MAGAM Dec Project Part 1 - Cocktail dress to top Refashion

I looked at the 3 special occasion dresses that I wanted to refashion for the MAGAM (Make A Garment A Month) December challenge for a few days with no concrete ideas on what to do with them. So today I decided to just chop one of the dresses into a top. I thought that one can always use a semi-dressy top to wear with jeans or pants.

I chose the brown poly knit dress to refashion. The dress was a good fit but a bit blah in colour. I measured approximately where I wanted the bottom hem of the top to be and chopped it right off. Then I used my serger to do a rolled hem and voila! It's done!.

Before vs After:

I think it looks okay. I may wear it more now that it's a top. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the other 2 dresses......

Handmade Christmas Presents Challenge - Earrings!

I'm almost reaching the end of my Handmade Christmas Presents Challenge. I made earrings for my kids' teachers. I usually give gift cards as well as a handmade personal gift for the teachers a few times a year. One of the teachers actually wear my handmade earrings to the classroom and told me she appreciated them. As they are all women teachers this year, I'm hoping these sparkly jewelry will put them in a good holiday mood!

MAGAM December project - Which Holiday dress to Refashion?

I've been scratching my head to figure out what to do for the MAGAM (Make A Garment A Month) December project. The theme is 'December Dates'. Obviously December is a month of celebrations for many people. I have already made too many special occasions garments and didn't have enough occasions to wear them! So I am thinking instead of making something NEW from scratch, how about refashioning/upcycling one of the old special occasion garments?

I blogged about this 3 Simplicity 4877 knit dresses in 2012 (see here). I wore the red long dress 3 times, the sparkly floral long  dress once and the brown matte jersey short dress twice. They are all super comfortable and easy to care for. I want to refashion at least one of them into something else (if I have enough time I would like to refashion more than 1!). Which one do you think I should tackle?

Handmade Christmas Presents Challenge - Faux fur Christmas Stockings

I'm trying to get all the Handmade Christmas presents done before the end of Nov! With the remaining grey faux fur that I used for the faux fur pillows, I made a pair of Faux Fur Christmas Stockings with a self-drafted  pattern:

I'm not too enthusiastic about sewing with faux fur because of all the mess. However, I saw that lots of the medium to higher end home decor stores have lots of faux fur stockings. So I guess that is trendy right now. I hope my family members like them! Now I need to get on with making the other gifts.....

Handmade Christmas Presents Challenge - A Refashion and an Applique

Amid all the ranting about paring down my wardrobe, I have been continuing making handmade Christmas Presents. This time, I made a Mickey Mouse pyjama set for my boy. I used a thrifted a pair of women's mickey mouse pyjama pants that I bought at my local thrift store for $1.99 to make the pj pants. I used the hem of the original pants so it was a super easy refashion:

PJ pants before

Then I cut a silhouette of the head of Mickey Mouse with the remnant fabrics from the pants, and did an applique on a plain boy's t-shirt:

Excuse the messy topstitching!

So here is the final pj set:

I hope he likes it! I have a few more gifts to make.......better get on with it!

Wardrobe Stash Cleansing - the Plan

Since ranting about wanting to pare down my wardrobe to a sustainable level a few days ago, I decided to set a self-challenge: to cleanse something from my wardrobe stash every week between now and the end of the year. To accomplish this challenge, I need to put a plan in place.

First, I will deal with just the Fall/Winter garments and accessories. I will lay out all the wintry items, photograph them, and wear different items each day for the next month to test their wear-ability. I will then evaluate each items in with the following questions:

1. Does it fit?
2. Is it comfortable?
3. Is it warm?
4. Is it practical for day to day purpose (e.g. driving, grocery shopping, taking care of young children, running after children, carrying heavy loads, cooking, etc)?
5. Is it beautiful?
6. Does it have great sentimental value (e.g. given to me by a special person, me-made items that took lots of sweat and tears, etc)?

I think I'll probably falter at the last question regarding sentimentality since most of my wardrobe consists of me-made items. Perhaps I will end up purging all the store purchased stuff from my wardrobe once and for all! LOL!

Also, once I have catalogued all the items in the wardrobe, I will be shocked at the actual volume and be shamed into purging at least some of them.

I have called a couple of local charity shops and sadly they have confirmed that they would sometimes throw away donated items that didn't have tags on them. They said that the tagged items (especially the known brands like H&M, Gap, Zara, TopShop, etc) were the ones that sell well whereas the custom made stuff (no tags) stayed on the racks forever. So they would rather not receive them. How sad! I will need to find a good home for them somehow if I do decide to purge them.

