Denim Days; Miss Green Jeans

Hello Readers. It's time for some green jeans. (Does anyone remember Mr. Green Jeans from the Captain Kangaroo TV show? It was a long time ago.) I didn't have any green jeans so I thought these would be a great for fall.

These green jeans were too big and too long but they were soft and stretchy. They would be very comfortable. The heavy weight denim would be nice too. It is getting cold out there.

I took in the sides by sewing new side seams. This let me make them just the right size for me. I also shortened them to fit my short legs. This was an easy sewing project, so I had time to make a shirt, right?

*****     PART 2 TRYING TO MAKE A SHIRT     *****

I had some old t-shirts that have been sitting around. I thought the colors were good for fall. The shirts themselves were not pretty or cute in any way. I was going to cut them up and use them for parts.

This was my first attempt at a raglan style shirt. I wanted to use the body of a white shirt and the sleeves of the brown shirt. (Spoiler alert: It did not turn out well at all.)

For real y'all, this was a disaster. The under-arms were way too tight and uncomfortable. I didn't even finish sewing the sleeves together. Clearly I measured wrong and the result was a really awful fitting shirt.

 *****    SECOND ATTEMPT  AT A SHIRT   *****

I started with a plain white t-shirt. I thought I could add some trim to this shirt and call it a day.

 I cut the bottom hem off the green shirt.

I also cut the lower hem off the brown shirt too. 

I decided to stitch the trim onto the sleeves to add a little interest. I also added some to the front pocket too. It was super simple and easy. That was all I was capable of on this day.

    

This is it for today. The second shirt turned out fine, it isn't an exciting outfit but I could wear it comfortably. I counted it as a small win since it was wearable.

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

*Year end update- This wasn't a very exciting shirt but the pants are worn often to work. They are more useful than exciting, but that's OK.

Denim Days; The Denim Suit Jacket

Hello Readers. I love finding unusual items like this jacket when I am thrifting. It is a fun and unique little jacket.

 This jacket was actually half of a suit. I refashioned the skirt about 3 years ago. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the jacket so it sat and waited patiently for me to make up my mind.

The jacket was fabulous but it was a little big and long on me. I also wasn't sure if the 3 big buttons suited me either. But it seemed like such a unique piece of denim, I wanted to try and wear it.

I decided to shorten the sleeves and shorten the body of the jacket. I love the print and hated to cut off the pockets, but I thought it would fit better as a short jacket.

 I swapped out the large buttons for 3 smaller buttons. They were all different but I thought they suited the jacket well. And I liked the mix of designs.

 I think the shorter length worked out well with this jacket. It seemed to fit much better. I also liked the special vibe this jacket had, I tried hard not to lose it. The blue and white designs on each side are still very visible, just a little shorter.

My mother-in-law liked it too.                       

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

*Year end update- My dear mother-in-law enjoyed this little jacket.

Denim Days; The White Jacket

Hello Readers. I am on a denim binge. I found a great white denim jacket at a clothes swap this summer. I liked it but it was SO much stark white.  

I decided to play with the color a little. I had this bottle of "frost gray" dye from under the sink and wanted to try and get an ombre effect. I got my dye ready in a bucket and prepped my jacket for the dye.

    

I was going to dip the jacket in the dye a little bit at a time and let it soak in the dye for a few minutes. You can see the strange way I used hangers to lower the jacket. Every 10 minutes I added a new hanger so the jacket was deeper in the bucket. It took about an hour to finish completely.

    

Here is the color I got on the jacket. It seemed a little more light blue than the gray I thought I would get. I liked it though.

I rinsed and dried the jacket and it was ready to go. I didn't alter the size because I wanted to be able to layer it over sweaters and hoodies when it got colder.

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

*Year end update- This great jacket became my daughter's great jacket.

Denim Days; The Skirt

Hello Readers. One way I get items to refashion for this blog is hand-me-downs. This denim skirt was a hand-me-down from someone I have known for ages. (Thanks C.G.)

This denim skirt was in great shape and had some stretch, which I love. It didn't really fit, so I needed to fix that. I really wanted a more high-waisted denim skirt. The skirt sat low on my hips.

I wanted to make new side seams but I didn't want to lose the belt loops. I used my seam ripper to remove the two loops that were going to be lost in the new side seams. I planned to reattach them when I was done.

