Sarah's Sewing Journal

a better length

2010-09-19T09:50:00.000-07:00

Found this size m/p london fog trench (with liner) at goodwill for 7.99! It fit great in the shoulders and torso, whereas most trenchcoats make me look like a football payer. The sleeves were about 1.5 inches too short, so I pulled the hem and lenghtened it! So happy!

Back on the Wagon

2010-08-22T05:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I recently moved to Iowa after finishing the degree. This place has so far been great for motivating me to be crafty and re-pledge to Wardrobe Refashioning. Now I just need to unpack my sewing machines and supplies and get my room set up! See ya around!

Plaid & Cantaloupe Accent

2009-07-17T04:45:00.000-07:00

This was another generous donation men's shirt from Pudding Cup. He was not so thrilled with the slightly rumpled look of the fine seersucker material. I loved the orange and had a thrifted light yellow shirt to chop up as accents for the dress. Unfortunately, the yellow thing was too small for me to do the sleeves and the waist piece. So cut up a cantaloupe colored twinset that I thrifted a long time ago... it was on it's way out stretching and rolling on the edges anyway (sorry, I forgot to take a picture of that but it was just a typical tank & cardi).

Anyway, it fit my younger niece perfectly and even has a little orange headband to go with it. Again I made the little bow on the waistband removeable. Much fun!

stripes and puff sleeves

2009-07-17T04:36:00.000-07:00

Over the last 2 weeks or so I have been busy working on this little number. Pudding Cup is over stripes so he gave me this shirt. I wasn't at all sure that it would be 'doable' since it wasn't pink or cutesey. I was all set to make the dress sleeves with the same stripe when I remembered that I had some green dress fabric left over from the funky pieces I had purchased for my sister's messenger bag. I was going to use it to make green applique leaves or something.... well, it turned out to he exactly the green I needed for the dress using this striped shirt!

I made the little bow removeable in case she didn't like it. Luckily, mMy niece was really happy with it and her mom even wanted it for herself. :-)

P. Cardin Trench Refashioned to Messenger Bag

2009-07-14T05:42:00.001-07:00

I wanted to make a messenger bag for my sister's birthday present. I used the tutorial on mmmcrafts. It called for some heavy weight fabric and I wanted it to be water proof too. So I hit my local goodwill and found this Pierre Cardin men's trench coat for $8. It had a few oily looking stains and the liner was absolutely gross around the bottom.

I was able to cut out enough to make the pieces needed for the pattern. And realized the belt would make a great shoulder strap.

I also bought three funky solid color tops to cut up for the appliqué, but that didn't turn out to be such a good idea. So I made some strips from one of them and used some of my stash to make the liner. The inside pocket was a breeze, but the outer one gave me a little trouble and helped me realize that there really is a science to turning out crisp pointed corners. Anyway, I made it two weeks ago, but had to wait to post it until she opened it. She just called and said she loves it! Yay! She also mentioned that I need to get some tag thingys that say made by me. We'll have to design it but I'm wondering if folks order these from somewhere. Does anyone know?

Mens Shirt to Toddler Top

2009-07-05T15:29:00.000-07:00

My husband gave me this shirt and I really wanted to make a tank out of it for me using his embroidered initials too. I got the instructions from the way awesome Subversive Seamster book.

But the shirt was a too narrow for me to wear once I allowed for seams. So I made a scaled down version of the top for a toddler. I hope it will fit one of my munchkin nieces.

I'm not sure if you can see it in this picture, but I was able to save the initials. :-)

Holy Bright Skirt Batman!!

2009-07-05T13:09:00.000-07:00

If this wasn't the brightest shirt I'd ever seen~! My friend Carol encouraged me to buy it even though I thought it was a bit too LOUD!!

I used one of my other skirts as a pattern and trimmed it down.

Here is the finished product. I still want to add a zip but it works fine as is!

Sheet to Umbrella Bag

2009-07-04T05:40:00.000-07:00

Pudding Cup is cleaning the garage. He wanted a cover for our beach umbrella and he also needed one forthe umbrella that goes over the grill. He wanted sacks that would tie up so that the mud dabbers couldn't get inside and build nests. So I took an fitted sheet that lost its mate some time ago and made these covers. This is one of my first projects with the new serger.

My Pledge

2009-07-02T11:25:00.000-07:00

The Wardrobe Refashioning Pledge

I Sarah, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 2 months. I pledge that i shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoted, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed Me. :-)

Cover-Up into Beachy Skirt & Tank Set

2009-06-26T14:42:00.000-07:00

Well, this one was an adventure! We found this beach coverup at the Peace River Thrift Store and really loved the print. So we refashioned it into a tank and a skirt. We tried a tie up waist for the skirt but it looked funny so we just put in a bit of elastic and wallaa!! I did a pretty finishing stitch around the bottom of the tank top, its too small to see bit it looks like a series of blocky Ss. It would have been an incredibly quick refashion if we hadn't tried the tie up thing... but oh well, it was fun time spent doing a cool project!