Fall/Autumn Winter Packing list - Minimalist Style

We have dear family and friends who live far away. I have become more efficient in packing when we go to visit them a few times a year. The kids obviously need more changes of clothes than adults (e.g. getting car sick or spilling spaghetti on their clothes). Recently we just came back from a 4 day visit with friends/family and this is what I packed:

Plus socks, underwear, a pair of boots and coat.

I packed:

• A recently refashioned grey sweater dress and a wool jersey dress (both thrifted and refashioned)
• 1 flannel shirt (thrifted)
• 2 scarfs to change the looks of the dresses - the red one was a handmade gift and the infinity scarf was made from thrifted fabric
• 2 pairs of fleece lined leggings in different colours (both thrifted)
• A belt (thrifted)
• Plus socks, underwear, a coat and a pair of boots (I don't bother with packing more than 1 pair of shoes/boots if I don't absolutely have to)

The whole lot took up very little space in our family luggage.

These are the outfits from the 4 day trip (the first and last day were driving days):

This is very typical of what I would pack for a 4 or 5 day trip. If it's a 6 or 7 day trip, I would add another sweater dress, probably a comfortable and more roomy one like this one that I layer (refashioned from 3 men's sweaters):

My girlfriends are always curious as to why I wear dresses so much in the winter since I'm usually a tomboy. For me, it's the perfect garment for cold weather: it's warm and cozy from my neck to my knee, it's stretchy and comfy to wear (no woven waistbands to dig into my waist), it's easy to wear as you just throw it on and you're dressed (yes I'm lazy). What's not to like?

Help! I'm trying to pare down my Wardrobe - A Rant

I feel like I'm sounding like a broken record: I have too much clothes in my closet! I need to pare down! But most of the stuff in my closet are me-made or me-refashioned items, I have a hard time parting with them. (See the same old rants here and here). And even if I donate them to the local charities, they may just throw them in the garbage bin because my me-made clothes have no tags that indicate brands or sizes. That would defeat the purpose of donating and recycling my clothes!

So when I read a recent post from one of my favourite bloggers Zoe Edwards about trying to achieve a 'sustainable wardrobe', I was nodding all the way! However, I still don't know what to do with my very large me-made wardrobe.

What do you think I should do? Should I have a online yard sale/car boot sale of sorts to pare down my wardrobe? Any ideas and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Yet Another Break from the Handmade Christmas Presents Challenge - Sweater dress Refashion

I can't help it but I just have to go back to making things for myself! This time I'm doing another easy refashion for a thrifted sweater dress. I bought this wool blend Monsoon sweater dress from my local thrift store last year. I loved the colour and I had planned to make an asymmetrical hem tunic.

It was a little too slouchy on me. I decided to keep it as a sweater dress and pinned the sides of the dress slightly to make it more fitted. After less than an hour, here is the result:

It doesn't look too different except a little bit too fitted for my liking. It highlights my protruding lower abdomen a bit too much. I wear a low belt to try to disguise it. However I may just do a re-refashion with this dress at a later date. For now, I have yet another sweater dress to wear for this winter!

Handmade Christmas Presents Challenge - Faux Fur Pillows

Yes we are back with the Handmade Christmas Presents Challenge. A couple of close family members are moving into their new home. So I thought why not give them some home decor presents? I searched through my fabric stash and found this grey faux fur that I bought a few years ago when a local fabric store was closing down. I thought that this grey colour should go with almost any decor or style/colour of their sofa:

There was a good 2 metres of it. I debated whether to make a faux fur sofa throw or pillows. In the end I figured that people probably wouldn't mind having different textured pillows on their sofa. A big faux fur throw could be too much a commitment for them. So in 2 hours I made these pillows:

I am always hesitant in making faux fur stuff because of the fluff they produce during the making process. I swept and vacuumed along the way and I wore a face mask. But I think it was worth it for 2 hours of work. I hope they like the gifts!

Another break from the Handmade Christmas Presents Challenge - Sweater Dress Refashion

Yes I'm taking another break from making stuff for others and concentrate on moi! :-) This time I'm also doing a very quick and simple refashion.

I thrifted this wool blend grey long sweater dress last year. It's nice and soft and grey is an excellent neutral colour for me:

It's down to my toes - not practical at all!

I heard that long sweater dresses are in fashion right now but it really is not practical in knee deep snow. So I just cut it about knee length and hemmed the dress with 2 rows of narrow zig-zag stitching. It took about 30 minutes of work. And this is how I am wearing it:

I am wearing it with a thrifted belt, an infinity scarf made with thrifted fabrics, purple tights and rainboots (it's rainy right now). I'm happy to have added this to my collection of very useful, refashioned sweater dress for the winter!

