Refashioning frocks

I'm not really sure why I'm refashioning little strapless numbers when it's cold outside.... but I am!

This $7 frock with a quick nip and tuck went from a large size to my size. I was amused to discover that the straps had been sewn on with fishing line by the previous owner. Fishing line! I removed all the line from the dress and resewed with thread.

This number was snagged for $1.50. I just wasn't digging the blue pastel ribbon. So I seam ripped it off.  I thought it was just decorative. But instead it connected the top and bottom of the dress together.

The dress is a thick cotton and spandex blend that came with a lining of the same thickness. I didn't see the point for that thick of a lining for something that looks like a sundress. So off with the lining! I seam ripped the skirt part. But for the bodice I cut the lining, out leaving about an inch still connected to the printed > insta-facing!

Then I replaced the blue halter strap with a black one made from the lining. Nipped in the back. And lastly took about 4.5'' from the bottom. Threw on a belt and my refashion was done. 

Refashion: Almost Too Short Coral Shift

Thrift Town is evil because they send me an email every time they are having a sale. Thrift Town is awesome because they so often have sale days to discount their already low prices! I try to only shop on sale days. So I picked up this dress in my last haul. I don't know why I seem to be drawn to this color. I've never really been a big fan of pink or orange, but I really like coral! Anyways it was $5.50 for this silk (yay, silk) floor length sack dress with a strange asymmetrical  chiffon train. Not only was the train strange, it was too long for me!

Snip snip! Oh no I realized after I finished the hem that the dress was too short! What to do? What to do? O why o why did I not measure correctly and double check my measurements?

Too Short!

 Not to worry, my mum and I put our heads together and came up with a solution. Of the piece that I cut off there was a sizable length of silk. But if I attached it to the bottom of the dress it would ruin the shape and look awkward! But the lining....

I sewed the silk remnant on to the bottom of the lining and created a second tier of the skirt. Awesome, now it's not too short! It's got some hi-low action, and it dips down in the back. Thankfully I was able to fix my refashioning mistake with a refashion!

Paired with a thrifted belt, this coral shift is now totally wearable!

Refashion: Brown Drabness to Blue & Brown Floral Cuteness

Felt the itch to make something. So pulled this dress out because I knew it would be a quickie. Sadly my old sewing machine was acting up. It was making a terrible squeaking sound by the engine part. And the cost to even open this part up would be $100. But I was able to trade my old machine in for a new Husqvarna. It just hummmmmmmmms when you sew with it. It sounds so nice and sewings verrrrrry nice too.

Anyways on to the refashion!

Found this dress for $3 at the thrift store with the original tags from the line My Michelle still attached! Never even been worn! It was of satiny shiny floral material with light brown and blue flowers. But the neckline was too high, and the dress seemed boring. 

So I lowered the neckline into a deep scoop. And made it more of a mini dress. Also popped over to the  fabric store and picked up some matching blue material. $2 later and some stitching I had a new sash. Liking my new $5 ensemble.

Make Pants Look Good Shorter!

The majority of the time I love being my 5'2 stature. But not when it comes to pants.

Most pants are like this one, are loads too long! That folded up cuff is only the sizable measurement of 5 inches. 

 And I can be quite particular about my pants. I hate folding up the ends. I hate too long pants that I trip over. And  I hate hemming the pants at home because it always looks home done. It never quite has the professional look of the original hem. Then I found this tutorial from the lovely lady at Cotton and Curls. You keep the original hem; you sew it higher up on the pant leg. See it looks like a pro shortened it. I might shorten these even more later but as I mostly use these skinnies to stuff into boots, why bother?

Here's different kind of jeans that are frustrating! It says a 27 SH. SH = short. This folded up cuff is 3-4 inches. Guess Jeans apparently thinks short people are 5'5 or 5'6! But I was silly because I was the one to buy these jeans. And they sat unworn in my drawer for years. No longer! As I have made them a real 27 SH.

One parting tip. Measure the height you want your hem to raise after you've walked around in your jeans for a bit. They will inevitably slouch down a bit. The first time I followed this tutorial I didn't do that and that pair of jeans (not pictured in this post) is fraying at the back hems. If this fraying issue doesn't bother you, pay no mind to my little tip. 

Dress with Questionable Sash to Dress with Sass!

I raided my mum's closet and found this dress. And with her permission I tweaked it so I could wear it. 

