Very Practical use for Fabric Scraps

I have lots and lots and lots of fabric scraps from many sewing projects that I had been saving. I just thought that one day I would come up with some ideas to use them. Yesterday I found a great idea: Home Made Sanitary Pads! I was surfing on the web and came across pages and pages of cloth home made sanitary pads sites. Hey if babies are going back to cloth nappies then why shouldn't adult women follow the trend? I have lots of cotton flannel scraps from kids' project so I thought I would give it a go as well.

I found this site very useful if you are interested: Reusable Menstrual Products

I didn't use PUL as backing as many sites have suggested, simply because I like to tempt fate! Just kidding! I thought I would try using the cotton flannel as the top and the bottom and sandwich 2 layers of Warm and Natural cotton batting scraps in between. I added wings with snaps for each pad. I only made 2 because I want to try them out during my next cycle to see how they perform and then tweak/improve them before making more.

They were quickly and crudely made so they are not pretty enough to be posted here. I'll do that for the next batch. I hope they work!

Do you have any other project ideas for your fabric scraps? Do share!

Pattern Review: Simplicity 4945 Jacket

It seems that most sewists had made at least one Chanel-esque jacket for themselves. I thrifted this piece of mystery tweed fabric from my local thrift store last year. So I thought I would try to make a Chanel-esque jacket for myself too. The fabric is a bit scratchy. I'm guessing that it is probably some cotton/poly mix tweed meant for home decor. I liked the colour mix regardless.

This jacket is based on Simplicity 4945. I made the short jacket but with a button front. I used a size 14 and made my usual short waist adjustment. I didn't look at the instructions because it looked straight forward enough.

The jacket only has bust darts and no front and back darts so it's quite loose-fitting and boxy. Usually this boxy style doesn't suit my stocky upper body. But with 2 young kids whom I have to 'wrestle' with all the time I thought a boxy style would work just fine. I also made a lined-to-edge lining because this mystery tweed is a bit scratchy to the skin. I made a self fabric fringe for the front opening. In hindsight I should have double up the fringe to make it look nicer/bushier. Right now the single layer fringe looks a bit sad and sparse. I put the buttonholes in the middle of the fringe and at places that would suit my shape better.

All in all I'm happy with this first try of a Chanel-esque jacket. The pattern is easy to sew but I want to tweak it a bit for my body. If I make it again, I will probably need to do an FBA for the front and reduce the ease at the back. I also want to lengthen the jacket a bit, probably about 3 cm.

I was worried that such a fabric and jacket style would make me look matronly. But with skinny pants and boots it could work. I'll wear it a few more times to see how I can 'funk' it up a bit. So do you think it's a bit too matronly for me?

Pattern Review: Simplicity 4470 dress

This is a dress that was made pre-kids. I was able to fit into it again recently. This is meant to be a Costume pattern but I liked the look of the dress (a bit mod looking) so I made it with a gun mental stretch denim to be worn as a regular dress.

I made View D in size 12 with the usual short waist adjustment. It was very simple to make and I didn't even look at the instructions. I used a wide metal zipper so that it would pop against the dark denim. I had worn this out with knee high boots many times and it's very comfortable to wear due to the stretch fabric. If I do make it again I would like to make it sleeveless. I highly recommend this pattern if you like this mod look.

Refashion: From Boring and Unloved to Wearable Top

I have a pile of turtleneck tops in different colours that I haven't worn for a few years now - ever since I realized that they didn't suit my short stocky neck. So there they had been sitting on the shelf collecting dust. In the meantime I had been wearing my 4 other scoopneck tops to death this Fall/Winter season. As I started to clean out my closet I thought perhaps I could do a simple refashion to make them wearable again.

So here is the before:

Using some remnant yellow cotton ribbed knit in my fabric stash, I made a folded narrow band and stitched down a new neckline (I stretched the yellow ribbed knit while sewing). I think the yellow trim provided an interesting contrast (The topstitching is not perfect so I may redo that part tomorrow night). Now I can't wait to wear this over and over again this winter!