Random thoughts: Gwen's embellished boots

As I have mentioned before on my blog, I'm really grateful that I sew. I love having this kinda useful hobby (better than a gambling hobby perhaps? ;-), I can replicate a lot of things that I like or my kids like at a fraction of the cost. My creative outlet relaxes me and is very therapeutic for me. My hubby is happy when I sew which means I'm not buggy him or complaining about things (sewing is vital for marital bliss! LOL!).

As for copycat fashions, I saw on an entertainment blog about these boots that Gwen Stefani wore recently. Apparently lots of fashion blog readers were salivating for them:

Source

They are really not my style but I thought it wouldn't be difficult to replicate those embellishments on a pair of plain black ankle boots. I don't know how much these actual boots cost but I think any seasons crafter can do a DIY version of this. You need some chevron ribbons, some knitted band and then some zipper tapes, sew them together and add some lose yarn at the back. Then slide the whole 'cuff' on top of any plain black stiletto ankle boots and you have the look of these probably very expensive designer boots!

A Short Break from the Handmade Christmas Presents Challenge - Skirt Refashion

I had been so immersed in making Christmas presents for other people that I felt like I needed to create something for myself (yes deep down I'm a selfish seamstress too! ;-). I looked into my to-be-refashioned stash and found this thrifted green suede midi skirt that I bought earlier in the year. It was too tight on me - I wasn't able to zip up the top 2 inches of the zipper. I was going to make a purse with this skirt. However, I like the a-line shape of the skirt and I read that midi suede skirts are on trend this Fall/Winter. So I decided to do a quick and easy refashion with it!

First, with my trusty seam ripper, I took off the too-tight waistband:

Then I cut off about 2 inches from the top of the skirt and bound the top edge with some remnant black knit from my stash:

Now I can comfortably zip up the skirt. Voila! A quick and easy refashion!

And this is how it looks on me:

I look like a Christmas tree with the red sweater and the green skirt! LOL!

I'm very pleased with this quick and easy refashion. The skirt now fits and the knit binding at the waist makes the skirt really comfortable to wear. The suede skirt is very warm and blocks the bitter cold wind we have here in the winter. And most important of all, I made something for myself after concentrating on making stuff of other people! Yay!

Handmade Christmas Presents Challenge - Knitted Infinity scarves for Adult and Kid

Since my daughter was bugging me to knit her something, I quickly knitted this neck warmer/infinity scarf for her with the same thrifted yarn. Knitting for kids is just as quick and satisfying as sewing kids' clothes!I finished her scarf so quickly that I had time to knit one for an adult. These 2 scarves only took a few hours to do. Now who should I give the bigger scarf to for Christmas?

Handmade Christmas Presents Challenge - Scarf for Mom Done!

I am finally done with the knitted scarf for my mom! As mentioned before, I thrifted these Alpaca/mohair blend yarn from my local Salvation Army. I used 2 balls of yarn for this scarf. My mom doesn't like the scarves to be too long because she wants to be able to stow them in her coat pocket easily. I just used the basic knit technique since the yarn has it's own texture. I hope she likes it! And here it is:

And here is how it looks on me:

Of course, once my daughter saw me knitting, she said she wanted a scarf in the same yarn too. Thank goodness I have 2 more balls of the same yarn left. I guess I'll have to knit her something as well for Christmas! Note to self: don't make Christmas presents in front of the kids! ;-)

Handmade Christmas Presents Challenge - Quick and Easy Neck Warmers

With some fleece scraps in my scrap box, I decided to make some quick and easy neck warmers (neck gaiters) for hubby and the kids. to match the fleece hats I made them. Luckily I had just enough fabric scraps. It was such an easy and quick project. All three neck warmers only took an hour from cutting to finishing! I used fold over elastics that I already have in my stash to bind the edges. And here they are:

I am happy with the progress of this handmade Christmas some far. I have more gifts to make. Let's get on with it!

Hand made Christmas Presents challenge - Keepsake boxes for Kids Done!

The Kids' Keepsake boxes are done! It took 2 colours of craft acrylic paints, Mod Podge, and cut out characters from my kids' favourite colouring books, and some rhinestone stickers.

From these:

 

To these: 

I hope the kids like them!

Hand made Christmas Presents challenge - Keepsake boxes for Kids

My kids have these little treasures that they like keeping which puzzles me as an adult. My daughter kept a bunch of party decorations from a friend's Frozen theme party that she refused to part with. My son has a bunch of little Lego figures, mini flashlights and Pokemon cards that he treasures from birthday loot bags.

