The London Coat

Another coat?! Yes, another coat!

It's not like I need more coats. But coats are good. Coats are comfy, cozy and make winter more enjoyable. And for whatever reason, coats inspire me. Or how would you say it the other way around... when I see other garments, they often inspire me to turn them into coats. It might be strange, but that's the way it is.

What would you have made from this great 60's number?

Sweater Refashion Extravaganza #3

This is the story of how I turned a little Grandma-number

...into a funky, even casually sexy item - with pockets!

Sweater Refashion Extravaganza #2

So here comes my second sweater re-fashion project. A great example how less is sometimes more. In this case, it really didn't take much to turn this sweater from a boring never-worn item to a favorite cold-day darling. It is 100% cashmere, which is why I really wanted to turn it into something I wear...

Turtlenecks just never look good on me to begin with. The distance from neck to bust-point is shorter on me than in standard sizes, which is why this sweater also wrinkles in that area. On top of that, I had nasty little glue spots in the lower center front. These facts pretty much sent me on my way, and out came this: A two-color v-neck sweater with extralong sleeves (which, I swear, was entirely intentional!):

Sweater Refashion Extravaganza!

Yes, this title sounds familiar... Some of you might remember my T-Shirt Refashion Extravaganza from last summer. Now, half a year later, it's time to do the same thing with my sweaters. Here is my first transformation:

It always blows my mind how many things I have in my closet, yet I don't wear much of it regularly. So I take a really honest look at it and try to figure out why. Then, things land in my refashion bin...;-) A bunch of sweaters had gathered, so another refashion extravaganza was called for!

All knits, lighter, heavier, from my hubby, from my own knitting...

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!

A Question of personal Style and Taste...

Give Danielle another chance!

After the refashioning

It was a first for me: Refashioning a dress I had made myself...This was what I called "my new love Danielle" in my BurdaStyle studio a good two years ago and it used to look like this:

Before the refashioning

It's a free pattern, so go grab it if you like! As you can tell from my project name, I really DID like it a lot, and I got nice comments and compliments for it.

And then..... I never wore it. Ok, once. I wore it to the theater and didn't feel right in it. Didn't feel "me" in it. I am not saying that I dislike the dress, I disliked it on myself. I felt that it was too girly. I am not a girly girl and I don't wear dresses a lot as is... But I keep wanting to change that. So I decided to give Danielle another chance.

Original Vintage Refashion!

Yes, I promised a new free pattern, and I am almost ready with it. But first I had to fit in my monthly contribution to the refashion co-op! After last months huge success with the 9 shirts off his back, I wasn't sure whether I was going to be able to live up to the expectations for my next project... :-) But how about this - an original 1943 Refashion project?

I own a few German pattern magazines from the 40's and they feature a one-page refashioning section! They certainly had to use all the resources they could get their hands on. In this example, they suggest using an old long-sleeve blouse on which the collar, buttons, underarms and cuffs are torn up and turn it into this cute short-sleeve version, for which you can cut away all the problematic areas...

9 Shirts off his Back!

*** I cleaned out my closet! ***

Doesn't that always feel fabulous? All that new space for new clothes! But then again, being a re-fashionista, the pile in my sewing-room grew bigger and bigger proportionally... even more so since my husband went ahead and cleaned out his side, too...

What was I to do? Well, nine shirts later I got to this:

I used up nine shirts, most of them from my husband, only two from myself - one is missing in the picture below:

Some were short-sleeves, some long, some had stains, others were just out of style, others worn-out in some places. I tried to keep as many elements from the shirts as possible, like the collar, hems, buttons... But see for yourself, I'll give you a little how-to:

Simple T-Shirt Refashion gone difficult

Well didn't I feel all smart when I realized how I could simply pull one strap of a way-too-big shirt down over the shoulder and come up with a fancy one-shoulder top?

I sure did! In the photo below, nothing is cut or sewn yet , I just pulled the neck down and it already looked good. So I thought "Easy, this will be done in 15 minutes!" ....

My "Pillow Cape"!

Nope, it is not a misprint, I really mean Pillow CaPe. Because well, it used to be a Pillow Case, and it is now a Cape. *Grin*

 This is my contribution to the refashion co-op, a bit late, I apologize. Not only have things been crazy in my "real life", I have also been away from the sewing machine AND from any decent internet connection. So the few things I DID make, I haven't posted about. Sometime later this month everything should calm down.

Fab Coat Now Wearable!

Here it is, my February contribution to the Refashion co-op!

I would say there are two categories of refashion projects:

1. The ones you make out of items that are just not fashionable anymore the way they are.
2. The ones you make with garments that don't fit anymore (or that need mending...).

How-To: Make the Bodice for the suit-refashion Overall

Welcome to my second How-To post for how I turned my Husbands old suit into the overall below!

And what perfect timing for the "Sew Grateful" series, happening over at My Happy Sewing Place, which truly is right up my alley :-)

Not only am I sew grateful that my husband gave me the suit (he has learned to give me just about everything that remotely resembles fabric before throwing it away), I have also used thread, needles and a rotary cutter that my mom has given me, and I am also ever sew grateful for the on-line sewing community, which really has kicked off my sewing hobby to a new level. I have learned so much from the many sewing-bloggers out there, thank you ever so much. I can only hope that the one or other project/tutorial on my blog will inspire others, too!