 It has this weird sash thing that tied across the belly. I found this unflattering. Who wants to draw attention to their belly? The before pictures are actually way more flattering than how it really looked.

So since the sash things were sewed in to the side seams. I opened up the seams cut out the ties, and sewed the seams back up. Voila and done.

DIY: Over the Door Organizer with Vinyl & Cotton

Why the lack of posts lately? I've been working on this thing since Tuesday!
I've discovered that I'm terrible about keeping my clothes organized, but if all it takes is hanging it on a knob (not a hanger) or balling it up and stuffing it somewhere I can be slightly more organized. Also the current way I had of storing my basic T-shirts and tanks was simply not working. I had them stored in a drawer and inevitably whichever one I was looking for was the last one to be pulled out of the drawer, meaning all the other rejected tops were strewn about my desk or the floor. So I decided to make an organizer.
Materials: an over the door hook thingy, vinyl (heavier that 8 gauge, lighter than 20 gauge), cotton & heavier cloth (linen, duckcloth, canvas, etc.),  3 packages of Bias tape double wide, leather sewing machine needle, paper clips, waxed paper, thread and lots of patience.

To start I put my over the door hooks, over the door. Along with a big scrap of paper to determine size and pocket placement. I figured out that the size of my piece was going to be 26''x 36'' but with .5'' seam allowance. Therefore being 27"x 37". Then I drew out pocket sizes, using the drawings to test out sizing and placement. I also measured the distance from the top of the paper to the hooks that the organizer will attach to. Very important as my hooks were of varying lengths.

I ended up with this:

First cut out your pattern pieces 3 pieces 27" x 37". One of pretty cotton, and two of the sturdier fabric. Also cut out your vinyl pockets. Use paper clips to 'pin' your pattern pieces in place. Why paper clips and not pins? Every time you poke a hole in vinyl it is permanent. And as you want the least amount of holes as possible use paper clips over pins. Oh yeah and here's the pattern pieces for the pockets:

I made the pockets like this so that they would be roomy. (If you don't want as roomy pockets I'm sure you could find a less time consuming how to.) The dotted line indicates .5" seam allowance. I hope that if you try to use the pattern pieces for the pockets it will download at the correct size. But if it doesn't, make the middle rectangle the right dimension. And as it's all proportionate the sides should be right. 

Moving on the next thing I did was to baste the edges of the cotton and one of the sturdy fabric pieces together on all sides. The cotton will probably not be strong enough to hold all the weight of pockets and their contents, so you want to reinforce the cotton. 

You may have noticed that the pockets have no seam allowance on the tops. This is because vinyl will not fray, but to make them look prettier I lined the tops of the pockets with bias tape. To sew the bias tape on to the vinyl use paper clips again. AND use your leather sewing machine needle. 

Then sew the sides of your pockets to the bottoms. Sew from the inside to the edge of the pocket. Stop .5" from the edge. Use a thread that will blend in with your base cotton fabric. And because vinyl is tricky to sew with, it will stick to your sewing machine. So use waxed paper strips. Put the waxed paper underneath the vinyl. The order from top to bottom should be presser foot, vinyl, waxed paper, sewing machine plate. And again as the holes are permanent do your best to get the sewing right the first time.

Next chalk off the dimensions of the pockets onto your cotton piece. Be sure to mark off sides and bottom. Marking the the very top of the sides are essential. So I marked off the sides, tops and bottoms. 

Using the chalk lines as guide lines sew the bottoms of the pockets onto the reinforced cotton piece. Start from the center and work out. These seams should be inside the pocket. I couldn't figure out a way to sew with my machine the sides of the pockets, so that they would be inside the pocket. And I think it being inside the pocket makes the pockets overall sturdier. (Of course I figured this out after I had already cut out all the pocket pieces and lined them with bias tape) So I sewed the sides by hand. Get a thimble. Two days later I was done........ Any suggestions for an easier way to do this in the future are welcome. 

Almost done! Figure out your loops to go over the hooks. I doubled the distance from the hook to the top of the fabric, then I added an arbitrary inch and another inch for seam allowance. So if y = your fabric to hook distance, the math goes like this (y" x 2) + 2"= length of your loop. For the width I did 3" + .5'' seam allowance on both sides, equalling 4".  I cut these loop pieces out of the sturdy fabric. 

 Right sides in, stitch sides together and then turn the tube inside out. Time to switch back to your regular sewing machine needle.