Last week my son was talking about wanting a treasure box big enough for all these little treasures. That gave me an idea to create some keepsake boxes for my kids. That way, when their boxes are full, they will have to learn to edit things out in order to put new stuff in. I am hoping that it will help them to learn not to hoard, but to keep things that have real significance to them. (Note to self: I need to learn not to hoard fabric and notions too! LOL!)

I thrifted these 2 wooden boxes from my local thrift stores last week for $2.99 each. The decorations are not my cup of tea but the boxes are solid. I plan to use my kids' colouring book covers to decorate them.  These are my kids' favourite characters. After all, they have already coloured all the pages so the colouring books are about to go to the recycling bin. Nothing is wasted!

I already have ModPodge and acrylic paints in my craft stash. So let the upcycling begin!

Hand made Christmas Presents challenge - Yarn and Needles

I learned basic knitting in Home Ec class when I was 12. I have never liked it as I am slow and not good at it. And most of all, I feel it's a very slow way of making a garment when I already have a sewing machine and a serger! So it's surprising that I would  willingly choose to knit a present for someone.

I spotted these mohair/alpaca blend yarn at my local thrift store last month. They were in very good condition and very affordable so I bought a few, without knowing what I was going to do with them until this week. I decided to knit my mom a nice and warm scarf with this yarn. She had always liked this pinkish-burgundy colour. I thought it would be a nice thing for me to knit her something to thank her for all those wool cardigans that she knitted me when I was a child.

Since I'm a poor and slow knitter, it may take me a full 20 days to knit this scarf so I'd better start now!

Hand made Christmas Presents challenge - Fleece hat for Hubby

I chose a practical and easy to make Christmas present. I have lots of fabric remnants, including fleece remnants. Hubby is a big guy with a big noggin. It is always difficult to for him to buy RTW hats that fit him properly. I thought I would use my remnants to make him a simple fleece hat. I had just enough of this green plaid fleece. There were loads of tutorials on the web regarding how to make simple fleece hats for adults and children. I quickly measured his head and after less than an hour, he has a new fleece hat for this winter!

Hand Made Christmas Presents- a 28 day challenge

My latest challenge is not about my outfits. I have decided to hand make at least one Christmas presents for each of my dearly beloved family members. Yes I mentioned the 'C' word and it's only Nov 1! But in order to hand make them myself, I really need to start now. So I will be blogging about my hand made presents plans, my progress on them, as well as whether I'll be able to make my own 28 day deadline or not for each present. Should be nerve wrecking and motivating at the same time!

Refashion: Adding side slits to tight sweaters

I love this really warm and soft thrifted merino wool sweater. I refashioned the neckline last year so that it doesn't choke my neck anymore:

But I still find the bottom ribbed band too tight. It 'showed off' my bulging lower abdomen a bit too much for my liking. So I decided to go 'on trend' and created side slits for this sweater. I carefully ribbed out the yarn that sewn the side seams together all the way up the ribbed band. I think it looks a little better and I don't have to constantly pull the sweater down because the ribbed band was creeping up my waist:

It took less than 30 minutes to do. Another easy peasy refashion!

Halloween Outfit - Butterick 5247

Happy Halloween! I knew this Butterick 5247 chain mail-like dress would come in handy some day. During the past few days, I was busy getting the kids' costumes ready for tonight. My daughter asked me this afternoon what costume I would be wearing. I hadn't thought about a costume for myself but she was really insisting that I 'make' one. I rummaged through my wardrobe and found this chain mail-like dress that I made last year. I wore it on top of a grey long sleeves t-shirt, a pair of self-made Polartec black pants, a thrifted belt and my knee high boots. I also made a cardboard sword with aluminum foil. I braided one side of my hair and voila! I'm a female warrior!

My daughter seemed genuinely impressed with this outfit that she said she wanted to be a female warrior tonight too! Sorry, there was just no time to make a new costume for her. But she said that next year she would definitely want to be a female warrior with a sword and a shield. We shall see. She changes her mind about her attire constantly. I wouldn't be surprised if she wanted to be something completely different a year from now!

Day 7 - Self-challenge: Long skirt outfits

I hadn't worn a long skirt in the last 2 days since there was howling wind and pouring rain (remnant of Hurricane Patricia). Although there were intermittent showers today, I thought the weather was well enough to finally wear my long skirt outfits. I chose this red wool gored skirt (Simplicity 5914) that I hadn't blogged about, and wore it with a casual black t-shirt, a rarely worn thrifted beaded cardigan and my rain boots (for the rain puddles):

(Unfortunately I didn't have time to take the photo until dusk today. The quality of the photo is drastically worse.)

