Wardrobe Redux Tutorials

I’m bored with my work clothes & have very little to spend on anything new, but I’ve got shelves, drawers and hangers full of stuff I don’t wear anymore for a variety of reasons. A lot of it could be made into other things. So I’m going to try to do that! Here are a few of the tutorial projects I hope to complete. I will use these as a guide and may make a couple versions based on the inspiration below.

Shawl Collar Sweater Tutorial from the Cottage Home blog. This would be cute in various weights of sweater material as well as woven fabric. I wonder what type of fabric would be strong/stiff enough to make that awesome collar, but soft enough to drape below?

Ruffled Infinity Scarf from Skip to My Lou.

Ruffle Neck Top from How Joyful. I believe I will be making this top out of my wedding dress. Yes, my wedding dress! I’ll try to post a pic. I wore a wine-colored, long, shift with a sheer overlay & matching sheer blouse. The style is outdated and I bought it so I could wear it again. So – if I can turn it into something (or thingS) that I like, I’ll be able to have a keepsake of my wedding more in the forefront of my memory, compared to how infrequently I think of it as it’s in the back of my closet.

 Catch and Release scarf from presser foot.

Museum Tunic from Anna Marie Horner.Mine would be a tad shorter, or long like a maxi. I have one of these from Target and it is sooooooo comfortable. I’m wearing it right now, in fact. Perfect alone w/bare feet or flip flops, with leggings & sandals, with tights/boots and jacket/sweater.

 Spring Infinity Scarf from The Cottage Home (again).

Pleated Knit Scarf from Make It and Love It.

 Ruffled Scarf from Make It and Love It. I like the idea of doing this scarf in a fabric with a repetitive pattern like polka dots, stripes, grid, plaid.

Casually Cute Knit Dress from Made It On Monday.  I have a dress with a similar cut – it has little puff sleeves and a cowl neck, but I’ve been wanting to try to recreate it. I’m hoping this tutorial will help!

Do you have any shopping or re-purposing plans for your wardrobe?

Fabric Love – Sharing is Caring!

Here’s some great fabric friends have given or sold me in recent months.

 

Lovely houndstooth from the lovely Hannah of Peggy Ann Design.

Some nice thick upholstery-style fabric in one of my favorites – black and white. This came in a package of scrap fabric from Ali of Apearantly Sew. The rest of the scraps are so cute, can’t wait to use them in a variety of little projects.

And now, the Box O’ Wonders from Alicia in Iowa City (who guest hosted Dance Party Friday a while back).

Here we have an Anne Lamott book (love her), a DVD about the Lost Boys of Sudan and a little booklet about Miss Pearl who runs a daycare on the South Side of Chicago which offers free services to young moms who are finishing school – high school, college, technical training. Miss Pearl began this years ago and her daycare has grown into a large one, known in the community, funded by donors, grants and the state. Church groups and college kids volunteer at Miss Pearl’s – Alicia did, years ago. She’s the person who told me about Miss Pearl.

What else did Alicia send in her box? Let’s see . . .

(Alicia drew on some envelopes that contained loose items)

 

All kinds of knitting needles

 

A little handmade paper booklet

Seriously cool business cards from Alicia and her husband Tony’s print shop, Cicada Grove

Cicada Grove postcards

 

Fabric! Vintage fabric.

   

A skirt to wear or use for fabric

 

Fabric pinwheels

 

Fabric ribbon

 

Sequins on a rope! Sequiny trim. I don’t know what to call this stuff, but I like it.

   

   

WHEE!!!!!!!

Thrift Store Fashion

I like to buy clothing at the thrift store, especially one just a couple blocks from where I live. It’s massive and has great finds, from vintage to name-brand to everything in between. The other day I was there with my daughter and we came across a shirt that she liked, but it had a big hole in it (actually unusual for this store, most merchandise isn’t damaged). She’d already pointed out a dress she liked that had tiered ruffles, so I decided to try to recreate the look of the dress with the top she liked.

You’ll have to excuse my messy photos – I didn’t bother to clean up my work table before starting in on the project. Now you see what my small IKEA sewing table looks like 95% of the time, including when I’m sewing. It just collects so much crap that I don’t have a good space for or am too preoccupied to put away. My husband, the neat-freak, has somehow learned to live with my messy chaos. Poor guy!

Besides buying the damaged top, I also bought a like-new black tank top to use as the base of the top. Without detailing every step, I’ll give these basic explanations about how I constructed the top:

The plaid blouse had a cowl neck, smocked front and little puffy sleeves. I cut off the sleeves, cowl neck and back of the shirt, so I only had the smocked front. I cut the neckline until it was the shape I wanted, hemmed it and sewed it to the front of the tank top.

I then cut the lower portion of the top into equal sized strips to be the ruffles, hemmed the (visible) bottom of each ruffle, and sewed the top part of the ruffle to the tank top. I created gathers as I sewed the strip so that it would create ruffles and not just hang flat. I believe I created 6 ruffles. Then I sewed down the sides of each ruffle along the side seams of the tank top. She’ll wear the tank alone or with a cardigan over it. The end!

Cute, huh?