Wedding dress in red: Vogue 1162

THE SLEEVES!

Let's have a closer look at those:

This is Vogue 1162 by Sassoon of all people!  I will be changing up the skirt to something fuller/A-line, and probably adding a waistband as well.  I have no idea what fabric I'll use for this, but the sleeves will be organza.

Wedding dress in blue: Vogue 1030

Cobalt blue was all over the Fall 2011 runways so this will be my "trendy" dress.

 

 This is Vogue 1030 by Badgley Mischka.  At this point I'm thinking a rayon blend matte jersey with georgette or chiffon or maybe go dramatic with organza for the ruffles and overlay.

Wedding dress reconstruction: McCall's 5382

My mom has given me her blessing to completely repurpose her wedding dress and after looking at 100's of dress patterns, this is the one I'm going with. 

It's McCall's 5382 and there isn't a single thing I plan to change. 

Denim Vest DIY

I got this acid wash Guess? jacket at Goodwill....knowing it would have a second life as an awesome vest.

So I cut off the sleeves.

And then I made it awesome...

...by adding a patch cut from a Japanese bag I got at a secondhand shop on Haji Lane in Singapore, plus an eagle patch I bought at Jo-Ann's.

A pseudo-tribal return to form

It's been ages since I did a really fantastic reconstruction. And by fantastic I mean combining several pieces of clothing to create one really wearable and inspired piece. But I am feeling it now!

I bought this shirt at a secondhand shop in the spring....something about the print spoke to me.

And then at a clothing swap this summer, this gem was in the leftovers pile. I took it knowing it would go under the knife in combination with the one above.

A few Sundays ago I had most of the day to just play, and ended up pulling these guys out of my treasure chest, along with an ankle length black knit skirt that I got out of the $2 box at Urban Outfitters years ago and a copy of McCall's M6109.

My initial intent was to use the taupe-y guy as the top, the magenta as the bottom, and the black just to break it up with the waistband. It soon became clear that I had nowhere near enough magenta for the fullness of the skirt, and instead of eliminating the fullness, I decided to go full on color block and well, here it is pinned on Millie:

T-shirt reconstruction

By far the most popular query that lands people here is "t shirt reconstruction". Unfortunately I think most people end up disappointed since I don't have any tutorials or even lots of pictures. This is funny because reconstructing t-shirts and sweatshirts is really what got me into sewing from old clothes in the first place - it's just that it was way before I began taking pictures of things, and I've long since given all of that stuff away.

I will share a few of the secrets I've learned over the years:

1. Always re-do the neckline. It can be as simple as cutting out the ribbing, stretching it as far as it will go, and making the new neckline that size (either in the scoopneck-wise or boat-neckwise direction). This always results in a more flattering and modern looking shirt.
2. NEW NEEDLES - this is always important, but particularly when sewing old shirts. I've definitely forgotten to change my needles and had my machine literally tear through my project.
3. Serger vs. conventional sewing machine: I used to exclusively use the serger on all knits, but with experience I have found the built-in stretch stitch on my Kenmore to be very useful. I now generally baste everything with a straight stretch stitch before heading to the serger - getting pins anywhere near that sucker is always a risky proposition.
4. Hemming: I'm still working on the perfect hemline which doesn't require the purchase of a blindstitch machine. The best I've come up with is a two-piece type job. What you do is take a strip of t-shirt twice as wide as the hem you want and twice as long as the t-shirt is wide, plus 1". Sew it in a circle, fold it in half, then serge it to the bottom of the shirt. Press the seam allowance toward the top of the shirt, then topstitch it using a long straight stretch stitch. Maybe I'll try to post a how-to on this with some pictures.
   

I do have quite a few t-shirts in 'The Trunk' just waiting for me to take the scissors to them, but I've been waiting to be more creatively inspired than the usual tube top/tank top nonsense. Doing my own search resulted in...not much at first. I'm sure there are lots of creative and talented sewers out there doing fantastic things with t-shirts but I wasn't in the mood to give it more than 20 minutes. Then I found Lekkner! They (she?) are no longer doing custom orders, but there is a gallery of past work posted and it is by far some of the best I've seen.

Here are some of my favorites:

Almost a tutorial...three piece dress

The idea for this dress came to me while I was riding the bus to work. All three pieces were in my donate pile for various reasons.



I cut the top off the blue dress:


I cut the bottom off of the white top:


and I cut two rectangles out of the green rose print top:


Then I serged the green pieces into a tube:


did some draping and pinning on Millie:


and finally serged everything together:


This dress has everything I loved about the original pieces and nothing I didn't.

Allison chains

This is a bit out there, but I'm still pretty sure I'll wear it. Another second-lives-for-broken-necklaces piece, inspired by the body chains by Bliss Lau that are all over the place right now.

Another way to reconstruct a t-shirt

In November of 2008 Etsy seller necklush sold their first piece...so I'm going to credit them with the original idea. Urban Outfitters' Urban Renewal line has created something very similar, which I got for $1.99 on clearance recently. You can even find online tutorials (like this one from Connie at this old dress) if you'd like to make one for yourself...which is exactly what I did on my lunch break last Friday while working from home.

I used an almost threadbare t-shirt which was being thrown away and had plenty of holes in it.

Necklace explosion

I forget which blog I found this link on, but I was almost instantly inspired to try it myself. The less than instant part consisted of taking a picture and posting it here...I think I finished this about a month ago.

