All posts tagged: upcylcling

A Sewing Room Miracle

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Some things just never go to plan. When they don’t go to plan in the sewing room, but the creative juices are flowing, a sewing room miracle can happen. I printed off the pattern for the Pona jacket not knowing which fabric I’d choose to make it up in. I initially thought dark blue denim. I love denim and it goes with anything and everything in my wardrobe. So when my pattern was taped together I went to have a rummage in my stash. I say rummage because I had a huge pile of fabric on my table as I was up to my ears in organising my stash. You can’t see it but under there somewhere was a piece of curtaining fabric that I acquired from one of my ‘real life’ sewing buddies. She inherited a close family friends stash who had sadly passed away. The curtaining fabric was from the 80’s and looked big enough for the jacket. It turned out it wasn’t, but before I realised this I’d already cut out all …

Refitting My Favourites after My #SlimmingWorldSuccess

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Back in June 2013 I dusted off my sewing machine and sent my then 22 year old overlocker off for its’ first service. I made a dress in a day….. totally oblivious to sizing charts, in a tricky ITY knit and have never looked back! During the last 4 years I discovered social media, and now have more sewing friends that golfing friends, which is really strange as golfing is a real life hobby not a virtual one like blogging! I also have lots of golfing friends who now sew… my enthusiasm can be infectious so watch out!  But all the sewing led me to have a huge lifestyle change, and not really for the better. I no longer played golf 3 or 4 times a week, instead I was either sat at my sewing machine or at my computer, and my life became stagnant. I’m not sure when the extra pounds really crept on, but soon I was almost 2 stone heavier than when I started blogging!   Things had to change.  I felt …

#SundaySevens 99

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Hi Folks! Here we are with another Sunday Sevens Double Bill, and looking back over the last 2 weeks and beyond it’s no wonder I’m not making any new garments!  I still love taking the pics and sharing them with you, and also looking back over my old posts too.  It’s so easy to forget all the good stuff that happens in life so it’s a good way of keep a little photo diary of the little things, and the big things too. The week didn’t start off 2 good.  I fell on the steps in the gym, landing on my side. I managed to keep hold of my purse, water bottle and phone, but hit every step until I landed at the bottom.  the rest of the day (after I went to my intended class!) was spent in my PJs feeling very sore and sorry for myself. Sue and I ready in our team strips to play in the A team. We played at Bradley Hall Golf Club.  The weather was so miserable but the scenery …

The Dress of Many Colours – Just Call Me Joseph

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  When I started browsing the likes of Harrods, Harvey Nics and other designer stores looking for inspiration for my Designin December make, little did I thing than I’d end up upcycling 29 of my husbands ties! I came across this skirt in Harvey Nics selling for a whopping £850!!  It obviously wasn’t made from ties, but the diagonal striped and pleated  fabric gave that appearance.   Unfortunately my husband’s tie collection is quite a bit more conservative than the colours in the skirt, but after a little persuasion he parted with around half of his tie collection. I butted the ties against each other and auditioned a few stitches to see which would sew the ties together the best: Number 22 in the photo below was the stitch of choice: First off I sewed the ties together in groups of 5, and the first ones that were sewn together I trimmed the top off – big mistake! If you plan on sewing ties together don’t chop anything off until you’re ready for fitting, or …

McCalls 6521 – hats for ladies suffering from hair loss

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My mum in law lost her hair 14 years. She wears wigs when out but prefers hats indoors as they’re cooler. I found a pattern for ladies who have suffered hair loss. They’re designed to cover the hair line. I up-cycled a top for my first attempt and she loves it! Here’s a pic of me modelling it, I’d tucked my hair inside. It only took 1/2 hour and that included tracing the pattern! Much quicker than knitting! I used my Overlocker for all the seams so it’s really neat inside, and there’s plenty of stretch in the seams.