Refashion: Mickey fleece Scarf to Kid's hat

I like making kids' clothes. They require a little material and are super fast to make (I do choose simple clothes to sew). My son has outgrown the winter accessories I made for him 2 years ago so I quickly sewed up a new one tonight.

This red fleece Mickey Mouse adult scarf was bought at my local Thrift Store last year for $1.99. My son likes Mickey Mouse so I knew I wanted to make something for him with this. It just happened to be the perfect width for my son's hat.

1. First I cut out the top part of the hat. Basically it's a rectangle. I cut 2 of these - 1 for the front and 1 for the back.

2. Then I cut out the headband piece with the back lower than the front and a little extra flaps for the ears. I cut 4 of these. There are centre front seams and centre back seams. The band will be double thickness.

3. I sewed the top 2 parts together. Then I sewed the band together and then connect the top and the band and voila!

I still have more material to make him the neck tube. Not too shabby for a $1.99 thrifted item!

New Burda Fall/Winter 2013 patterns - inspired to copy

I haven't bought any brand new sewing patterns for a long time, except the out-of-print/vintage patterns from my local thrift store (50-99 cents). But I still look forward to the new collection of patterns each season from the bigger pattern companies. If I see something that I like, I would try to find an equivalent from my pattern stash and try to figure out how to tweak mine to look more like theirs. I have seen the new Burda Fall/Winter 2013 patterns on the web and one of those that really caught my eye is this one:

I thought what a clever way to accessorize the same basic strapless dress to make it look completely different! I have always liked versatile clothing. This seems to me an even better idea than those infinity dresses.

Since I already have a good basic strapless knit dress pattern, I will just have to figure out ways to create the accessories like the one in this pattern. I don't love view B so I will just have to do a variation of that.

If only I have a special occasion coming up.................

Refashion: Men's jeans scraps to Toddler hat

This is a super simple refashion project. I have lots of men's jeans scraps from various refashioning projects. They are too small for making adult clothing/accessories but are perfect for kids' stuff. Here is a reversible hat I made for my toddler using the men's jeans scraps and a red floral cotton skirt I made for myself ions ago.

For the rest of the scraps, I think I'll just sew all the small pieces together and make a bath mat. I'll let the edges fray to give it some character. There are lots of examples of this type of denim rug everywhere on the net.

Pattern Review and a Refashion: McCall's 4842 dress

This is both a pattern review of McCall's 4842 (out of print) dress and a refashion. I picked up the pattern from the cheapy bin years ago and never made anything from it until now. I was attracted to the knit dress on the envelope. The material I used for this dress was an XXL teal blue elastic waist cotton knit skirt with pockets that I found in my local thrift store. I liked the colour and the fabric and thought I could make a top or dress out of it. This is the before:

I used size 14 which was actually a bit big on me. I had to re-sew it down to size 12. I upcycled a black ponte knit nursing shawl (already cut up for other projects) to make the neckline band and the armhole bands. The neckline was too wide so I had to redraft the neckline by folding out about 2cm from each side of the front and back neckline pieces. I didn't recut the dress portion because I thought the armholes were a bit low and this change in the neckline might pull up the armholes a bit. Good thing this is a moderate stretch knit material. If this were a woven fabric, I would definitely have to redraft the dress part as well after the neckline changes. The armholes were bounded with the same black ponte knit as I thought it would help prevent the armholes from stretching out.

The pattern was easy to sew but the neckline was too wide for me to wear a regular bra. I suppose if I had wanted an off-shoulder look it would be perfect but I didn't want that. So the neckline adjustments I made worked better for me. I'm sure if I were to make it again with sleeves I will have to make adjustments to the sleeves pattern pieces as well due to the neckline changes.

I have worn this dress out (as you can see I got a stain on the front already!) and it's very comfortable. But I don't think this particular neckline is flattering for my broad shoulders and back. I think it makes me look even broader. Well, I'm wearing it anyways, probably with a cardigan or a jacket. I do like the colour and the weight of the knit. I hope that this will be another dress I can 'winterize' for later this year.

Planning the Fall/Winter 2013/14 Wardrobe

I know it's still hot and sunny out there but I'm already planning my Fall/winter 2013/14 wardrobe. I took a quick look at the Pantone colour forecast for Fall 2013 and found that my favourite Fall/Winter colours are there:

(source: Pantone)

I love teal blue (they call it Mykonos Blue), bluish purple (they call it Acai), bluish red (they call it Samba) and the bluish pink (they call it Vivacious). I also like the mossy green (they call it Linden Green) but the fabrics that I have in that colour are mostly spring/summer fabrics. For the other colours, I have them in wool, ponte knit and sweatshirt knit. I’m sure I’ll have fun creating new garments with this  palette for this Fall/Winter season.

But first I must do an inventory check of what I already have in my wardrobe. I have made lots of Fall/Winter clothing for myself over the years. I don’t want to be too frivolous and add more unnecessary items that may not get a lot of use. And because I have grown more and more obsessed with ‘cost per wear’, I would like to ‘winterize’ my summer clothing as much as possible. So I don’t really envisage making more than 3 or 4 additional items. The wardrobe is not growing any bigger either! ;-)

I definitely will be making some clothing for my 2 kids as well. Since I'm still not buying any new fabrics, I must set aside some fabrics for the kids' projects first. I won't actually be starting the kids' projects until the end of Sept. Who knows how much bigger they will grow in 2 months? I want the clothes I made them to be useful for more than a couple of months please!