Owl Dress

I had this fabric in my stash for a few years, waiting to find the right pattern.

This dress looked interesting, and I always love things with pockets.

I had 3 metres of fabric to work with but by the time I pinned it all I ran out!

The back of the top had a lovely shape.

But when I pinned it all together, it didn’t quite fit right - too big on top.

The join between the bodice and skirt didn’t match up, off by almost 30cm.

I tried a number of different tucks to match them up - eventually got there after 4 more darts than the pattern called for!

It was finished off with large pearl buttons.

And there it is - the owl dress!

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!

Little People Pants

This funky fabric is from Palngun Wurnangat an independently owned Aboriginal women’s organisation based in Wadeye, Northern Territory. They make all of my favourite fabrics! 

This one is called 'Little People'. There's a cool set of photos here of how they print it, too:

I was lucky on the day of the art fair as this particular bit of fabric was on the sale table - I got 3 metres of it! I've made a lot of dresses lately, so I thought I would make a matching skirt and top out of it. I felt like it needed a long, big skirt, and a top with sleeves. But I don't have anything in pink or purple, so I decided to make pants. What a shame! 😏

It was fairly simple to cut out and fit quite well. 

But it turned out that the pants didn't quite accommodate my curves. They fit VERY well on the back, but were a little low. I had to unpick the darts and sew a yoke in, a curved addition, to bring the back up to the level of the waistband. 

Obligatory pocket!

And I was off to brighten everyone's day at work again.

#lovelypennypatterns

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

Gone Batty at the Show Dress

I spend some time at our local show each year, but instead of buying a show bag I get.... fabric! Of course 😆 
This is from a couple of years ago now, but I finally made it up.

Bring on my favourite dress pattern and it was just a matter of cutting everything out (and hoping that I had enough fabric). 

I wanted to try a different neckline, too, maybe an asymmetrical one to match the quirky pattern?

Isn't it a great pattern? I overlaid some of the pieces to make the skirt slimmer and also to preserve some of the bats whole. I'm still playing with this pattern to make it fit me.

Then I made the mistake of putting the project aside after I cut it out, caught up in something else. I pulled the pieces out a couple of months later, sewed it all together... and when I tried to put it on, I found that it was waaaaay too small.

Puzzled, I dutifully cut out two new pieces for the back and sewed the zip in without looking at it properly. The result was this:

Sure, it fit better, but that much bra shouldn't have been flashing. Grumpy, I set it down and decided to tidy my work space... in which time I found the two missing pieces that I had cut out!

Bah! Ah well, I'll use those pieces in some other dress I suppose! A bit of tweaking and the dress fit well. I played with some pieces for the back and landed on this:

I've seen a lot of cute patterns recently and wanted to cut a bat-shaped pocket out, too. 

I found some red cotton to use as a backing, sewed around the edges and turned it through. 

It worked out pretty well!

 All in all, the disaster turned into a pretty groovy dress.

It's one of my favourite outfits now. I plan to wear it later this month to give a presentation at a conference in Sydney - show off a little bit of the Territory. 

#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