In the first How-To post HERE I showed you how to fit the pants, today we will fit the jacket to make the bodice. Of course, depending on the suit you are starting out with, and also depending on your shape, things might be a bit different. However, I think these steps should get you there in most cases, if the initial fit of the suit matches the description in my first post (basically, it just really has to be too big)...

How-To: Turn Men's suit pants into Women's slacks

The jumpsuit-how-to post 1 is all about how I fitted the pants. You can use this tutorial by itself just to fit pants, or you continue on to the jacket post to make the whole overall (Link is at the bottom of this post)...

So I started out with a dull grey suit... You want to make sure that the collar still looks good enough for you to want to wear, as well as the sleeve cuffs... Generally, the whole suit still needs to be in pretty good condition.

Re-fashion-Passion!!

Here it is, my January contribution to the Refashion Co-op!
I'm sure you have at some point been in your boyfriend/husband/brother's closet? Wearing "his" clothes can be so great - but it gets better! Get him to hand it down to you and you can "tune" it to your needs...

This is what I made from my husbands old, gray suit:

 The Before:

I wrote a full how-to for this project in two posts:
the first one is all about the pants HERE
and the second is about fitting the bodice HERE

This post is just about show-and-tell...;-))

Winter Accessory Extravaganza! Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of my extravaganza!

Without much further ado, I will move on to the how-to of the remaining three accessories. First up:

THE GLAM-ME-UP WRIST WARMERS:

Topturned Pants - Upcycling how-to!

Would you guess that this top:

...had a former life as pants?

Quite a transformation, right? I'll show you some close-ups and then give you a full how-to!

Me-Made-Mittwoch #16 - Recycling!

Deutsch: Grau

English: Green

Die Idee und Organisation des Me-Made-Mittwoch stammt von Catherine von Cat-und-Kascha, und Neueinsteigerinnen sind jederzeit willkommen! Einfach auf ihrem schönen Blog den Button abholen und Euren Link hinzufügen bei Mister Linky auf ihrer Seite.
Diese Woche seht ihr HIER, was die anderen Teilnehmerinnen heute Schönes tragen.

"Mittwoch" is German for Wednesday, so the participants wear a self-made garment or accessory every Wednesday. Catherine from Cat-und-Kascha is organizing it and you are welcome to join us anytime! Just go over to her blog to grab the button and add your link at Mister Linky on her site!

HERE you see the outfits from this weeks participants.

Heute präsentiere ich mal etwas ganz Neues, den Rock habe ich gestern fertig gestellt! Kaum zu glauben, letzten Mittwoch war ich nicht dabei, aber vor zwei Wochen habe ich noch ein Sommerkleid angezogen. Nun ist es definitiv Herbst, und mein erstes Herbst-Stück tatsächlich schon genäht!

Today I am presenting a skirt I only just finished yesterday. It's hard to believe that two weeks ago I showed a summer skirt. I had to skip last week, and now it is definitely fall already. I am proud that I actually sewed a first fall piece already, right in time with the season!

Me-Made-Mittwoch #6!

Last week I promised I'd be wearing a skirt today... Well, THINK before you make online-promises! This really would have been a pants day, with the chance of rain here in Vienna. But I am using the opportunity to introduce to you one of my early pieces again. It was my own idea, "design" and I had to figure out construction and everything on my own. I was not a very accomplished seamstress back then, which is annoying, because while I actually love the skirt, the execution is so poor, that I don't consider it really wearable any more... But since it's mostly a stay-at-home-day today, voilà!

It is made up of ties entirely, most of them old silk ties. I'll tell you more about it further down the post...

The little Bolero thingy is knit by me, too, of course. I think I found the pattern online, but I don't know where from the top of my head... If you REALLY, REALLY must know where I got it, I could spend some time to find it again. :-)

Sorry about the fake smile. It's that kind of day...

For close-ups and a little more information about the tie-skirt, read on...

Amazing Fleamarket Finds...

As promised, I am posting some pictures of things I found at the fleamarket on Saturday. But don't worry, I'm not doing this to make you jealous or anything - you will actually profit from some of my finds, I promise!
I'll go in the order of how I found them...
First, this amazingly beautiful collar, hand-embroidery of it's most accurate kind, in best condition...

Black velvet, gold embroidery with different sized beads. I don't know how old it is. I am not sure whether I will keep this for myself or sell it in my shop... Yes, you heard me right, I am planning on opening a little shop....

Then, oh WOW, these two beauties (as always, click on the images to enlarge):

They were quite pricey, but I had to have them. I don't really know how old they are, I can only guess (30's?). They are hand-colored and I have now framed them and made sure the edges don't tear any more. I really feel like making these costumes some day... The first one says (the original is in French, I'm translating):

Queen of Flowers: Bodice in shape of calyx made of green silk, the top is cut in strips. The very voluminous sleeves and skirt are composed entirely from rose-colored organza petals.

The second one:

The Spring: Straight bodice made out of rose-colored "pongé" (a light weight fabric, a silk/wool mix). Skirt simulating a flower, from petals cut out of two different tones of yellow organza. Garland and trail made of flowers.

Corrections are welcome...
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