It's time to sew the loops onto the reinforced cotton piece. I folded the loops in half width-wise. Point the loops to the bottom of the organizer. Sew the loops inside the .5" seam line, like .25". 

Sew the back sturdy fabric piece to the cotton-pocket piece, right sides in. Only sew the top. 

Turn right sides out. Test your loops. Make sure they work. If they work turn the right sides in and sew across the top a couple more times. This is where the greatest strain will be on the fabric so make sure it's secure. 

Turn out again. And lay the organizer out flat. Line up the sides and bottom. Because the vinyl pockets contorted the reinforced cotton piece my front and back pieces didn't match up exactly. I had extra fabric on the back piece. If you have the same issue trim the back piece to match the front. Then to seal up the raw edges, line the sides and bottom with bias tape. Top stitch in place. (Since I didn't want to deal with turning the whole vinyl pocket monstrosity inside out I lined what edges I could with bias tape.)

FIN!

While this was a much more time consuming project than I anticipated I really like it. Also while the cost of the materials are cheap (less than $20). There are ready made over the door organizers that are $15. But those are boring. They don't have awesome skull fabric and pretty colored bias tape. You have been warned. 

DIY Pencil Case with Sound Effects POW!

Since my school is starting up in the matter of a few days I've been hunkering down to do projects that have been on my "to do" list all summer long. A new pencil case to replace my falling apart one is the latest crafty thing I've finished. I promise new drawing posts are soon to come!


In one of the those sleepless nights on the internet I discovered this tutorial for a pencil case. And then the next day, by pure accident I stumbled across this awesome fabric. Comic book sound effects!!! I had to stalk a lady who had the bolt in her cart to get the fabric. She was nice enough to let me borrow the bolt so I could get the foot of fabric required.

I pretty much followed the tutorial from Sew Mama Sew (same link as above). Except she makes her own piping and I opted for store bought. Also I added a pocket. Here's all my pieces cut out and ready to go. I used some duck cloth I had sitting around for the inside. This is a great scrap busting project as you need less that a square foot for each rectangle and the circles are only 4''. Plus you need a 7'' zipper and piping.

Ok so I said I added a pocket. I basically cut out a rectangle; lined the edges with bias tape; folded up the pocket; leaving more space on the top for seam allowance. 

Then after I sewed all the lining together I stitched the pocket into the top inside of the lining. But you need to insure that the pocket is low enough so that it will not interfere with the zipper

In this pocket I am going to keep my kneaded eraser so that it won't get too dirty from all the pencils and such.  Also hopefully it won't end up at the bottom of my pencil case every time I need it. And hopefully as the pocket is so close to the zipper, the eraser won't fall out. Lotta hopefully-s...

ZAP, ZOOM, POW!

Robots and Spaceship Brushcase.

For the past few months I've been dealing with a brush case that's been driving me nuts. It's one that doesn't have a top flap, so I'm always spilling my brushes time I use it! So after successfully making a brush case for my oil brushes (see it here) I decided my watercolor brushes needed a brush case with personality and anti-spilling properties. Since watercolor pigments are washable I opted for prettier fabric. But since the pretty cottons were not as heavy duty as I wanted, I used a sturdy linen on the inside to strengthen the whole thing. 

Here's what I used: fabric, piping trim, thread, a button, a hair tie, and another bamboo placemat. 

Last time I made a case I made a casing for the bamboo placemat, this time I decided to glue the bamboo onto a piece of linen instead. Interestingly this may be why this brush holder is not as flexible. This one doesn't roll up as easily as the other one, but it still works! I left a little bit of linen on the sides so I could sew this part of the fabric, thereby keeping the bamboo placemat in place. 

Here's the different pieces I used:

.5'' Seam Allowance. 

I winged it on the length of the pocket flap. Since I didn't know how much fabric I'd need for the give, I guess-imated on the side of excess and cut off the what I didn't use at the end.

And some instructions that might demystify the process or just confuse you more.....

Just a little note about making your own brush case: don't make pockets all the way to both edges. Keep about a 1''-2'' flap on the side next to the tie/hairtie, to protect the brushes. Otherwise at least one brush will be exposed. I tried to give a pretty thorough explanation. But I probably failed. Don't worry I winged my way through this one and the other one and they both turned out pretty nifty. 

Total cost around $10, a day's work and a brush case that nobody else has :) 

And here it is all finished and stuff. With awesome robots and spaceships to protect my brushes.