Skirt to top refashion

I bought this skirt at Vinnies for $7 about a year ago.  It was miles too big for me, but I LOVED the design and figured that there must be enough fabric in it to come up with something fun.

Well, as I was cleaning up recently I found the skirt again, and decided it was a well overdue for a  refashion.  I decided to make a top using a McCalls pattern that I've used a few times before.

Somehow I failed to notice that the skirt was made with lots of cut panels, which meant it was really hard to get a solid piece of fabric all in one lot.  I somehow made use of the seams and panels though and it all worked out ok.

The design on the fabric makes me think of the curtains in a Swedish summer home.  Did I mention I'm obsessed with Swedish summer homes lately?  I have been checking out loads of them online and their cute interiors.  Oh to have a Swedish summer home!

The design is also a bit swingin' 60s so here's my instagram-ish shot.  Note my impression of 60s style dancing.

Jolly good fun.

Beer pants

Lots of bloggy people have been making knickers lately.  Pip's been making them, Veronica's been making them, and so I thought it was high time I had a go.

I've actually been meaning to make my own pants for a while, but it wasn't until I was packing for a trip away recently and could only find two pairs of knickers to pack that I thought that I'd better hop to it!

 

In true refashion style, I started with an old shirt of boyfriend's advertising the beer brand Beerlao (yes!  he gave me permission to cut up one of his old shirts!).  I used an old, seen-better-days pair of knickers to make a pattern.  Three simple pieces (front, back and gusset) and I was away...

So easy - just overlock the side seams and the gusset in place.  Turn the leg openings under and zigzag stitch.  Cut elastic to size, join, pin in place under turned-under waist and zigzag stitch in place.

There you have it!  Two new, easy, comfy pairs of pants.  Beer pants, no less.

Another birthday, another Sorbetto

It was another friend's birthday recently so I decided to make another Sorbetto top - but this one was a refashion!  This top began life as a men's business shirt - one that was barely worn by a male friend but was headed for the bin after a he had done a big wardrobe cleanout.  Of course I snapped it up, planning to refashion it in some way.

The 'before' shot

That was 18 months ago.  The shirt was still hanging around in my 'to refashion' pile until recently, when I knew my friend's birthday was coming up and that the pale blue colour would suit her complexion and auburn hair.

The 'after' shot

I traced the Sorbetto pattern onto the shirt with the button-up front in the centre of the front of the shirt.  I wanted to keep the front pocket, so I had to unpick one side of the pocket to put in a dart underneath (and then put one on the other side), then stitch the pocket back on.  I finished the neckline and armholes with pale blue bias binding.

What do you think, Snorky?

And it was a hit! My friend really loved the top, and I know that it will be well worn. One more shirt saved from landfill!

P.S. Buy Nothing New Month is now over, and I am pleased to say that the only new 'things' I bought were the tickets to see Circus Oz and a roll of kitchen paper (recycled) that I accidently bought alongside some groceries one day.  No new clothes, shoes, books or anything else.  It was not actually that difficult, but just required a bit of conscious decision-making (as my buys both happened without thinking about it).  I'm not sure if it has changed my shopping ethic, as I already try to buy second hand where I can, but it was good to have the challenge.  I'd happily do Buy Nothing New Month again.  How did you go?

Swing coat refashion

Lately I've been admiring all those cute cropped swing coats about, and was thinking about making one. Then it dawned on me that I have a coat in my wardrobe that could be easily refashioned into one! I bought the coat in an op-shop binge, it was 50 cents and I liked the colour, so I didn't really pay attention to the fact that it is definitely in the style of a more mature woman (the truth is, my Nana would probably be more likely to wear it than me). So into the wardrobe it went, and it hung there, unworn, for a few months. Until now!


I cut some length off the sleeves and the hem of the jacket, and it was as simple as pinning it at the right length and stitching it up.


Not only was I happy to turn something unworn into something wearable, but I also used up some thread I had leftover from another project - right down to the last of it, and nothing left on the bobbin. Alright!


I'm thinking I could possibly even make the hem a bit shorter - what do you think?

