Black turtleneck dress - another simple Refashion

I'm weeks away from giving birth! As much as I love sewing/refashioning, I am just too tired and uncomfortable to do anymore. So here is probably the last sewing/refashioning project before the new baby arrives.
I bought this wool mix turtleneck long dress for a few dollars from a thrift store 2 months ago. I was mighty pleased in finding this dress! The dress is too long for me (down to my ankles) and the turtleneck was too tight (actually all turtlenecks are tight on my short neck). I just want a simple black wool sweater dress that I can wear in the office with my jewelry creations (the black showcases the jewelry very well!).

Steps:
1. Chop off the dress from the knee down. Hem the bottom edge.
2. Measure and mark the eventual neckline of the dress.
3. Cut a piece from the remnant of a wine colour sweater (from the 3 tone sweater dress project) and attached it to the neckline.
4. Cut off the turtleneck.
5. Voila! Another easy refashioning.I think the wine colour neckline gives the dress a little pizzazz but still keeps the overall look muted.

And I still have lots of fabric left over from this dress for another project.

p.s. It's just so difficult to take a good picture of this dress on me while I'm 9 months pregnant. Perhaps I'll take another picture after giving birth.

Dry cleaning - a pet peeve

One of my pet peeve when it comes to clothing is Dry Cleaning. I have thrifted wool, cotton, wool mix, cotton mix clothing that says Dry Clean only on the labels. Why? These items were not like big wool coats that requires special handling. I have machine washed (cold cycle) almost all my clothing (wool, cotton, silk, beaded, embroidered, etc) and have no problems so far. With some delicate materials, I simply put them in a plain cotton pillowcase before putting them in the washer. I hung them to dry and they turned out fine. I hope my 'good luck' with laundering at home will continue without me spending a fortune on dry cleaning.

I once dry-cleaned a light colour linen suit and the dry cleaner actually ruined it. Somehow it came back with blotches of discolouration. I was not pleased. They offered to clean it again for free but the blotches remained. Since then, I decided to launder my clothing at home.

What do you think about dry cleaning? Do you have any tales to tell?

Quick and dirty Purse Organizer

I have seen these purse organizers on the web and I thought, 'My purse needs some organizing for sure!' I just made my son some new curtains for his new room so I used the curtain scraps plus some leftover bias tape to make a 28" x 6" purse organizer. Please excuse the look because it was made quickly and crudely with whatever scraps I have on hand.
Steps:
1. Cut 2 pieces of fabric: 28" x 9". Cut 1 piece of batting of the same size.
2. Sandwich the batting with the 2 pieces of fabric and do some elementary quilting. I did diagonal lines 1" apart.
3. Bind the bottom edge with bias tape.
4. Fold the bottom up 3" and sew the sides in place.
5. Bind the 2 sides and the top edge with bias tape.
6. I then took my phone, coupons, cards, note books, etc (things I want to put into the organizer slots) and mark out where I want to sew the dividers.
7. Sew the dividers up.
8. Voila! I put my purse 'junk' into the slots, roll the purse organizer to fit into whatever purse I'm carrying that day.

Countdown to new baby

28 more days to go before we meet the new baby! I'm getting so very uncomfortable walking, standing, sitting, lying down, etc. I really can't wait to meet the new baby! It seems like the 3rd trimester has been dragging on forever! I wonder how my toddler will react to a new baby in the house. We have been telling him about it but I think he won't understand it until he sees the baby for the first time.

I haven't been doing much sewing/refashioning. I did a couple of easy and quick refashioning and I'll take some pictures later. It's hard to get on my knees to cut fabric on the floor these days (I don't have a cutting table). I'm dying to make the Simplicity 2222 dress A but even if I manage to cut the fabric, I don't think I will be able to finish it before the new baby arrives.

Men's jeans to Toddler's jeans - Simplicity 3765 Again!

Hubby gave me a pair of old jeans that didn't fit him anymore for the refashion pile. My toddler son needs some new pants so I just made him a pair of elastic waist jeans with the tried and true Simplicity 3765 pattern.

Since the pattern piece has no outside seams, I cut open the inseam and placed the pattern so that the original outside seams of the jeans were preserved. I topstitched a faux fly for the front. A quick and easy refashion!

From a pair of relaxed fit Men's jeans:
To Toddler's jeans:

Red sweater to Festive Cardi Refashion

I know X'mas was a few months ago. But I have always wanted a piece of clothing that I can just throw on and it will say 'festive'. I'm not talking about a X'mas sweater with a moose on it (nothing wrong with that if that's what people like). I wanted something that says festive but still versatile enough for the office. Something simple and not too out there.

