All posts filed under: Refashioning

TMS – Sew Stretchy

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For May’s challenge at The Monthly Stitch I’ve made a top and also refashioned one of my favourite T Shirts. Whilst flicking through the Great British Sewing Bee’s book from the 2nd series I decided to make the simple T Shirt.  It calls for a floaty fabric, not a ponte knit as I chose! I only had 60cm of the stripey ponte knit so had to be a little creative and decided to adapt the pattern so it had raglan sleeves. I also lengthened it by 3 inches for adequate tummy coverage.  As you can see from my pattern I’ve cut out a size 18.  This is the biggest size, here’s the size chart from the book: It all went together fairly straight forward.  I stitched sleaves to the back and front, pressed the seam downwards top stitched.  I now think I should have maybe pressed the seam upwards and had the top stitching (or is it edge stitching?!?!) on the sleeve, not on the main body of the top.  I then stitched the side seams. …

Ikea Throw Transformation

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Last Saturday was Day 3 of me being a non-smoker. So to take my mind off things I thought I’d sew the current challenge for Stitch Once Rip Twice, organised by Diane over at Vintage Zest.   The challenge is ‘A Simple Top’ so I decided to make SergerPepper’s new pattern which I’d recently downloaded from Craftsy. On a recent shopping trip to ikea I bought a lovely red super soft throw with the intention of turning it into something wearable. Here it is on their website:  The 2 ends of the blankets were hemmed which I thought I’d used for the bottom, but once I came to positioning the pattern piece I thought the hem would be too bulky so used the selvidge which had a nice neat finish. The fabric wasn’t quite big enough for me to use the selvidge as a hem so I lost 2 inches from the back and front pieces (both the same) placing the centre of the top 1 inch past the centre fold.  It’s a loose fitting top and I …

Refashioning my Diesel Jeans – 2

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A couple of weeks ago I decided to refashion my diesel jeans, part 1 can be seen here. I’ve put so much thought into  doing them, more time thinking than sewing, as I wanted them to be just right. Eventually I decided to use the plain blue which had been dyed.  I spent a whole afternoon creating lots of stitches onto it with a twin needle and 2 colours – charcoal and a goldy colour – to give the fabric a bit more interest. Originally they were going to be pintucks, but then tension on my machine wasn’t behaving, hence going for just the parallel stitces, but suddenly in the middle of sewing unwanted pintucks began to form!! Rather annoying after many failed attempts to create them early. Once the bottom piece was ready I chopped the legs of my jeans and joined the crotch to form a skirt.  If you’re thinking about having a go at refashioning your own jeans, beware!! This part was way trickier than I thought it would be. I stitched …

Refashioning my Diesel Jeans #1

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I splashed out on a pair of Diesel Jeans around 5 years ago. They were quite low rise and at the time looked great. But over the last year or 2 my tummy has grown a couple of inches and the jeans are now not so flattering and have been laying dormant in my bottom drawer. During the last week I’ve given a lot of thought to my sewing plans for 2014.  As I have joined the RTW Fast I think I need to put more thought how I spend my sewing time.  Usually I’ll knock together something easy and quick but it won’t necesarily be a wardrobe staple. I’ve now decided that I will: Take my time planning every garment. Make a muslin (if it’s a new pattern). Try not to buy any fabric – use fabric and notions from my stash, or dye fabric/clothes. If I wake up with the urge to sew and have nothing planned and ready to sew, I will make a bag with scraps from my stash – hoping …