New Year's resolution

Happy New Year! Can you believe it's 2013 already? Now that I have kids, time seems to go by really slowly sometimes and really quickly at other times. I can't believe I have an almost 4 year old and another who will be 2 this spring!

Last year my fashion/sewing resolution was to not buy any new fabrics and new clothing/accessories for myself and my family (except under garments and socks). I think I only slipped up a few times so I'm happy with that. This year I will be continuing with that effort and also to add one more thing: Not to buy any 2nd hand items unless I absolutely need it (e.g. kids outgrowing their clothes and I have no time to sew new clothes). I love thrifting at 2nd hand stores but my thrifted pile has been growing and I haven't had enough time to refashion/alter a lot of the items. So until my refashion pile has gone down substantially, I'm not going to buy more. Let's see how I'll do on this front.

Also, like most women I'm not wearing everything in my closet. I think I'm only wearing about 50% of my entire wardrobe. I need to go through my closet and move some unwearables to the refashion pile. I lost some weight in the last few months so perhaps I will be lucky enough to fit into some of the pre-kids garments! It will be fun to refashion garments from my own closet.

Bling up an old dress for the Holidays

The holiday festivities are coming up again. I decided to 'bling' up an old plain dress for the occasions. This casual ponte knit dress was drafted and made in late 2009 when I entered Pattern Review's Wardrobe Contest:

I have some jeweled clips and brooches that I bought when my local fabric shop was getting rid of them at bargain basement prices. I just clip them up in different places and the dress turned into this:

So I think with the right makeup, hair, shoes, festive shawl and jewelry, this could be made into a  casual 'cocktail with friends' dress. What do you think?

Sweater scraps blanket for toddler girl

I just made this warm wool sweater scraps blanket for my toddler girl! I'm so happy that I have enough scraps for this. I used sweater scraps from all my Sweater Refashion projects posted on this blog plus 2 failed refashioning projects. I used her current organic cotton fleece blanket as the backing for this blanket. Then I finished the edges with some pretty cotton flannel remnants from my stash. I hope this will keep her warm and toasty this winter!

I even used the bits of the cardigan where the pockets were. I really tried to use as much of the scraps as possible.....

Italian silk dress Refashion

I don't know if this counts as a refashion or not. I bought this Italian silk dress at a thrift store for a few dollars. I usually never buy clothing with big vibrant prints because of my short frame. But I'm a real sucker for silk and cashmere. It was a bit long and overwhelming when I tried it on at home:

 I washed it and tumble-dried it (what? I tumble-dried 100% silk?) and it shrank a little bit. It's actually good because it became a little less voluminous. I then hacked off 5" from the hem and shortened the sleeves by 2". I used my serger to roll hem the new hem and sleeves. I think it looks a bit less overwhelming on me now:

It's a bit short but I can wear leggings or skinny jeans with it. So what do you think? Is the dress still too busy on my short and stocky frame?

Save your used coffee grounds!

We are a household of coffee drinkers. With 2 incredibly active kids under 4 who don't want to sleep/nap, I need all the help I can get. I always save the used coffee grounds for the compost. The grounds are relatively rich in nitrogen, providing bacteria the energy they need to turn organic matter into compost. We have a small fruit garden in the back yard and I don't really have time to take care of it. So good compost really helps it grow.

Yesterday, I read somewhere on the web that you can use old coffee grounds as an exfoliant for the skin. Well, I had to try it! My skin on my hands are very rough from childcare and house chores. I just scoop a small amount of used coffee grounds and rubbed them vigorously between my hands for a few seconds and rinse. My hands felt incredibly soft! Wow! I actually saved the grounds that I used for exfoliating and now that are in the compost heap. I didn't know coffee grounds could be used 3 ways - Awesome!!

ECing a 18 month old toddler

I don`t know if I should still call it Elimination Communication anymore. I think most people would call it Potty Training at her age. Anyways, I`m still taking her to the big toilet (with reducer) after every meal, or when we come home after an outing. About 90% of the time she would poo/pee or both. I think I got her schedule down now. She usually poos 2 a day after a main meal. But if she had corn on the cob she would poo more. She pees about 5-10 min after drinking a large quantity of liquids, and then about 30 min after that. She still wouldn't tell me if she needed to go to the toilet. It's all down to me to check the time and take her. She would only tell me 'pee pee' if she had pooed after her nap in her diaper.