I thrifted this red sweater last month. It's a nice wool mix and I like the colour. But I'm not too fond of the metallic yarn embellishments on the shoulders.
So I got out the seam ripper, chalk and scissors, plus some ribbon and buttons in my stash.

1. First I measured the centre of the sweater and marked it with chalk.2. Then I sewed 2 ribbons as facings to the opening of the cardi before I slashed the centre of the sweater open. I prefer doing it this way just so that the cut sweater edges don't stretch out too much.
3. I folded the ribbons to the inside of the sweater and sewed them down. Then I added buttonholes and faux pearl buttons to make it a functional cardi. I also removed the metallic yarn from the shoulders.
4. I now have a functional cardi. I thought perhaps I could add a little more embellishment with the same red ribbon to make it just a bit more 'festive'.

I'm pretty happy with it. I think the pearl buttons are elegant. If I change my mind about the ribbon trim later, it's not too difficult to take it out. Can't wait to wear it!

Are they for real? Torn sweater for $255!!!

I just saw this 'Designer sweater' with 'artfully placed holes' on an upscale store site for $255. Are they for real? I don't even think the thrift stores will put something like this out on their racks. Wow! I guess I really don't know anything about 'fashion' these days!

Refashioning a Men's Tee to a Dress

I thrifted this nice red tee for my hubby. Unfortunately it was a bit snug on him so he gave it to me. Although the roads are still covered with snow tonight, I thought why not try to make some summer clothes out of this?

I already have a black tank top that's too short for me in my refashion stash. So I cut off the top of the tank top, cut off the bottom of the red tee, sewed them together, and voila! A tank dress! I like the colour combination too. This must be one of the easiest refashioning project. Can't wait to wear it this summer!

This:
Plus this:
Equals this:
P.S. please excuse the chalk mark. I'm putting the dress in the laundry tomorrow.

Fabric shoes for Baby and Moi - Simplicity 2278

I wanted to make some fabric indoor shoes for my bloated pregnant feet for right now, at the hospital and after birth. I have some remnant home decor fabric so I decided to make a muslin using Simplicity 2278.

I made some modifications to the pattern:
1. I didn't use Jiffy Grip as suggested by the pattern. Instead I used some remnant carpet underlay from my stash.
2. I didn't used fusible fleece for the sole. Instead I used some remnant cotton quilt batting from my stash. I just serged the batting with the sole fabric together.
3. I didn't make the fabric straps across the feet with hook and eye tape. Instead I used a piece of black elastic across the foot.

I made a size Small which fits my foot. I'm pretty pleased with this wearable muslin. Please excuse the look of the shoes and my feet in this photo because I had actually been wearing them for a few hours and my feet are really bloated. I think I may try making the Medium with a fleece fabric so that I can wear socks with them.

I enjoyed making them and I'm glad I have something to wear for indoors now.
I also made the baby shoes from the same pattern. I used Medium just in case my new baby has big feet! (My son has big feet so I will not be surprised if the 2nd baby has big feet too!)

Originally I used a much thicker denim and realized that it was way too thick and I couldn't sew it properly. So I used some lightweight denim and flannel for the 2nd try and they turned out okay! Very easy and fast to make. I think I will make them again in a cute fleece fabric.I just made another pair of baby shoes with this Red Chinese Brocade that I had for years! I couldn't bear cutting into this brocade for a long time in case I messed up but these baby shoes took so little fabric. I love them! If my baby is a girl then it would be really perfect.

3 shrunken sweaters - Project 4

I had wanted to make a wool hat for my hubby. He has a pretty big head and the store bought hats never fitted him well. My 'grand design' was to make a hat out of all the remnants from the sweater dresses (black, beige, midnight blue and wine) I made recently. However, due to some miscalculation on my part, the result was still too small for him and I gained a sweater hat. Oh well! At least I did use up a lot of the sweater remnants. I just need to make another hat for hubby now.

3 shrunken sweaters - Project 3

This is also a fairly easy project. I used the sleeves from the wine wool sweater to make a pair of wool pants for my son. I used a pair of his existing pants as a guide (roughly). I measure the side length of the pants and cut the sleeves accordingly. Then I measure the crotch length of the existing pants and cut the seamed edge of the sleeves to that length. The last step is to sew the 2 pieces together and add an elastic! Quick and simple way to create a pair of toddler/baby pants!

There are lots of tutorials on how to make a pair of kids pants from sweater sleeves. This one from the Sewing Dork is pretty good!

3 shrunken sweaters - Project 2

Okay this is an easy one. I just used the sleeves of the burgundy thick wool sweater and cut out 2 mittens for myself. I traced my hand on a piece of paper and added a little seam allowance and cut away! I serged the seams together. Not the most creative or pretty but I got a pair of functional 100% wool mittens out of it. And there is still plenty of sweater remnants left!

More projects to come.....