I have thoroughly enjoyed this long skirt outfit challenge. It was great to trot out the long skirts that I rarely had a chance to wear. I feel that I have utilized my wardrobe better and the cost per wear for each clothing item is better than before. Here is a summary of my 7 day Long skirt outfits challenge:

Now what other self-challenges should I set next? Do you have any clothing self-challenges as well?

Day 6 - Self-challenge: Long skirt outfits

Yes I'm trotting this item out again! I wore this thrifted wool blend lurex sweater skirt in my last self-challenge: Daytime glitter and glam as well. It is indeed a long skirt isn't it? This time I'm wearing this with a self-made wool blend sweater knit cowlneck tunic and black boots:

Tomorrow will be the last day of my self-challenge. I'm really having fun with this!

Day 5 - Self-challenge: Long skirt oufits

Today I brought out this dark green wool blend skirt (Simplicity 8850) that I made a while back but forgot to blog about it. I used the same pattern as the wool burgundy skirt that I wore earlier this week because I thought the skirt shape was suitable for my body shape. I used a medium wool coating fabric that I had used for my much-loved winter coat as well as my hubby's winter coat. I wore this skirt today with a wool blend teal cardigan, a self-made scarf, a black belt and black boots:

This is the first time I had worn this skirt out because I was waiting to get some inspirations to embellish this skirt. I think it looks okay without any embellishments but I'm still hoping to embellish it in the future.

Tomorrow is the 2nd last day of my Long skirt outfit challenge. Looking forward to it!

Day 4 - Self-challenge: Long skirt outfits

Today I wore this houndstooth skirt (McCall's 4593) that I made a while back. Again, I think I wore it less than 5 times since I made it. How terrible! Anyway, it saw daylight today with my trusty refashioned denim shirt, self-made red scarf, thrifted belt and black boots:

I am enjoying giving my rarely worn skirts some daylight! There are more long skirts hidden in my closet ready to see the light of day for the rest of this challenge.

Day 1, 2, 3 of my Self-challenge: Long skirt outfits

I have been wearing long skirts outfits for the last 3 days but I just hadn't have time to blog about it yet. So here they are:

Day 1: 
I wore this newly made square fringed plaid skirt that I made this week with a thrifted black leather jacket and a self-made scarf.

Day 2:
I chose this burgundy wool skirt (Simplicity 8850) that I made a few years ago. It was one of my favourite skirts but I hadn't worn it for a while. I'm happy to have worn this again with a thrifted blue plaid skirt, thrifted brown leather jacket and thrifted brown boots.

Day 3:
This time I worn a self-drafted a-line brown stretch velvet skirt that I made before the kids were born (a long time ago!!). I wore it often a few years ago but had neglected it in recent years. I wore this with a thrifted refashioned men's wool sweater, a thrifted purple scarf and thrifted leather boots.

(I guess I have to clean the camera lens again!)

I am happy with this challenge so far. I hope it doesn't start snowing before this challenge is finished!

On another note - I'm trying to remember to take my blog photos during the day in natural daylight. I think it shows the texture and the colours of the fabrics much better than indoor lighting. The problem is that I'm usually very busy during the day that I only remember to take the photo at the end of the day with poor lighting.

Another Self-challenge: Long skirt outfits

Yes, I'm doing another self-challenge. This time I want to do a Long Skirt outfits challenge. I have a number of Fall/Winter long skirts that I don't wear much. The reason is a practical one: it snows here in winter and long skirts do not fare well in knee deep snow. Short skirts or dresses with warm leggings and knee high boots are much more practical in the winter for me. So the only suitable time to wear these Fall/Winter weight long skirts are in the Fall just before the snow starts falling.

I'm excited to start this 7 day Long skirt challenge!

October MAGAM garment done! A Braveheart Plaid skirt

I have had this square skirt in my head for a long time before I actually did it. As expected, it was quite easy and quite to make (even with the lining). However, the fringes took a while to  do. All I did was to sew a tight zig-zag about 2cm away from the hem and the picked the cross-grain threads away along the hem to make the fringed hem. I used a 2 inch wide black elastic band as the waist band instead of a set in waistband. It's very comfortable to wear except all that fabric makes the gathered waist quite bulky. The only way to wear this skirt without it looking too bulky is to wear a thick black belt with a black cardigan on top.

When I unveiled the skirt to my hubby, he laughed and asked if I was going to a Braveheart cosplay! Hahahaha! I don't care. I am happy that I 'busted' a big piece of fabric stash for this project. I will wear it out tomorrow and see if people will look at me in a funny way.

I think I should clean the camera lens. It's so blurry!

So what do you think? Is it too Braveheart/costumy?  Or is it too late-90's looking?