Shirt refashioned to bomber jacket.

Fashion revolution week is 18th – 24th April. @Fash_Rev  #FashRev

Sometimes a refashion is simply a refashion, like this one. This is one from my wardrobe. I bought the shirt a couple of years ago and have rarely worn it. Bomber jackets are very on trend at the moment and can be seen in all the High Street stores. I love them, as long as they’re not too puffy! This is a very simple refashion and you could create from any loose fitting blouse or shirt.

I used a ribbed vest for rib fabric for the neck, cuffs and hem and, I’d love to say I found a thrifted, perfect length open ended metal zip in my stash, but I didn’t!

I removed the collar and rever and the cuffs, and put them aside, hopefully to use at another time.

I cut 25cm from the shirt length, this gave me enough fabric to cut 2 facings, 2 strips for pocket welts and the pocket bags. I added the welt pockets first, I like a pocket on a jacket. I removed the buttons and set them aside. The centre fronts sit in the line of the buttons and the buttonholes, and I cut these strips off. I will need a 1cm seam allowance to attach the zip. To compensate for this 1cm loss (each side) I sewed in the zip with the teeth and band showing as a feature.

I decided to keep a double length, 7cm wide finished, grown on band to sit flat as a band either side of the centre front. I folded this back on itself, sandwiched the zip in between, left a 1cm seam allowance to attach it to the bottom facing edge.

The collar shape is taken from the neck edge measurement and I didn’t want any tightness here, so the curved outside edge measurement matches the neck edge measurement, from point round the curve to the opposite point. And cut on the fold. Again stitched to itself, then sewn on.

I must admit I trimmed the point flatter when attaching, and started and ended the ribbed collar at the zip edge.

With the grown on waistband ready, and the neck rib attached, I then attached the facing, down the centre fronts, to the neck edge and finally attached it to the waistbands at either side of the zip. 

Every piece of rib I use seems to have a different stretch. I wanted this ribbed band to be loose, and not pull the jacket shape in too much. So I measured the remaining bottom edge of the top and only reduced the rib length by 5cm. I sewed the rib to itself, on the fold first, so that it doesn’t move or slide out of place when attached to the bottom edge of the top. Stitch and overlock.

I love top stitching, not only do I like how it looks, but it is functional in that it holds pieces in place.

On this jacket the top stitching holds the overlocked neck edge neatly and prevents the front facing from getting stuck in the zipper. To finish off, I added ribbed cuffs to the sleeve edges.

 

Faux fur collars and how to cut and make the one that stays fastened!

 

I found this DVD, this is one of my favourite films, and books, ever…the chameleon like charm of the lead man, played by Tom Courtney, seems oddly familiar!? Or perhaps its the comedy and everyday charm that belongs to the Kitchen Sink Drama movement that makes me love the film so much!! However what I found myself looking at was the fabulous faux fur scarf worn by Julie Christie, and this reminded me that I had recently discovered my favourite method for fastening such a scarf.

Now I’m not new to these cosy scarves, I bought my first one many years ago and have found them occasionally in charity shops and sales since, but it wasn’t until I decided to write a post about the best fastening for a fur collar that I realised just how many I had. Let’s just add faux fur scarves to my obsessive collections list which already includes buttons, brooches, clocks and mirrors! The two above are the favourites. The one on the left was the first to be given a new fastening, I mean, if it doesn’t have a fastening of some sort, how does it stay on??

I added giant poppers.

The scarf on the right is perfection. The loop created in the sewing together of this fur scarf means that the scarf can move up and down through the loop so that it can be worn loose and low or high up and cosy!! I’ll add the pattern and how to make this one up at the end of this post.

How many of these do I have…I’m almost embarrassed to say…13!! and there could be more but I’m not going to look. Seems I have definitely made collecting fur scarves a new obsession!

The traditional hook and eye doesn’t work for me – it slides out of place too easily. So I will have to add a popper!

The unusual clip, like a hairclip, started out quite well, but the more it was used the less the grip worked!

The giant, gap, almost like a buttonhole gives a good shape, but eventually it needed help? I added a clear giant popper.

The strip, worked like a belt loop, and looks like it should work really well, but it also got the help of a popper.

I altered this one, last year, the scarf was simply a double strip of fur fabric and it wouldn’t sit well tied, too thick and bulky, nor would it sit straight down, too bouncy! I slit two lines in the fur fabric and sewed in a tube of lining, sewing the two sides of the slit into a circle, on both sides, making it almost like a hand muff. This seemed like a good technique, but its not the best one.

These 4 are more like collars and each one has a series of small elasticated loops that button onto corresponding buttons on a cardigan or jacket. This method works really well!

Finally the best one of all and the pattern.

You will need

A fur strip 126cm x 18cm, 2 pieces of lining 96cm x 17cm and 30cm x 17cm, add the seam allowances you prefer to use. The 1cm difference in the widths is to allow for the fur to roll slightly round onto the lining.

With right sides of the fabric together, sew the smaller piece of lining to the fur. Sew from the raw edges to the spot marked with the vertical pin, a seam allowance amount from the edge of the lining. Do this on both sides.

Pull through to the right side and fold over to meet all the raw edges together.

Pull the lining pieces and the fur together and pin.

Machine stitch across, keeping the long piece of the fur underneath and out of the way of the stitching.

And sew across, this forms the loop.