Stretchy Top Into Halter Refashion

2009-06-26T14:32:00.000-07:00

My friend and I went to the Peace River Thrift store and found this cute top. The fabric is very stretchy and light. I'm still learning about photographing fabric so its a little hard to see how cool it looks in real life. Anyway, I used the same steps that I learned on the Threadbanger video, except that I didn't have to do take it in on the sides. She loved it! In the last picture here, the neck is a little off but that's just cause we didn't spread the gathers out evenly. I love that you don't have to hem the back or the bottom if you don't want to. This is a very cool refashion technique that I'll be using a lot! Yay!

Quickie Halter Top

2009-06-26T06:57:00.000-07:00

I'm in the middle of a bigger skirt project with some pretty corduroy, but I needed a little something to do this morning - just for fun! Yesterday, I watched a segment on Threadbanger.com about how to transform a t-shirt into a halter top. I'm not ready to part with my t-shirts, but I have wanted to do something with my old mock turtle neck shirt for a while now. I loved the soft feel and weight of this knit fabric, but it was about 6 sizes too big for me now. So I trimmed it down with the help of my new rotary cutter cutter, cutting board, and curved rules (that I found cheap at AOE supply in Tampa). The project took about 1 hour. It turned out nice and now this formerly winter will get a lot more mileage this summer!

The Dress from Hubby's Shirt was a Hit!!

2009-06-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

It fit both of the girls decently. However, I think it looked a bit better the older niece (top photo).

The waistband seems a bit low and the neckline could be cleaned up a lot. I also need to work on my curved hemming skills and will see about doing the next ones with a little more embellishment. They really liked the fact that it was their uncle's shirt!

I think know what to do now and have big plans for 8 more shirts that DH gave me!! :-)

Mock-up of Girl's Dress from Men's Shirt

2009-06-21T05:28:00.001-07:00

Alrightey then, this is my mock-up for the girl's dresses out of a mens shirt. I intend to make a few for my nieces if they like them because they are so much fun to make. Tomorrow I'll be taking this one over to see if it fits them. I also picked up a few tunic dresses at a thrift store yesterday to see if I can't use them for better patterns. I used a dress my sister gave me for this pattern, but I had to make a lot of adjustments to get the shapes right. I'm not sure why the 4t she gave me to was smaller across the shoulders than the 2/3t pattern that Dana made. Anyway, here are some of the process pictures.

The shirt my DH donated.

My crazy pattern!

Attaching the sleeves to the front.

Attaching the back.

I skipped a few steps.. but here is the finished product. Its hard to see since I lost my good camera, but the wite fabric has swirls printed on it. The elastic on the waistline was a breeze... the neck and sleeves-not so much! I'm learning a lot - for sure!! Anyway, tomorrow, I'll try it on the girls and see what adjustments need to be made size-wise.

Refashioned men's shirt into skirt for me!!

2009-06-19T16:47:00.000-07:00

This is my third attempt at refashioning something. I'm warming up since I am starting the refashioning pledge for 2 months as of July 1st.
This was one of my husband's and he has decided he doesn't wear stripes any more! Fine with me!!
I love the lightweight of this one and the colors even though they are a little hard to see in with this camera. I will try to reshoot them when I find my newer camera. Anyway, I followed the instructions provided by Kelli on PresserFoot. My skirt doesn't have the pretty ruffled look like the one she designed, my DH has smaller hips than me. I'll have to keep on the look out for bigger mens shirts when I go thrifting next time. Bichou gave the belt her seal of approval!!

Getting started on a new project

2009-06-19T04:45:00.000-07:00

I am going to attempt to make two girls dresses from some of my hubby's old shirts. I'm going to use the tutorial from Dana at Made. He gave me 8 to play with so I can work on one first that I'm sure won't be a pattern that will work on the muchkins. I borrowed two dresses from my nieces to use for the patterns. This will be the first thing I've done without a store-bought pattern... I'll post pictures as I go! Wish me luck!!

Sewing & Writing

2009-06-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

Ok, I just finished another sun dress. I had a bit of trouble with the neck, but otherwise, I think it is the most comfortable one I have made thus far. As I worked on this dress, I made most of the same mistakes that I have done in the past and some new surprising ones. Like completely skipping directions 7-9 where I was supposed to join the top to the skirt and prior to installing the zipper...oops! And then, putting the zipper on the outside of the skirt rather than the inside...double oops! Luckily, I attached it with a basting stitch on my machine so it was easy to re-do. So I think I had to rip out about 1/3 of all the seams that I sewed. I can really see why folks do muslins/toiles of patterns they plan to make.

