The Coat Skirt

Hello Readers. It might be cold outside but Spring is going to arrive eventually. I'm pretty sure anyway. Cold weather means you need a coat right? What if you have a coat that can't do it's job?

  I found this coat at a clothes swap but it wasn't very warm. I loved the look of the material but it wasn't really able to keep me warm. Probably because it was machine washable cotton, not wool.

The sleeves were too long too. Of course.

I decided to make this into a skirt. First, I cut the top of the coat off. 

I folded the fabric in and stitched it down. I made sure the lining of the coat was tucked in too so all the raw cut edges would  hidden.

Look at those cute dots!

I stitched the front of the coat/skirt closed but left the waistband open. I used one of the sew-on snaps that were on the coat originally at the waist.

 I tapered the waist a little and left the front pockets alone. They are real and it's always nice to have actual pockets that I can use.

Here you can see the lining. It's like a built in slip, which is nice in the winter when I wear tights a lot.

I liked how it turned out.

I tried to make a red shirt to go with it and it was a terrible failure with giant shoulders. 

GIANT SHOULDERS!

Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

  *Year end update-This skirt is an all time favorite!

 

Removing Ruffles and Ripping Seams

Hello Readers. I love hand-me-downs more than I can say. You just never know what you will get. I got a lovely blouse and skirt that were a lot of fun to refashion.

Well, maybe you can see what first stood out to me about this blouse. It fit great, but there was a little something that I wasn't sure worked for me. I don't like things around my neck, and this blouse seems a little overwhelming with this neck ruffle situation.

I felt a little bit like I was choking but don't get me wrong this was a great blouse! Who doesn't love J. Crew? And these soft fall colors are gorgeous.

My first thought was to remove the neck ruffle. I investigated inside the shirt and I could see where the ruffle was attached to the shirt. The seam ripper is pointing to the seam in the photo below. I just picked out the stitches and took the ruffle away. It was easy and didn't damage the shirt at all.

 

 Well, I took most of the neck ruffle away. This little ruffle turned out to be attached separately, it was like a collar. It was longer in the back of the neck and fell over. The front was standing straight up and I thought it should be more uniform. Either stand or fall flat, one or the other.

    

I used my machine to stitch it down and I really liked how doing that opened up the neckline. It will stay in place nicely now that it is sewn down.

I saw the colors in the blouse and thought I had a good match for this skirt. I have had this skirt in the refashion stash for ages. I couldn't figure out what to do with it. I didn't like the tiers of ruffled fabric very much and it wasn't very flattering on me. What could I do to change it?

Again I turned to my seam ripper. Could I remove the lowest tier of fabric? That would shorten the skirt to a more flattering length. I found the seam that connected tiers of the skirt together and removed the stitches. It was easy and didn't damage the skirt. The skirt was finished and hemmed at each tier so I didn't need to do anything else to it.

Here was my less ruffled outfit. It still had some pretty ruffles. The ruffled skirt really complemented the blouse's ruffled collar. It was very feminine and pretty. I couldn't wait to wear it.

AND THEN IT GOT COLD AND RAINY....

I really liked this outfit the way it was but the weather turned much cooler suddenly. I was going to freeze in this outfit if I wore it. I really needed a second layer. I had this light weight white sweater but I thought the white was too much contrast against the muted fall colors of the outfit. 

So I got out some dye.

    

This white sweater wasn't 100% cotton so it needed dye for synthetic fabric. I didn't have any dye for synthetics that would match, so I used what I had. I threw the sweater in the washing machine with this brown dye and hoped it would be strong enough leave some brown color on the sweater.

 This was what I got. I actually really liked the color, it wasn't a dark brown like on the bottle. The dye couldn't get that dark on this synthetic material, but I think the lighter brown worked well here.

     

I still haven't even been able to wear this!

Thanks for reading this post, now go make something fun for yourself.

*Year end update- I love this whole outfit. The skirt and blouse are personal favorites.

Shorts; Done Right and Wrong

Hello Readers. Today's post is about the best and worst of sewing. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, if you will.

These were literally the longest shorts I had ever seen.

These shorts were so long on me it was strange looking. I gave them a big cut and a new hem. They turned out great. So great that it went to my head. I was sure that I was great with a needle and thread.
I wore them to Target to buy laundry soap.

I got over confident and decided to try and make some shorts from this blue skirt. It was very full and gathered. *Spoiler- It was a great skirt but it wasn't a great idea for a pair of shorts.

I used a pattern. I thought the full skirt would provide enough fabric to use the pattern. I was sure it would turn out great.
(It would not turn out great.)

 I thought I could use the waistband of the skirt in the shorts I was making. After I cut the pattern out, I started to get an inkling of an idea that this wouldn't work out quite as I wanted. I knew the full skirt would make full cut or loose cut shorts but this didn't look right.

I did make a pair of shorts. They were very full in the legs. I didn't understand how this would look on a human body. (My human body.)

Here are the shorts with the band of fabric that was left at the bottom of the skirt when I cut the shorts out of the fabric. What am I going to do with that? It's in the scrap pile.

These shorts looked so bad. I did not think they were flattering or attractive in any way. If you want your back-end and your upper thighs to look GIGANTIC, have I got some shorts for you!