You should only have sewn 2 lining edges and 1 fur edge, the stitch line does not go through onto the main body of the fur!

5

Go back into the loop and snip to the stitches on both sides. Time to add the longer lining piece.

Pin from the snips in the fur fabric, leave the lining seam allowance as an overlap, do not stitch it, and then stitch all round the rest of the scarf.

Stitched round. Now pull through this part of the scarf, or…

because I’m a bit lazy with the hand stitching, I went back in to stitch across the opening as far as I could with the machine, then I pulled the right sides through!

If the fur was bulkier, I would probably have hand stitched across this whole seam, since the tail of the scarf has to come through it.

Hand stitch to close the opening.

Finished. I gave this a hovering steam press, not actually touching the fabric!?

Wear it medium, low or high! Depending on the weather! Now I have faux fur scarf number 14! I should add that this faux fur scarf was made from an old faux fur scarf! A refashion! The fabric is so so soft and smooth that it used to slide off, not any more!

For Designin December. Another pattern hack, how to and a refashion #DESIGNINDECEMBER

 

This is an great idea from Linda of Nice dress! Thanks, I made it. and I did check with her if it was ok for me to join in as a refashioner! My inspiration for #DESIGNINDECEMBER is a collection of floral’s from Milan Fashion Week. I couldn’t find one particular image to use so my outfit is intended to sit alongside these. Ha ha! can you spot me?? I’ll include all the elements I enjoy in my making of this. A refashioned vest made from a shirt, a £3 pair of trousers, narrowed and shortened and a lightweight jacket made from a pattern hack of the Sewoverit vintage shirt dress.

So I’ve been looking for a pretty floral, 70’s influence and found one in one of my favourite sources for fabric, a sale rail, with palazzo pants for £9. It does have that 70’s curtain fabric look, which I really like, and the fabric feels great!

I had another idea for a pattern hack of the Sewoverit vintage shirt dress! To eliminate the waist seam, but keep the tucks at the waistline. And to remove the gathering at the shoulder seam and the sleeve head. Here’s how to

I started by drawing round the front bodice shape. I wanted to take out the shoulder gathering from the front. I found the bust point by folding out the gathering and cutting open the dart line that would have originally formed the front tuck.

redraw round the front.

The next bit

I drew round the top of the skirt pattern pieces and marked down the length of 10cm.

Cut it out and divide it into 4 pieces. Then cut the pieces apart. I always number pieces like this,because they look so similar to each other, to get them back into the correct order

As you fit the pieces onto the waist of the bodices, you can straighten them out. This gives you the side seam shaping and a reduced hem edge.

Draw round the back bodice, the new front is sitting alongside. The reason I cut the skirt pieces is because the original waist is on a curve and I need it to be straighter to line up with the line of the waists of the front and back bodices.

I redrew round the new front and back pieces, pinned them together, pinned the new tucks and fitted it onto the dummy, to check that the changes were sitting correctly. I then changed the neckline to be a band to fit round the front and back neck and hold the button and buttonholes. I also reduced the amount of ease in the sleeve head, to loose the gathering!

The pattern pieces are now ready to fit into the trouser.

I unpicked the inside legs and removed the waistband and pressed before laying out the pattern pieces.

And the finished jacket type blouse!

The trousers, bought for £3, are too long and wide. I chopped off 10cm and marked in 3.5cm each side, from the knee down, where I wanted it to be narrower. I always use the finished length line as a fold for the hem and mirror image from it. There’s nothing worse than a hem not having enough length to stitch round. This method guarantees enough length regardless of how deep the hem is!

Finally, to complete the outfit, a plain black vest top, already blogged about here and worn on very many occasions by me.

Cat’s back! His brother is totally camera shy! Anyway, complete outfit, I don’t usually find inspiration in this way, but I have enjoyed doing this. I’m out to eat with some pals this week and I’m planning on wearing this!

 

 

 

An upcycled gift saved by a shoe box!

In my years of sewing I have made very many things and I do enjoy a sewing challenge! A friend of mine, who has spent many years writing diaries, decided it was time for her to have a cover for the diary, which she could remove and use again and again. Before I started writing this blog I had not realised how massive the online sewing community was! So I decided to research and find a post on the production of this diary cover and let someone else do the figuring out for me.

The lovely fabric had been specially sourced. The band, as recommended, is a hair bobble, a button and a bookmark from a strip of the same fabric. The entire inside is interfaced. Finished. No. Look again. It’s wobbly!? Time to think again and make adjustments!! I needed the whole cover to be firmer – I searched the house for – card! And eventually found the best bits in the form of a shoe box.

I was so pleased with being able to use the beautifully formed edge, and the card was the perfect weight.

This she will never know, unless she decides to read this. So now I had to unpick the edge and set in the card. This was very fiddley and annoying, but only because I did it as an afterthought! The end result is much better. I used the folded edge of the shoe box to form one of the edges of the cover’s spine and that worked really well.

You can see in the images how much firmer the cover looks.

And then I decided on a different, flatter button and changed that too! Hope she likes it?

The wider, but flatter button sat far better than the shank button. And this button added a bit of sparkle!

While I was making this I realised that it would be a perfect gift and could be made from any scrap of fabric, patch worked, denim from old jeans, furry or something sentimental, as this piece was! And who doesn’t have an old shoe box to recycle?