Recycling Shoes? Why yes of course!

Why am I wearing two different shoes?

Well, I'm actually not! I made the one on the left out of the partner from the other one! Not that I didn't like the blue polka-dotted ones, no - in fact, I liked them so much, that they ended up looking like this:

Yikes!!
Turn something bad into something good? Yes, of course!

How to make (lined!) Espadrilles: Full Tutorial!

Finally, home-made Espadrilles - DONE!

...and it really wasn't a difficult thing at all! I had the soles already made - see my post HERE, and my video-tutorial on YouTube.

These are definitely more than house-shoes, since I added some rubber soling to make them durable.
All the tools/materials you need are these:

Smartphone-Gloves!

Just a quick little something for you to smile at:

I knitted a pair of gloves for myself this winter, and I think it was actually my husbands idea to make a little cap for the right index finger. Depending on what kind of smart-phone-user you are, you could of course also choose to make this for your thumbs...

A Green Dream - my first draped dress...

Yes, I do wish I went about things more systematically sometimes... To choose a very luscious, expensive silk for a first draping project might not have been the most reasonable thing... However, I have discovered that I work much better on the spur of the moment, the whatever-the-heck I feel like doing in a given moment, and that can barely ever be planned.

In my defense though: I DID buy and watch the draping classes from Paul Gallo over at Craftsy, as well as the "Sewing with Silk" class with Linda Lee - both highly recommendable.

This came out

Home-made Fabric Sandals, with full Tutorial!

 

No, I don't really want to say goodbye to summer yet... So I made this pair of sandals... it's a surprisingly quick project and I am giving you a full video tutorial on it... The other side of the world is just getting to the warm season after all!

You don't need any specialty materials, I had most of it at home, or got it from a normal DIY/hardware store.

A Shirt and a Skirt getting married... (with step-by-step)

Here it is, this months contribution to the refashion co-op!

I had this skirt in my closet for a long time, having only worn it once. It was really pretty and all, just not the right length for me, and gaping a lot at the waist (see picture below). And then there was this top which was such a perfect fabric match - they were just meant for each other:

Oh let's just have a little more fun! Here goes:

Sweater Refashion Extravaganza #4

Ok, as promised, the last re-fashion was a bit more complicated, now comes the simplest one I have ever made. It almost feels silly....

Do you like this cozy wool thing? Well, it was a cozy wool thing before, I've owned it for years, and I wore it a few times every winter. It just was way too wide in the bodice. This is part of what made it cozy, but it was really difficult to put on coats over it, because there was way too much material to be stuffed into it.... So I finally took my courage and cut it up. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture before, so this one will have to do:

It was just a normal sweater, wiiiiiiide in the torso, and I couldn't just have cut off and taken in the sides, because the sleeves would have ended up being too short.

Shoe Shortage! Making Soles for House Shoes

Finally, here comes my next post about learning how to make shoes! In case you have missed my previous ones, I am using this great old booklet from around the time of the first world war, it's German and called "Die Schuhnot", which can be translated to "Shoe Shortage".

Upon great request from my YouTube subscribers, it can now be downloaded as a pdf file from the side bar on my blog!

The booklet is in German, but I am going through everything, step by step, so you can also just follow my blog and you won't miss a thing, I promise!
I am also going by a second booklet, from around the same time, which is almost identical, except for a few extra things, which I am also including in my posts.

The Amadeus Coat

How to turn a two piece costume into a coat....
Here is my newest Re-fashion! I have actually finished it a few weeks ago and am proud to say that I am wearing it almost daily, so this one definitely goes into the book of successes! :-)

It started out as a wool costume, which I had bought at the flee market for a ridiculous amount of 5 Euros... It's a fabulous herringbone pattern wool in turquoise and purple! Swoon!

Here is the before and after:

 It was too big for me, and in general I just would have never worn it this way, so please forgive me for cutting into it...

The Cowgirl Refashion!

Or: When pant legs turn into sleeves...

Do you think I post a lot of refashions lately because I believe they take less time than clothes made from scratch? - Yes, that't true.
Do refashions REALLY take less time? - Nope, that's not true :-)

...especially if you take a guys shirt and girls pants and realize too late that the closures don't match up. More about that later...