  It was a huge mistake to have cut up the skirt. Live and learn, right?

Thanks for reading this post, now go make something fun for yourself.

*Year end update- I liked and wore the gray shorts often. The blue disaster was never seen again.

This Skirt Is Too Sheer

Hello Readers. My daughter passed this peasant skirt on to me because it was too sheer. She didn't like it. I didn't like how sheer it was either. I decided to use it in a different way.

This skirt needed a heavy slip to wear with it. Heavy slips are just annoying and uncomfortable in the summer. I wanted to use this skirt to make a fun top instead.

I decided to cut the top of the skirt off. I ended up with a big ruffle. I wanted to use that elastic waistband in my new shirt. I gave the ruffle a new hem and saved the rest of the skirt for later.

I also had this very nice tank top from Black Market/White House. It was too low cut for my taste, but I liked the color and fabric a lot. When I look for clothing to refashion I usually look at the fabric, not the item itself. Good quality fabric can be made into something else. Cheap fabric will never look great, no matter what I make out of it.
 If I could make this tank top less low cut somehow, I could actually wear it.

I put the top of the skirt on to the tank top. I pinned them together. Easy-peasy.

I stitched them together and cut the straps off the shirt. I had an off-the-shoulder top. The elastic waistband of the skirt keeps the shirt up at the shoulders. And the cleavage is all covered so it isn't revealing at all.

This new top is a lot more fun that it was as a skirt.

Thanks for reading this post, now go make something fun for yourself.

*Year end update- This was a fun summer top. I still like it.

In The Pink 2

Hello Readers. I had a few pink items waiting to be refashioned so, I am working on them one after another. Today's items were 2 shirts that were just not wearable for me. They were pretty but...

SHIRT 1

Why were they unwearable Chickie? Surely you could wear them somewhere. No. This shirt is just too weird. It is made of 2 layers. The blue underneath is a simple knit material. This outer layer is gorgeous but it is in separate panels. And yes they do fly up and flap around like a bird when you are walking around.

Yes, the back panel flys around too. I don't want to walk around with these pieces of material flying up at me all the time. It just makes me uncomfortable. If I am cooking dinner will they fly up catch on fire? With my luck, they probably will. I don't need this kind of danger in my life.

The first thing I did was to connect all the panels and it made normal looking shirt.

I cut the body of the shirt off the top of the shirt. I had the blue layer and the patterned layer. They are both finished at the hem so they will make a fast skirt.

I attached the two layers to the outside of a simple elastic waistband. I pinned it all in place and then stitched it down with a zigzag stitch. I wanted to cover those raw cut edges and make sure it had a little give around the elastic..

Then I turned the elastic in so it was totally covered with the skirt fabric. I tacked it down so it could not flip around.

SHIRT 2

This pink shirt is long like a tunic but it is also really full. Like really super full. It would be great over leggings. But it is so full and loose at the bottom that if you bend over to attend to your child (Or wrestle him into the doctor's office.) it will drag on the ground and flash everyone. Don't ask how I know, I just know.

Dark photo 1

I cut the entire hem off. I am going to use it somewhere else. I also cut the shirt in a straight shape. I saved those triangle pieces too. I have a plan for these pink scraps. You can see them next time.

Dark photo 2

Here is an unedited picture of this great outfit. My husband took this when I was making faces at him. And a nicer shot of this outfit. It is fun and easy going, two things I always want to be.

 

Thanks for reading, now go make something fun for yourself.

*Year end update- This shirt and skirt are still favorites. The colors are so pretty to me.

Revisiting An Old Dress

Hello Readers. We are flashing back to an old refashion today. I used the top of this dress to make a dress back in June. (You can see it here.)

The original dress was in great shape and was made of nice fabric but the floor length didn't suit me. I don't like to waste fabric so today's post is about what I did with the rest of this denim dress.

I had the long skirt part of the dress left. I saved it in my stash until now. I always try not to waste anything. There was a lot of dress here that I could still use for something, right? I could not decide what to do with this for a long time.

This piece of denim was almost a skirt already so (Eventually!) I just went with it and made a skirt. It was the easy way to go, but that's OK. Quick easy projects are great. 

That is my dog on the right. He doesn't like to be alone, so he follows me from room to room. He is napping as usual.

I decided to use the lower part of the skirt so I could save the hem. They did such a great job making this hem, why should I do it over? I decided to make a classic denim skirt that comes just below my knees.

There was one problem with the front of this skirt. The buttons down the front are nice but that opening will be too high now that I made the skirt shorter. I took one of the buttons from the scrap piece and I sewed it on by hand. It will keep the skirt closed, and I can get the skirt on and off with it in place permanently at the bottom. All the other buttons open and close.

Here is a look at the skirt. The top buttons can open to get the skirt on and off. I used what was there and kept it simple. That made this refashion fast and easy to complete. It was also cheap because I didn't buy anything but thread. (Cheap is great too!)

I kept this skirt at a conservative length, just below the knee.

   

Thanks for reading, now go make something fun for yourself.

*Year end update- This skirt wasn't very exciting but it was comfortable and really easy to wear. It always seems to go with everything. And it is never too casual or too dressy.