Men's shirt refashioned

I had this men's business shirt, practically new, from when my boyfriend's friend cleaned out his wardrobe last year. It had been on my to-refashion pile for months and months.


As you can see, it was massive on me. However I didn't have the length to make it into a shirt-dress, so I decided to make it into a women's work shirt.

I very soon found out that this was not going to be as easy as just taking the shirt in. I learnt some important lessons in stitchin' here - especially that men's shirts have more room in the back, and that women's shirts have more room in the front. So, a whole lot of shaping ensued.

I took the sleeves off, and hacked a whole heap of length off them.



I put darts in front...



then in the shoulders...



and eventually all over the place. Finally, after much pinning and many sleeve re-attachments, I got it to fit!



It even looks good with a belt!


The cuffs were built for cufflinks, but instead I sewed on some buttons and joined them with elastic.


Nice, huh? It'll definitely be getting some wear now.

Stitchybritt's 2010

As many other bloggers have been doing (such as Veronica Darling and Fritzi Marie), I wanted to write a 2010 wrap-up post. Unfortunately my ‘puter has been out-of-order the last few days, so this post comes a little later than I anticipated it would. Nevertheless, here is (or perhaps, this was) my 2010...


In January I visited Australia’s red centre with my good friend, Anne. We started in Alice Springs and visited the real heart of Australia in Uluru, King’s Canyon and the Olgas (Kata Tjuta National Park). An absolutely brilliant part of the world, get there if you can.


My interest in refashioning old clothing into new was growing rapidly, so I went along to the Social Studio in Melbourne to learn some basic techniques and get some inspiration. Throughout the year I ended up refashioning quite a few things from my wardrobe, and a few op-shop finds, a habit that will definitely continue.


In the first quarter of the year we (boyfriend and I) packed up and moved from Melbourne to Sydney. Melbourne, though not my birthplace, is very much home so was hard to leave. It’s funny how the small things can make you feel welcome in a new city though, like this awesome graffiti we found close to our first Sydney home.


Around the same time I launched my ‘For the love of tea’ range of tea and mug cozies. I made a lot of mug cozies in 2010. And sold some too, thankfully : )


Come mid-year and we were off to Denmark and Sweden for a Scandinavian adventure. Man, do I love that part of the world. And their berries. Oh the berries.


In August I turned 30, so we headed to Byron Bay with a few friends to celebrate. Here we are (with birdy friend) looking windblown up near the lighthouse. Oh yeah, did I mention that I have a thing for lighthouses?


As the year went on I stitched more and more. I sewed clothes for myself, gifts for friends and loads more tea cozies. And I drank many cups of tea.


Late in the year we also got a cat. Her name is Snork Maiden (from the Finnish show, the Moomins) and we adore her. We *might* have dressed her up as a lion for a fancy dress party we had. As you can see, this didn’t bother her in the slightest.


Our goal to become vegie gardeners (and not just snail feeders) has been slow to come about, but finally, finally...


And the year ended with our happy Christmas tree (that came all the way from Melbourne with us), trying where we could to make it a sustainable Christmas. I've just spent the last week cooking leftovers into new meals, freezing leftover meat, and making stock from the bones of the turkey. Our freezer is kinda full.

If you think that was a lot of stuff to do in a year, just wait till you hear what I've got planned for 2011...

Business shirt refashion

I picked up this business shirt from the op shop for $4. It was actually fine and I could have worn it as it was, but it just seemed like every other plain business shirt and I wanted to make it a bit more fun. So I cut off the ends of the sleeves, used the fabric to make some ruffles and stitched them back on. Voile! Very easy refashion, very happy Stitchybritt.



P.S. That is our attempted veggie garden in the background. We are having terrible troubles with snails and slugs eating everything! Does anyone know a natural way to stop them eating our seedlings? I tried the beer-in-a-jar-lid trick but so far, no luck : (

Yay for weekends

I've gotta say - I have had a great weekend. Here is a list of things that made this weekend awesome:

- I refashioned this dress
(it was a second because it had a rip in it)...

into this skirt!



