everything.

I decided to line it with fabric from a dress that I didn’t wear because the cotton was too thin. Green is my favourite colour!

It made the front bulkier but way more comfortable. It also made the seams less bulky. Time to sew the front and back together!

The next question was sleeves or no sleeves?

I went with the sleeves, sewed them on and created a collar.

I hemmed the bottom, turning the cotton to the front for a contrast. 

Finished top!

Thought about wearing to to work for frock up Friday, but the outfit was a bit much!

#lovelypennypatterns

Steampunk skirt refashion with eco dyed fabric

Take an op shop skirt that you bought because it had a cool pattern (and was still cotton!):

Add a cotton vest that only took up some of the eco dye:

 And a curved pillow case that you don't have a pillow for but would look great as a ruffle layer:

Layer them over each other, making sure you can see both:

And it's a pretty good start for a steampunk skirt! Final product, almost ready for the stall (unfortunately slightly too small for me!) It didn't sell this time around, but maybe next time.

#lovelypennypatterns

Disney Cosplay: Ursula from The Little Mermaid - Part 2

Continuing some costuming! Turning myself into Ursula from The Little Mermaid for a geek convention in town later in the year.

Step 3 - Over dress

I believe this dress was $1, and it has already had a cosplay life as part of my steampunk costume.

Plenty of fabric to work with in the skirt.

Hmm, it needed more bulk. Oh yes, my wedding dress skirt is still in the cupboard!

That's a lot of underskirt! But it will sit nicely.

Step 4 - the tentacles

I cut the tentacles out of the over skirt. Sealing the edge was going to be the hardest part, particularly with the curves.

 But look at it working over the purple underskirt - very exciting!

What I ended up doing was cutting the underskirt through as well and tucking the edges of both layers in. This had the added benefit of giving the tentacles some bulk, rather than them being flat.

It took an awful lot of pinning...

I was happy with the shapes that I managed though.

 It really does look like the right shape!

Now to sew it all.....

Disney Cosplay: Ursula from The Little Mermaid - Part 1

I think I'm attracted to villain costumes because they are more practical to make and wear than a lot of the heroine costumes (this is particularly true in games and anime, where they often don't wear much).
My next one: a cosplay of Ursula from The Little Mermaid.

I started with the hardest part: the underskirt.

Now that people around know that I sew, I often get surprise donations! A colleague gave me a whole box of long lengths of fabric that her sister was getting rid of. And what should be in there but purple cotton that I can use for this project!

There's enough to work with, too!

I wanted to make a skirt that can sit between the planned layers (over the white, under the black), and fabric print it with octopus suckers.

Step 1 - make the underskirt.

This was a relatively quick sew. I cut a panel of the darker purple and added it to the top of the pale purple, because there wasn't quite enough length in that panel.

I put a very narrow hem on the bottom, as I wanted it to be neat and not very obvious. Any length that needed to be removed could be taken from the top.

I put a tube on the top so that I could thread elastic through. 

This will be a completely separate skirt from the rest of the costume.

It came together very nicely.

Step 2 - print the octopus suckers on.

What could I use to print and how big should they be? 
The bottom of a glass bottle worked quite well.

Then I just needed white fabric paint and an idea of what spacing I needed for the sucker marks. I added a white dot in the middle of all of them as well, to make them look more like suckers.

Here it is, fully printed and drying on the line. I did a heavier concentration of circles on the bottom to see how it looks. Pretty happy!

Watch this space for the rest of it!

Op shop skirt refashion - Zipper to No-zipper

A friend found me this fabulous skirt in an op shop and thankfully it fit! I've worn it for a couple of years, but I've noticed that I don't wear it often and this is because it has a high, tight waist.

The top of the skirt sits right under my bust and even though the olive green part is cotton it makes it a bit hot in our climate. Because it's firm it also makes me feel a bit self-conscious about my stomach.
Now that I'm trying not to buy clothes and am in refashion mode, I decided that I would convert it to another style of skirt.
You can see here that the zip runs the width of the olive green part. I unpicked to remove it and continued to unpick all the way down to the bottom hem.

What I suspected I'd have to do with this skirt was add fabric in to make it wide enough to pull up: it sits pretty flush at the moment. I went trawling through the stash and found this: 

I thought that, even though it had a lot of colours, they resonated with different colours in the skirt.
Sewing, always sewing: I cut a wide panel, hemmed all of the edges and the sewed new seams.

Once the sides were sewn it was an easy hem at the top and bottom.

And I added a pocket, of course! I can't live without them these days.

Aww, I found a bow that used to be on a headband when I was a kid. I LOVED this fabric! Better wear it again.

Finished skirt! No elastic, no zip, just slides on over my head.

#lovelypennypatterns

Skirt Refashion: Rainbow skirt gets a makeover

I hadn't worn this skirt for a few weeks and I've realised that I don't want to wear it to work like this anymore. I'm tending towards the clothes with more defined lines and shape and, though I still love the colours in this, I'm going for a different look for myself.

I could retire it to everyday wear, but I have a lot of those clothes already. So I thought I could refashion it, change the shape and slim it down, to make it look totally different.
This is the skirt as it is now. I made a giant square, eventually rounded the points off, and cut a hole in the middle for it to go around my waist.
Well, slightly more complicated than that, but you get the idea.

It's a lot of fabric. And an elastic waistband that has stretched that I want to unpick. That will be the first step, and it shouldn't take much. 

The zip isn't fastened to the waistband, as I put it in first. So there is a zip to deal with,  but I plan to leave it in and work the design around it.

My plan is to use another, straighter skirt as a pattern and cut a new shape out of this one. There will be some leftovers, but I use those on all sorts of things so it doesn't worry me. Better to refashion this and get some more wear out of it, as I do love the colour combination. It was one of the first pieces of Indigenous fabric that I bought myself.
Step 1 - remove waistband.

Step 2 - Unpick the pocket (which was then used to patch another skirt that had ripped).

Step 3 - lay out the skirt and see what I'm working with.

Step 4 - use another skirt as a template and cut around it. To do it properly I should have probably pinned or drawn an outline.. but I just cut it. YOLO

Step 5 - Overlock the edges to seal them.
Step 6  - pin them together and make sure they match.
Step 7 - sew the side seams.

The new waistband was a bit big, but rather than make darts to take it in, I wanted to use elastic for a comfortable fit.
Step 8 - Sew a tube of ribbon on to feed elastic through.

Step 9 - feed the elastic through and stitch the ends in place. By putting it through a tube, I can easily replace it when it wears out. 

The elastic gathers the front of the skirt very nicely, and makes it fitted but flattering.

Finished product: the back. I like how the hem turned out asymmetrical - complete unplanned.

And the front! Now it shows some leg 😄

#lovelypennypatterns