I'm catching almost all her poos and a lot of her pees. But I want to know how do I train her to tell me she has to pee/poo? I had put underwear on her and she would pee in it and not be bothered by the wet pants/legs. I guess I need to do some research on that one.

Pattern Review: The 90's strike back! McCalls 5273 pants

Everything goes around - nothing is ever new. That's so true for fashion! The current fashion trends seem to point back to the early 90's. And the current craze for the red jeans? Well, I had a pair of red jeans in 1991! The difference is that my 1991 jeans were high rise and loose-fitting, whereas the current red jeans are low rise and skin tight.

Since red is my favourite colour, I thought I would make a pair of red skinny pants too. I chose McCalls 5273 from my pattern stash and a stretch red cotton twill in my fabric stash. I chose a pant pattern instead of a jeans pattern because I thought it would be faster to sew, easier to alter the muslin and that pants may be more versatile than jeans.

First I measured the crotch length on the pattern and found that the back crotch was too short. I added 8cm to the back crotch - first adding about 3cm to the side of the front piece, then add the rest of the 5cm to the back piece. I have a short front waist and a high back hip so I always have to do this for any pants sewing patterns.

I then cut and sewed the pants as it was. I tried them on and found that the butt and legs were way too baggy to be skinny pants. I put the pants on inside out and pinned out the excess and then resewed the pants. Now the pants are truly skinny pants!

I also added 2 back pockets to the pants since any mom with 2 young kids would want lots of pockets in their clothing!

When I compared the fabric that I had to pin out back to the sewing pattern, I found that now the width of the pants resembled the leggings pieces in the same pattern envelope. Perhaps next time I want a pair of skinny pants, I'll just use the leggings pattern pieces instead.

All in all a very easy to sew pattern - but beware that they are not actually very close fitting pants as the envelope claims. My legs are average size and not super skinny. I cut a size 12 which is my usual size for the mainstream sewing patterns. So I have to conclude that the legs part of the pattern is just cut larger.

I'm quite happy with my wearable muslin. I love red and the pants are actually very versatile. They go with what I already have in my wardrobe - black, brown, camel, grey, white. Bring on the 90's again!

Losing the excess baggage: the baby weight

I have finally dropped down to my pre-kids weight and I have been able to keep it off for the last couple of months. The last 4 years I had been either pregnant or trying to get pregnant. After having 2 kids, the excess baby weight was really difficult to lose. I'm still nursing so I don't want to cut my food intake drastically. I am so busy with the kids that I hardly have time to exercise. When they are finally in bed, I'm exhausted mentally and physically that I don't feel like exercising at all! I thought I just had to accept the excess weight as part of being a mom.

The only thing that seems to have worked for me was to listen to my body: eat when hungry. I know it sounds simple but because I had been ignoring my hunger signals for so long that I really couldn't tell when I was really hungry or just thirsty or restless. So I pause to think and feel my hunger before I put any food in my mouth. For example, I have always heard that one should eat a big breakfast to be healthy. I followed that advice for a long time until I realized that I wasn't actually hungry when I woke up. My hunger only kicks in about 3 hours later. So I would eat a decent breakfast then instead of having 2 breakfasts (one when I wake up and one 3 hours later).

As for the rest of the day's meals, I would eat a generously portioned lunch and a good size dinner. Because the meals are of good portions, I don't need to snack in between except to drink some water or coffee (with milk and no sugar). After dinner and after I put the kids to bed, I would stay away from the kitchen in case I get tempted to snack as a relaxing activity. I would busy myself with chores, sewing, bills, doing stuff on the computer and then go straight to bed.

Just by cutting out the after dinner snacks and eating breakfast when hungry, I dropped about 7 lbs, which was a lot for me because I'm short. My clothes fit better and I feel less bloated. I'm still not exercising as much as I would like. I really should add weight training and aerobic activities back into my weekly routines, even if it's just for 15 minutes here and there. My birthday is in a month's time so I'm hoping that I would drop a few more pounds by then Wish me luck!