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!

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

Dragon Age Inquisition Cosplay - Orlesian Skirt

My Dragon Age Inquisition cosplay has been only a thought for a couple of years now,  but I'm determined to finish it in 2019. So I got the pattern out one night and cut out every piece of the layered skirt.

Layer 1 - Underskirt

I scrounged some fabric from my many boxes and made a simple, full-length, A-line skirt that I could wear on its own, separate from the cosplay.

See the odd black pattern on the back where I JUST ran out of fabric? Ha ha! This pattern uses a lot of fabric.

Layer 2 - White cotton underskirt.

Looks like I mostly forgot to take a photo of this in progress, but you can see it on the final skirt.

Layer 3 - Moth wings

These were the complicated part of the skirt, because I had elected to do them in satin for the more formal ballgown look. And satin is slippery.
I did them as separate 'petals', so that the layers and drape would look more like the original gown. 

Once sewn, all of the moth eyes were fabric printed on using the lino cuts I had designed and carved for this project.

It's always a slight risk printing directly onto your finished, sewn product, but I was confident. As long as I let the black dry before I put the copper on, it would turn out fine.

Each part was a top layer, sewed together with a bottom layer, and turned through so that the seams were on the inside. A lot tidier than simple hems, particularly with the satin.

It was a LOT of sewing with very slippery fabric....

And I had it draped everywhere!

But it was coming together according to my plan.

I sewed the wing designs on rather than paint them, so that the effect was subtler. 

Lots and lots of pinning followed, trying to work out how the individual layers would hang. The white underskirt and all of the satin were sewn together as a single skirt, with a substantial, solid waistband to hold all of it up.

But can you see how it all came together?

I think you can really see the moth wing effect at the front!

The finished skirt! 

Just the matching corset top to make, and the hand-painted stand-up butterfly collar.....

#lovelypennypatterns

Pillowcase + Skirt = Funkier skirt!

Not much blogging happening at the moment-I think I spend so much time on a computer at work that I don't want to do it at home! 
But I have been sewing. 
I picked up an op shop skirt a while back because I liked the colours. Too small for me, but with some upcyling it would be nice for someone else. A lovely light denim and a cool vine pattern on it.

In my stash I had a pillow case that I had dyed from white/yellow flowers to blue/green flowers.

I thought it was a pretty good match to the skirt. I pinned it in place to try.

And I really liked it. The bit I chopped off the corner made a great pocket, too. 

I like good-sized pockets on my outfits! 

And there you have it: a whole new skirt! 

A bit longer, but I love the shape of it.

The next craft stall is in May, so hopefully this goes to a good home. 
#lovelypennypatterns