- Friday night we went to Madam Fling Flongs, which I had never been to before, but is probably now my most favourite local bar

- I got my free Sydney Design Pocketbook (so many interesting events coming up!)

- I bought some organic Aussie wool from A Coffee and a Yarn (great coffee/knitting shop on King St, Newtown) and started crocheting a baby blanket for two friends who will be three friends in September

- We had Circus Sunday in the park today which involved hula hoops, friends, juggling, snacks, slacklining (like tight rope), sunshine and lots of cute pups who stopped by to visit (or steal snacks)

- I made Hommus

- Sam, being the excellent beer homebrewer that he is, won a homebrewing competition and gets to brew a beer at the Lord Nelson, Sydney's oldest licenced hotel, which is also a microbrewery. He was so excited to find out that he jumped up and down all day

- We watched more Northern Exposure, which we are quite hooked on at the moment

Hope your weekend was awesome too!

Scandibritt

Stitchybritt is taking a quick break and visiting a part of the world she has been keen to see for ages - Scandinavia!

But before I scoot off, here's a quick update of projects:

Firstly, I made a jeans skirt



Old pair of jeans, chopped off the legs, unpicked the inner thigh seam, slotted in a piece of lower jean leg in the front and back and... voila! Jeans skirt.



A real simple refashion, but a good one, coz jeans skirts go with just about anything. This one is coming to Copenhagen with me.

Secondly, I'm still working on my bunny wool cardigan. It's getting longer, but still doesn't look much like a cardy. We do have a train trip from Malmo to Gothenburg though, and that will take a good few hours, so I'm thinking more will get done then.



What are holidays without stitching anyway?

See you soon everyone *waves* !

P.S. I just realised that I've worn the same striped top in at least three different blog posts. Therefore, I am now referring to it as my blogging top.

What's new?

So Stitchybritt, what have you been up to?

Well, stitchin-wise, two things!

One: When Sam's housemate was getting rid of his suitcase, he was also getting rid of a bunch of unworn business shirts. I snapped up a bunch of them with refashions in mind. And here's the first -



Looks good, huh? I used the super-easy tutorial from Made By Lex - here. I left it the length it was, so that I can tuck it into skirts for work.



Two: I'm finally using the wonderful angora bunny wool that I bought in Scotland (once again: the bunnies are not harmed in the process), and knitting a cardigan. It's a ruffley one that I found on Ravelry. Ok so it doesn't look much at the moment, but I'm loving the softness and the vibrant colours!



And you, my dear friends, what have you been up to?

The Social Studio

Yesterday I went along to the Social Studio in Collingwood, Melbourne to take part in one of their Re-mixed workshops. What a brilliant place! The Social Studio is a fashion store/design studio/cafe that assists young refugees to gain fashion design skills and employment in the industry. They source recycled and excess materials from the fashion industry and encourage community involvement in the many things that the studio does.

When I walked into the Social Studio I felt immediately at home. It has a really friendly, casual vibe and there are people from a whole range of nationalities and cultures which gives it a really exciting feeling. Our task for the day was to look through boxes of seconds clothing, choose an item (or items) that we liked and refashion it.

Being my first venture in the world of refashioning (and believe me, I've been visiting Wardrobe Refashion for ages wanting to have a go) I went with something easy and relatively plain. I took this black singlet and made it longer by chopping it off about 15cm from the bottom, sewing a piece of alternative fabric in between and then sewing the bottom of the singlet back on underneath. Simple, but came up looking pretty good and it is definitely something I will get good wear out of.

You want to know what's awesome? The Social Studio workshops, which run from 10am - 1pm every Saturday, only cost $30. For that you get all your materials, access to the industrial sewing machine and overlockers, and qualified teachers to help you with the tricky bits. Amazing. Not to mention the delicious vegetarian lunch I had in the cafe afterwards for $8. $8! And you get to take home whatever you make, of course.

If you're in Melbourne, you MUST check out the Social Studio!

Dress refashion scribble note

Saw a girl walking down my street wearing this sort of dress and I had to scribble it down for future reference.