#therefashioners2015

Did anyone else take part in the Refashioners 2015?  I did, although I’m a month late in blogging about it.

The second I read about this on Portia Lawrie’s blog (the Makery), I was hooked on the idea.  I’m getting really into the idea of refashioning things, customising, hacking things apart and making something new – basically, making stuff last longer!  We live in a society that seems to have adopted an almost disposable attitude towards clothes, which seems incredibly wasteful to me.  Whatever happened to make do and mend?  It’s brilliant that Portia is trying to bring that back, and it was great to see so many sewists offering up lovely prizes for encouragement.

I loved seeing the wide variety of creations – I can’t believe what some people got out of one shirt.  Such amazing transformations! Some people are so clever.  I went for a more humble transformation myself – a loose fitting shirt dress with an elasticated waste and lace trim.  My shirt was only £3.50 from a charity shop and started out as size XXXL.  I really enjoyed turning into something new and I’m already looking forward to Refashioners 2016 😀

What I wore on my summer holiday

We’ve just returned home from a lovely holiday in Majorca.  We stayed in Puerto Pollensa, which is a beautiful place – lots to explore, nice sandy beaches, plenty of yummy restaurants.

I made a little resolution to myself that I’d take at least enough handmade items to wear one for each day we were on holiday.  And I did it!  I even took more than enough with me, but I didn’t get round to wearing it all.  Still, I’m mightily impressed that I have enough to get me through an entire week!

Day One

Day two

Day three

Day four

Day five

Day six

Day seven

Pool days

And not to leave out the nights

Day one – refashioned denim shorts.

Day two – Tilly and the Buttons Agnes top and Jennifer Lauren Vintage Cressida skirt.

Day three – Tilly and the Buttons Miette skirt and the Lauren Guthrie Simple Sleeveless Top (from Learn to Sew with Lauren).

Day four – Sew Over It Silk Cami and refashioned denim shorts (again).

Day five – Tilly and the Buttons Agnes top (again).

Day six – Caroline Fairbanks-Critchfield Quilting Bee dress.

Day seven – Tilly and the Buttons Delphine skirt.

Pool days – Espadrilles.

And not to leave out the nights – Tilly and the Buttons Margot PJs.

There’s a couple of tops in that list that I haven’t blogged about yet.  I finished the Simple Sleeveless Top shortly before we went away, and I only finished my Agnes top the night before  🙂  I’ll blog about those very soon.

We had a lovely holiday, but it was a bit of a shock coming home to British autumnal weather – brrrrrr, it’s so cold!  Time for some winter makes.  Luckily, I got a head start with this while I was away.  I took a knitting project with me, a jumper, and I never missed an opportunity to squeeze in a few lines, regardless of location!

DIY Denim Shorts

In my fabric stash post, I mentioned that I’d like to make a pair of shorts out of some leftover denim.  Well, during a small wardrobe clear out the other week, I found a pair of knee length denim shorts I had completely forgotten I owned.  And why make a whole new pair when you can hack a pair you already have to pieces?  These were an ‘emergency’ pair of shorts I bought while I was in Florida a couple of years ago.  I realised I’d only taken skirts and dresses with me – not the most practical (or dignified!) of garments for riding roller coasters.  So, I picked them up in Walmart for a few dollars and promptly forgot about them when I got home.  It was mid-January by the time we got back to the UK, so they weren’t going to see the light of day for a long time!  I forgot to get a before shot of these, but I managed to unearth a photo from our time in Florida.  Here’s what I came up with!  😀

DIY refashioned denim shorts

I’m really pleased with how they turned out!  I’m sure these were much quicker and far more successful than if I’d made a pair of shorts from scratch.   After all, shorts are just trousers with little legs and I still haven’t quite recovered from my first trouser-making experience.  I’ve given a new lease of life to an unloved garment.  It’s a nice feeling 🙂  I’m really getting into this refashioning thing.  I have a lovely pair of shorts to take on holiday with me and all I had to do was buy a bit of lace trim (which came from my local craft shop, Dainty Supplies).  I think they might look pretty good with my Silk Cami.  Plus, I can now use my leftover denim for another project – a skirt, probably.

DIY refashioned denim shorts

How did I do it?  I drew a line across the front of one leg at the length I wanted them to be with chalk.  I did this in front of a mirror while I was wearing them to get a better idea of where the leg would end.  I laid them as flat as possible and chopped along the line through both sides of that leg at once.  After that, I folded the shorts in half and used the already cut leg as a guide for the other.  I wasn’t being particularly precise!  I then did a line of stitching about a centimetre up from the bottom on each leg.  I was always planning to fray the bottoms, but I wanted to try to prevent the fraying from creeping further and further up the leg.  It may or may not work.  I pinned and sewed my lace along that line.  I used zigzag stitch along the long strip at the bottom of the lace, but hand stitched the rest of it – I don’t think I would have been able to machine stitch it without the stitching being visible and messy.  Then came one of the trickiest parts – fraying the denim.  I thought this would be quite easy, but it actually took me a while to figure out a technique that worked for me, and it basically involved doing very dangerous things with scissors!  I really should have looked it up first.  I ended up with a few small cuts, so I really wouldn’t recommend my on-the-fly method.  Anyway, it all worked out in the end 🙂