I made it entirely out of random broken jewelry and pendants that I had on hand. I just took a short length of chain with relatively large links, and attached two charms on each link (one on each side) with jump rings. I put the largest pieces on the bottom, the smallest on the top, and mixed things up a bit in the middle. That's really all there was to it.



I wear it on a very long chain, and so far have only lost one item off of it, which was promptly returned to me by the bouncer who picked it up, so I'm thinking it carries a bit of good luck with it.

Making good...

...on my New Year's prediction, I finished this hunter camo jacket last night, using the same pattern as for the leather jacket. The only things re-used here are the zipper and the thrifted cotton lining, and let me just say it was a pleasure to sew with straight-up basic cotton after the last few projects.

s-t-r-e-t-c-h

I had intended to reconstruct a dress to try out this pattern, but there wasn't nearly enough fabric (the front is fully lined) and so since I had 4+ yards of it I used this slinky stretchy stuff I had on hand. I cannot remember where I got this fabric from, but I'm fairly certain that I got it at a store (as opposed to a thrift shop or yard sale).


Once I was finished, I liked the look of the fabric so much, I tried making a dress out of it. I used Vogue 1046 by Anna Sui and while the pattern itself is really simple my choice of fabric ultimately proved to be a poor one. The front has a slight cowl neck, which requires you to cut it on the bias - no problem there. It's also lined, and so I used a vintage nightgown for that part, which I was really pleased with - nice and thin and slippery.

My first problem came after it was mostly assembled. The curved seam in the front and the back got really stretched out and just looked terrible. To fix that, I topstitched the allowance down about 1/4" from the seam, and then inserted some elastic in the casing that was formed. My second problem came when it was time to sew down the facings. I had to hold the fabric stretched between the fingers of one hand while slip stitching the lining shut with the other. Not fun and very tiring for my hands. In fact I'm still not done! Only the back is sewn down in this picture:


I'm not sure I even like it on me, but I do think the pattern has potential if next time I sew it with a woven instead of a knit.

THE leather jacket

Remember this? I've been collecting various leather items (for years!) with the intent of cutting them up and making my dream leather jacket out of them. Well, I finished it several weeks ago and here it is!!



I couldn't be happier with how it came out. The leather is so soft and buttery and it fits me PERFECTLY. The pattern I re-used is Vogue Elements 7266 - it's out of print now which is a shame because that whole Elements line was the best thing Vogue ever did, in my opinion. I used thrifted polyester satin for the lining and a reclaimed zipper that I shortened and dyed black. The only new things I used were the needles, thread, snaps, and interfacing.

And for completeness - here are pictures of two of the jackets that went into making it:



Leather is definitely not the easiest material to work with.

1. Use leather needles in your machine and change them frequently (I used three just on this jacket)
2. Don't pin anything! I have rubber coated metal clips that I use to hold the pieces together while sewing. I've read that paper clips work well, too, but haven't tried those.
   
3. Keep your seam allowances in mind when assembling. You don't want to have to sew through eight layers of thick leather if you can help it.
4. Use a slighly longer stitch length than you normally would, particularly if the leather is very soft. Leather needles are shaped like a triangular blade, and so are literally cutting through the leather with each pass of the needle. This can result in perforated pieces that easily tear apart if you're not careful.
5. Surprisingly (to me at least) you can successfully use fusible interfacing on leather. I used the wool setting with steam and it worked great.
6. I wasn't able to find rubber cement for use with leather, so I tried the "regular" kind. This did not work. At all. The suede side of the leather completely absorbed any cement I tried to apply.
   
7. ...but it doesn't seem to have mattered! I didn't do anything to the seam allowances (with the exception of #3 above) and it still looks great.
8. As time intensive as it is, hand sew as much as you can. This ties to #4 above. I used leather needles made for hand sewing (and a really good thimble) to sew all of my linings closed and it really made a difference.
   

Two coats, one pair of pants, and one skirt later....

...I've created a mountain of work for myself.

Purple zipper

I began working on this yesterday and finished it up this afternoon.

Before:


After:

I was able to keep the pockets from the original - I love when that happens!

And a close up:

Assymetrical sweater

I got this sweater at UO...sound familiar? It had big ugly "brass" buttons and this crazy ruffle nonsense going on in the shoulders. I switched up the buttons and reset the sleeves without the ruffles and now I have a very wearable basic.

The Stud Bug

...has bitten me. I finished de-studding this belt a few days ago:

And now I have these!


I spent today working on this shirt transformation after being inspired by Clevergirl. I didn't actually watch the tutorial until afterwards (it's very well done!), it was the before and after pictures that got me thinking. So I picked up this men's shirt on Friday and worked on it while I should have been outside in the sun.


It's so cute and there are so many great details that I'm in love with. PLUS, I saved *just* enough fabric to make a matching bra!

Sorry for the blurry pictures. I finally broke down and ordered a full size tripod that is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday. TONS more sharper pictures to come!

Vroom!!

Here's a before and after of a reconstruction I finished this weekend. It's a sweater that I got at UO for $5 a s a gift for someone who thought it was too "swashbuckler." I figured I had nothing to lose so I cut it up and took it from a men's XL to a ladies' XS. I tried a new technique - serging the raw edges and seaming with a conventional machine.

The pictures are unimpressive but the finished result is much better.

...and these are Millie's new wheels!!

Introducing: OSFA for Heinous Shrew

These are the "two hole" earrings I made!

These were made from recycled necklaces. I used to have two of them, but somewhere along the line I lost one.