This was a super simple way to change the size of the skirt. I was able to curve in at the waist and make the perfect high-waisted fit I could. The smaller waist made the skirt sit higher on my waist.

 *****     BONUS TRACK     *****

The weather changed and we had a little heatwave. So, I decided to fix up a tank top to go with the skirt.

 This tank fit well but the straps were too long and made the neckline too low. I cut the straps right at the shoulder seam. At first I was going to simply shorten them.

     

 But then I had an idea. I decided to tie the straps into loose knots and then reconnect the straps. I thought the knots would be an easy way to make the tank top more visually interesting and shorten them at the same time.

Here is a picture of actual sewing. I know, big deal.

Here are the skirt and the tank together. They were great on a hot humid day.

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

*Year end update- This skirt is now a wardrobe staple. I love it.

The Strange Sweater Dress

Hello Readers. I said in the title that this sweater dress was strange, I wasn't kidding. It was a weird one. Read on, I will tell you all about it.

OK, y'all. What is this? I found this sweater dress at some clothes swap, I think. When I tried it on I could see why someone gave it away. It was super tight but also super low cut. I wore that pink shirt to keep myself covered in this photo. The dress came with all these "extra" white fabric pieces and ruffles. They took the time to add the white fabric at the chest, but it was still VERY low cut. The arm and hem ruffles were not working for me either. They felt like wings, very strange wings.

If I was 6" tall and 75 lbs, this dress might fit.

I knew I needed to fill in the deep V-neck with something. I had this pretty green blouse with a ripped sleeve. I really liked the lace front. I thought I could use that.

I removed all the white fabric with my seam ripper. Next I put the green blouse under the dress but the dress was still too tight. I don't like baggy clothes but this was going to be way too tight to wear in public. If this dress wasn't stretchy I couldn't have gotten into it.

I cut the dress down the middle to open it up. I wasn't sure what I was doing at this point. (I often do not know what I am doing, but let's focus on the sewing.)

That deep V opened up the dress really well, but then I didn't know what to do with the cut open lower half of the dress. I just cut it off. Now I had a super short shirt. It was bigger, but I don't show my mommy tummy, so a cropped top wasn't really what I wanted.

I had this wide knit waistband in my scrap pile and I thought it would cover the raw cut edge and make the shirt at least 3 inches longer. I added the waistband with my machine.

*Save your fabric scraps, they come in handy.

I ended up with a light sweater top that was perfect for something high-waisted.

Like this skirt that I already owned! It looked like a dress when I put them together. I love dresses so I was happy with this one.

 

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

*Year end update- This strange dress became a favorite top.

If Charlie Brown Wore a Dress

Hello Readers. When I saw this dress I thought it looked like Charlie Brown's shirt from the Peanuts comics. The colors are so great for fall. It was a soft knit, I could make anything with it. What could go wrong? 

(Spoiler Alert: A lot could go wrong.)

I started by cutting off most of the skirt. This was a little more chevron stripe than I wanted. I thought a light sweater would be better than a whole dress. I thought I could find something to do with the skirt piece later.

I thought I could fold the bottom under and it would look like a waistband. This was the beginning of a huge tangled mess of thread and lining. My machine went crazy and tried to eat the lining and sweater. I tried to un-do the mess and ripped the sweater. 

This is when I lost my temper. I was acting like this.

 

I decided to cut off the waistband and just remove the lining from the top too. I thought that would remove all the mess. But look at that neckline! And now I had a really short sweater.

Look at it! There was more hidden in there than I thought. There was a little bit of netting as a stabilizer around the neckline. It made sense because the knit was so soft but now I had made another made another mess!

I cut off the lower part of the skirt and decided to attach it to the top. I added some thin elastic so the waist was drawn in a little.That made it longer.

 I tried to match the color of the chevron stripe, the black stripe was not perfect but the elastic waist would hide that.

 The new elastic waist was easy and still looked good with all the chevron stripes.

I went over the neckline with my machine to hide all the netting and mess. I trimmed off the excess net material and it will all stay nice and neat.

I really liked the end result. The additional fabric below the elastic waist came out great.

I think Charlie Brown would approve.

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

*Year end update- I wear this sweater/shirt often. It still makes me think of Charlie Brown.