As I worked and thought about all the stupid mistakes I was making, I thought about some ways that sewing similar to writing. First, in order to get started making the dress, you have to have some idea of what look you are going for. You then pick out a pattern that is closest to what you were thinking. Then, you can either follow the instructions exactly, plan some modifications, modify as you go (this probably works well if you've done similar projects), or you follow the instructions and then make modifications at the end.
With writing, you have your idea of what you want to accomplish and choose a structure or outline to help you meet your goal. Then you get to work looking for the stuff that will be the fabric of your paper. Then you try to create smooth, coherent explanations and nice transitions to hold the ideas or arguements together. Some people edit as you write, some wait till the end and go back through to make all the necessary adjustments.
I have been impatient as I have made my dresses thus far, similarly, I think I do the same when I write and that is why the mistakes arise. I see that I really need to gain some more skill with the tools and familiarity with the processes of sewing and writing. The only question that lingers in my mind is: how I can know if I am being too much of a perfectionist?

Green Batik Summer Dress

2009-06-10T07:06:00.000-07:00

I'm glad to be finished with this one! I think I did everything possible wrong! I bent 3 needles, I put things together inside out, and had to go buy more fabric to get the length right. In the collage, you can see my first product on the left - I cut the wrong hem length and it could have been a shirt. My hubby liked that but said I looked like I was "with child" - which I am not. So, I added a ruffle at the bottom and, in the process of getting more fabric for the ruffle, I picked up a 1/8 in. hemming foot for my sewing machine. I was able to finish it last night a took a few pictures this morning. I think that the belt helps, otherwise it looks like a moo moo. Now all I need is a tan!

almost ready

2009-06-09T05:38:00.000-07:00

My poor neglected little blog. I may not be able to update any more than on a weekly basis. Anyway, I am almost done with the other sundress with the green batik... unfortunately at this point it is more of a shirt than anything. I cut the wrong hemline when I cut out my patterns. It will be a great top though! I am tempted to go back and buy more of the same fabric since it is sooo nice and soft. It is a lot softer and lighter than the red fabric. I broke my fist needle last night. I had a migraine and shouldn't have been playing with it anyway but I did and bent the heck out of the needle when I got to close to the zip.

Also, I started a refashion of a pretty green dress but it is a knit I don't know how to sew that stuff quite yet. I'll get there one day. I hope I don't have to buy a serger machine just to do knits....

Red Hot!!! Summer Dress!

2009-05-31T05:06:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I barely breathed... I worked all day on my dress. It's done and I love it! I tried to work on my writing yesterday morning, but all I could think about was that my fabric was cut and waiting for me. It became impossible to focus on writing ...and I did deserve a break because I was so good writing all week and getting some major goals accomplished. So, by 9:30 am I was completely absorbed sewing! I didn't break for lunch till 1:00 and made didn't start dinner till 6:30.

My anxiety about being able to understand the pattern was a little unfounded. My problem was not that so much as being too absorbed and getting in to a groove, so much so, that I made some silly mistakes. For example, I was doing dress pattern D and when I got to step 16 the instructions said I should continue with pattern A,B,C instructions for step 17. I did this but forgot to go back to pattern D for steps 18 -22. I didn't realize what i was doing until it started asking for pattern pieces I had not cut out! Duh!! It was neat that my hubby was outside working on some utility room doors and he goofed to ~ putting two hinges in the wrong spots! We had a good laugh over dinner about how things happen when you are 'in the zone'!!

Anyway, the dress is done. I have some more batik fabric in green that I want to use with the same pattern, but I might go down a size on the panels because I think it poofs a bit too much. Overall, I am pretty pleased with it and look forward to wearing it this summer. :-)

Slow going.

2009-05-30T05:14:00.000-07:00

Moving a little slow this morning. Last night I got all my fabric cut and marked. Its ready to go. I'm a little nervous about some of the pattern instructions... we'll see soon enough!

My First Dress

2009-05-29T08:52:00.000-07:00

I have a treasure and planned to use it to make my first dress for myself! My mom found this great fabric at the Spring in Tampa -- a thrift store benefiting women who are victims of domestic violence and abuse. It is what has inspired me to start sewing and I really want to make a dress out of it.
BUT I don't want to mess it up on my first try. So I started this project with some inexpensive, but nice cotton fabric from wal-mart. I chose 1960's Retro dress (Simplicity 3833) which probably wasn't the easiest choice... but it turned out okay.

My next project is a sundress from so Batik printed fabric I got at the Hancock Memorial Day Sale. I'll post photos when it is done. And after I get comfortable sewing from patterns I plan to take the refashioning oath next month and work with some of the clothes I have that I was going to donate... maybe I can make something cool. We'll see!