Recovering a Stool Cushion

 Hello Readers. Sometimes the fabric on a piece of furniture isn't what you want. The color can be off or the style is not working in the room. Some pieces of furniture are easy to recover. This stool was fine as it was but I wanted to make it more fun and give it a punch of color with some bold fabric. 

This is such a fun look. 

 

I mean look at these stylish women! It's fabulous fabric for a sewing room.
 

This stool came with a dressing table that was given to me. I love it! I just wanted to change the fabric to something that fit my sewing room a little better. 

I didn't want to refinish the whole table. I just wanted to update the fabric. This kind of stool is easy to work with. I just needed to remove the cushion piece from the stool. 

I just needed a screw driver to remove the screws that held the cushion in place. It was easy to remove. 

When all the screws were removed, the base and the cushion came apart easily. 

This floral fabric was just taped onto the stool. I thought it would be stapled or nailed in place. I decided to remove it and see what was under it. 

Under the fabric was this cream colored brocade vinyl. This was very securely attached to the cushion piece so I left it there and I was ready to start attaching my fun new fabric. 

 

I put my fabric right-side down on the floor. Then I put my cushion piece on top of the fabric, cushion side down. I made sure I had 2-3 inches of excess fabric all around the cushion so I could attach the fabric to the back of the cushion. 

 

I used a very basic staple gun to attach my fabric. The staples will hold the fabric in place over a long time of use. I like to staple my way around the piece so that I get a nice smooth look to the fabric on top. 

 

When I was done stapling the sides of the fabric it was time to do the corners. I folded the fabric under a few times so that the corners would be tucked in tight. Then I stapled the fabric down with a few staples to hold the corners firmly in place. 

 

The new fabric was all in place and stapled down. It only took a little while to put this all together. Now I needed to put it back on the stool. 

It was easy to reattach the cushion because the holes for the screws are still in place I put the base on the cushion piece and centered it so the holes lined up with each other.  I just put the screws in and started turning the screwdriver. 

I thought the new fabric looked great. The colors looked great with the dark wood.

It works well with the table...

 

 And I can move it around my sewing area. This is such an easy project, and it uses small amounts of fabric. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

***Year End Update- This stool is fabulous and it is in my sewing room. I love it.

Change a Shapeless Dress

 Hello Readers. It was also shapeless and just kind of blah. It was made of cozy sweatshirt material so I thought it had potential to be cozy. I thought it just needed a little reshaping. 

Before and after.

 

If you have trouble sleeping at night, just look at this dress. It will put you straight to sleep. The shape and length are not doing anything good for me and while I do like navy blue... the color is not very thrilling either.

I thought this dress needed a defined waist. It would give it more shape. I also thought a 2 piece dress would be more modern. And I could wear the pieces separately. The dress is a little wider than the orange skirt. I could use that extra fabric from the sides later.

I decided to use navy blue elastic. I was going to make a visible waistband. I thought it would kind of look like a belt and break up all the stripes. The navy color would match the sleeves too. 

I cut the dress in half based on the length I wanted the skirt to be. I wanted to add the elastic waistband to the top of the skirt. I made the elastic into a circle based on my waist size. I used a zigzag stitch to connect the ends of the elastic.

The new waistband brings in the waist and gives the whole look more of an hourglass shape. I thought that would be more flattering. The new look is not more "dressy" but that is OK, I didn't want it to be dressed up, I just wanted it to be less shapeless.

I made a small waistband for the shirt from the scraps I had left when I made the skirt. When I wear it this way the elastic waistband is hidden by the shirt. 

Here is a close up of the new shirt. I really like the cropped length. The stripes change direction in the waistband and it breaks up the stripes a little. 

 

I like the navy blue waistband on the skirt too. This was an easy refashion project but I really liked the results. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

 

 

***Year End Update- This outfit is like a big blue sweatshirt so of course I love it.
 

The Doggie Sweatshirt Refashion

 Hello Readers. Christmas has passed but one of the gifts I gave my daughter was a sweatshirt from sparkpaws.com (Not an ad. I just liked the shirts.) I loved that they made sweatshirts for dogs that matched their human. But I miss judged the size of little Gordon. And he couldn't get his front legs into the shirt.

I added the dark blue strip of fabric on each side of the doggie sweatshirt so that Gordon would have more breathing room. 

Gordon did not really understand why I was taking photos but he was too big to get his sweatshirt on. This photo is from Christmas morning and I knew I could send the shirt back to the company and get a different sweatshirt. But I really wanted to try and fix it myself.

 

I have already used this sweatshirt dress in other projects so I cut some of it off for this dog refashion.

 

I cut 2 narrow strips of fabric. 

 

I sewed the strips into each side. I had cut the seam open under each sleeve and then stitched the blue fabric in using my serger. A zigzag stitch would work for this too. 

 

Here is a look inside at the seams. It was pretty easy sewing. I tried to follow the angle of the shirt where it curved around the belly area. 

 

Gordon wasn't thrilled with being photographed but I wanted to show how cute the sweatshirts are together.

 

Once Gordon was allowed to relax on the sofa you could really see how much he liked the sweatshirt. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. Or your dog!