The colors of these two items were so similar, they just ASKED for me to marry them...
Uhm yes, I x-ed out my face. I thought it would be funny to make a really silly face, but it ended up so deliciously stupid that I would for sure have landed on some list of "worst pictures people post of themselves"...

T-Shirt Refashion-Extravaganza! Grand Finale - Full Tutorial/How-To!

Here is the grand finale of my T-Shirt Refashion Extravaganza: Made from small scraps of jersey, and some crepe added for the skirt parts:

As you see, I made two versions, slight improvements and variations between them. And yes, it comes with a full how-to/tutorial!

The differences are the sleeves versus a neck holder, the different hight for the waist, and a small change on how I put together the skirt. I will give you both options in the tutorial, so lets get right to it!

T-Shirt Refashion-Extravaganza! Project 2

As promised, here it comes, my next t-shirt-upcycling-project!

This one is a little less beach and a bit more elegant than the first project. Same basic idea though - an easy-to-wear jersey dress made from shirts I don't wear (anymore). I originally chose a different combination and meant to make something roughly like this:

T-Shirt Refashion-Extravaganza! Project 1

Is there anything better to wear in summer than a one-piece-jersey dress? No double layers and bulking at the waist, and you can just throw it in the washing machine like a regular t-shirt and don't even have to iron it afterwards. Well, it was time I made myself some of these!

I had cleaned out my closet a while ago, and - being a Re-fashionista - it took care of the problem in the closet, but made the one in the sewing room much worse... The ever growing pile of fabrics and clothes-to-be-refashioned...!

Look at the huge pile of T-shirts I had sorted out - some because of the wrong fit, some because of stains, some from my husband, and well, many because I just actually don't really wear t-shirts at all:

Much better than the sales bin at a fabric store, right? :-)

Summer in the City: Tutorial, free pattern, how-to!

Here it is, the how-to for this great summer dress:

If you'd like to see more pictures of it first, I posted plenty HERE!

What you need:

Summer in the City: Dress Showcase

Readers, I hope you agree that it was worth the wait - here is my new free pattern, as promised!

From what I hear on the news, Vienna isn't the only city writing record highs this week...

It's amazing how much more bearable it is if you are dressed appropriately... Well, this dress makes me love the summer!

This post is only the showcase of the dress - you find the tutorial, free pattern, how-to for it HERE!

Making Moccasins! With full How-To...

MOCCASINS DIY..

The Cast:

• A Wife
• A Husband

1950's Hand-Sewn Leather Gloves

As you might already know, I have been away from my home and my sewing machine for a great part in the past two months. While I used some of my spare time improving my drawing skills, I also made sure I always had a little hand-sewing project along. This was one of those:

I know, I know: We are all ready for summer, but when I started them, it was still chilly. And it seemed like too much fun to pass up...

I found the pattern in one of my 1950's magazines:

Embroidered Cuffs!

Welcome to a new category on my blog: The no-sewing-machine projects!
I am away from home for a few weeks and don't have a sewing machine at hands. While I try to improve my drawing skills, I still can't quite survive completely without some kind of fabric or yarn between my fingers... :-)
So I made this cuff:

The base is a kind of wire mesh I got at the DIY store, I don't know what it is really called in English, nor what it is originally meant for...  You will need metal shears to cut it in shape:

The "Vintage-Inspired, Modern Style" Design Challenge!

Well well, wasn't this contest right up my alley!?

BurdaStyle has organized a contest, see rules and information HERE. We were to take an existing pattern and make our own variation from it. There were plenty of different patterns to choose from, amongst them four vintage patterns free of charge! The one that jumped right at me upon very first glance was the "Slip-On Jumper Dress".

Click HERE to get to all the patterns, though I don't know if they stay available after the deadline on March 12th 2012.

The 1938 Dress: Tutorial Snap Button Closure

Here it is, the last post about the making of my 1938 dress, and what you see in the picture below is the side with the button closure:

Nice, right? Actually so much better than a zipper!

Normally, I would have opted for a zipper, for whatever reason. I guess I would have found it too much of a hassle to sew snap buttons and I am more familiar with sewing zippers. However, my decision to look up this technique also had to do with my mission of using up my stash/notions/whatever-clusters (I have TONS of snap buttons, but NEVER the right zipper at hand), as well as kneeling myself deeper into the real reason why I sew vintage - to LEARN stuff...