 

 ***Year End Update- Gordon is still wearing this sweatshirt. He has short fur and gets chilly.
 

 

 

 

 

Making a Denim Skirt Fit Better

 Hello Readers. I love denim in all shapes and sizes. It's just an easy fabric to wear, to match, to work with. It isn't fragile or fussy. It's great. This denim skirt was not so great. It was kind of shapeless. I really wanted it to be more fitted. 

 

Before and after. 

 

I saw this kind of skirt ages ago and I have wanted a skirt with this kind of fit ever since. It was time to try and re-create it for myself.

 

 

I didn't have a longer denim skirt that fit that well. I had this denim skirt on my refashion rack that did not fit well at all. I thought I could alter it to make it more fun, more modern and more fitted!

 

I tried the skirt on inside out and marked where I wanted the new side seams to be. I used a marker and pins so you could see it. You can use whatever you have.

  

I used my sewing machine to make new side seams for this skirt. You can also use a serger. My serger doesn't do well with thick denim material so I used my regular sewing machine. 

 

*** I always try on clothes before I cut off that excess fabric. If it was too tight I could take the seam out and try again. I tried it on here to make sure I liked the fit.

 

Here is a close look at the side seams. The straight stitch is done but the zigzag will keep it from getting frayed and messy inside the skirt over time.

 

This skirt was a winner for me. I loved the new fit and it's denim. It will be so easy to wear with other things. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 

***Year End Update- This skirt is still great. It goes with everything. It never wrinkles. I love it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Refashioning Pajamas for Daytime

 Hello Readers. What can you do with a flannel pajamas shirt besides wearing them as pajamas? I loved the plaid flannel. It was soft and cozy but it was pajamas, I couldn't wear pajamas out in the world. I was inspired to put 2 different items together in big block pieces. Read on and I will show you what I mean. 

Before and after.

The flannel shirt had red piping along the edges. It was clearly a pajama shirt, I couldn't pretend otherwise. I loved the flannel and the sleeves did not look like pajamas to me.

 

This red shirt was on clearance for $1. I am a serious cheapskate but even I can afford a dollar.

 

 The plaid shirt got cut into 3 pieces. This will make more sense when I put it all back together but this was my first step. 

 

I also cut the red shirt into 3 pieces. 

 

I wanted to put the middle of the red shirt together with the 2 plaid side pieces. That way the red piping and collar would be replaced by the red shirt. I thought it wouldn't look like pajamas anymore. I would sew the cut pieces together with the right sides facing each other. This will be easy to do because it is just 2 straight seams.

I used my serger to sew this but you could also use a sewing machine to do it. The flannel doesn't have any stretch so it would be easy to stitch with a straight stitch (To connect the seam.) and/or a zigzag stitch (To keep the seam neat inside the shirt.).

 

Shoulder close up.

 

My new shirt is done. I knew how big I had to make the shirt to fit me well. You can measure yourself before cutting the pieces to make sure you make your shirt the size you want. The bigger you make the shirt, the looser and baggier the shirt will be.A loose over-sized fit would look great too.

 

I really liked the plaid sides with the solid red center in this shirt. 

I thought I could put the other pieces together and I was right. The red piping really makes this look like pajamas to me. I can wear this as pajamas. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

P.S.

My son and I were matching in red and black and he thought we should take a photo together. Of course, I agreed.

***Year End Update- I still like this combo of fabrics. And my son is still trying to get in pictures.

Mother of the Bride Part 2

 Hello Readers. I am starting 2023 off with a mix of refashions that have caught my imagination. Today is a post about what was left from a December refashion. This was a mother-of-the-bride dress from David's Bridal. I loved the sage green but it was kind of matronly and boxy and much too long. 

Before and after I shortened the dress. I altered the jacket and wore it separately. 

Let's focus on the jacket. It was so pretty. The beading was gorgeous. The sleeves were an unflattering length that I could not push up. The jacket also had no fasteners so it had to stay open. The fabric was stiff and it gave the jacket a boxy cube shape. The size was right, maybe I could change the shape a bit. 

 

This was my inspiration, although my jacket doesn't look like this. The elastic at the sleeves and the matching tank/cami under the shirt are what started today's whole refashion idea.
 

I wanted to ad elastic to the cuffs so I could push the sleeves up. It would look better and make the jacket look less formal. I used beige elastic that blended with my skin tone so it wouldn't show. 

I used my sewing machine to connect the two ends of the elastic. It could also be sewn by hand. The elastic just needs to be connected into a loop.

I thought I might want to close the jacket so I added one of these tiny snaps. 

I had to sew this on by hand. I hate hand sewing but you gotta do what you gotta do. 

The jacket can stay closed now but it does hide some of the beading.

I like the jacket open and I wore it with a matching tank. It is sort of a blouse-jacket. The pushed up sleeves change the look for the better.Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 

***Year End Update- To be honest I have not worn this jacket again. I still like it, I just haven't worn it.

Happy 2023!

 Hello Readers. I hope you have a wonderful new year. I added a n to all my posts form 2022 to let you know how they did over the year and if I still liked them. Some projects were easier or more successful than others. It's fun to look back and I thought it might help give more information. 

Happy sewing to you all!

Chickie