Dress Shirt goes Fashion! (With step-by-step)

Hello everybody! I hope you are having a great summer!

Well I am finally back, after lots of work and some vacation, and I got around to doing another refashion for refashion co-op.

I got this old - but good-quality - dress shirt from my husband, really too good to throw away, and I needed some short-sleeve tops for myself anyway. But of course I thought what probably most of you are thinking: another men's dress shirt refashion, just cutting off sleeves and collar and turning it into a women's short-sleeve blouse? Yawn! 

A bit of brainstorming later I came up with this so-simple twist. One thing I learned: Less is more, most of the time. So I went for ONE eye-catcher on this one:

It sports a cute "cut-in" shape sleeve (as opposed to "cut-outs"....). The "sleeve" being just the yoke from the men's shirt, left entirely "intact", in front as well as in the back:

What is great about this re-fashion is that it gets rid of the parts that usually are worn down most in men's shirts: Collar, cuffs, and even the arm-pits will be cut away if you are using a shirt that is way too big on you...

It was almost too simple to give a step-by-step, but here goes:

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:

Backpack No.2 - The Summer Version

Ah, Easter is such a great time to catch up on my posting. Don't worry, I'll quiet down again soon...

Maybe you remember my blue backpack that I made a while ago. Well, it was a winter version, and I used it A LOT.

So I decided it would definitely be worth making a summer version. Here it is:

Concert Dress Refashion: From Drab to Fab!

Here is my newest Refashion project!

As some of you know, I am a professional singer. A while ago, I refashioned a concert dress for a series of concerts around New Years Eve. Finally I am getting around to posting!

The Wonderland Dress!

Ah, what I wouldn't have given to have this outfit finished when it was boiling hot here in Austria... But well, it was the other way around.

The weather inspired me to make this outfit, and by the time it was finished, the heat had also vanished. But chances are I will still like it next year...

This is the Maxidress from BurdaStyle 5/2013, it can be downloaded HERE.
As other people experienced, it takes a little longer to make than one might think. My decision to make it out of this fabulous silk had nothing to do with that though...

Look at this italian silk, isn't it amazing?! And working with it was very easy!

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:

A pair of pants and the turning point in London

English: Gray textblocks

Deutsch: Grüner Text

Pants...

Pants! At least I konw I am not alone in my struggle of finding pants that fit well, are comfortable and look good... Whether I buy them or make them myself, they are tricky to get right!

This pair came out quite to my liking, they are from Burda Style 2/2010 and were actually made for extra-tall women. Which is funny, because if you’d put me into any special-sized group, I’d be in the extra short one. It was amazing how much length I had to take out of those legs!

The pattern was too good to pass up though – it sports great style lines and

I love pants that have room around the hips, but get narrow at the ankle...

Hosen! Wenigstens bin ich nicht alleine mit dem Problem, Hosen zu finden, die gut passen, bequem sind und gut ausschauen... ob ich sie nun kaufe oder selber nähe, es ist echt schwierig Erfolg zu haben damit!

Diese Hose ist ganz gut heraus gekommen, sie sind aus der Burda Style 2/2010 und waren eigentlich für besonders grosse Frauen gedacht. Was lustig ist, weil ich eher in die Gruppe der besonders kleinen Frauen gehören würde, wenn man sich mal ans Sortieren machte... Es war schon erstaunlich, wie viel Länge ich aus diesen Hosenbeinen nehmen musste!

Das Schnittmuster gefiel mir aber zu gut, um es nicht auszuprobieren. Es hat interessante Naht-Verläufe und ich liebe Hosen mit genug Platz in der Hüft-Gegend, die dann gegen die Knöchel enger werden.

Linen Remake - with tutorial / how-to!

Summer is here! As much as I'm starting to get into sewing quick t-shirts from jersey (tutorial coming up!), the best thing to wear on a hot day is loose linen or silk tops. This shirt was handed down to me from my generous husband (who dislikes the fast wrinkling...). It was in good shape, just -well- a man's cut and size...

I know pin-tucks are usually placed closer to the center, but I didn't want to take off the collar and I needed to get rid of some excess width on the shoulders anyway, so I placed them further out than normal. I think it adds a lovely twist with them going over the shoulder and all the way down the back...

It was a quick project and gave me the chance to finally start using some of those pressure feet I never use, as well as some specialty stitches from my machine.

Delicious Lace!

This is a dress I recently finished. My mother-in-law gave me this beautiful brown lace almost a year ago and I finally decided on a pattern! I used the tiered wedding dress pattern Nr. 112 from Burda Style 3/2013 (available for download!), changing the skirt part by making only the top layer instead of going floor length and tripple layer...

The blue fabric is more vibrant in real life than in the picture above. Construction was surprisingly simple! The underlying bodice is made first, I only had minor fit alterations to make, which is very simple now that I finally own a dressform with my measurments...

The Promise of Summer!

This dress is exactly what I needed now. No, not because I can actually wear it right away - for summer hasn't arrived yet where I live (Vienna). Indeed, it is so cold that I almost made a fire yesterday evening. But this dress has a promise, a hope, and even a special purpose for warmer weather. I will be wearing it for my next opening night - it will be on July 18th, a summer festival, and I shall be twirling in it like in the photo at the end of the post. Summer HAS to arrive until then!

I did not make this from scratch. My aunt gave it to me and it looked like this:

Blazer - matching my me-made shoes...

Usually you buy shoes to match an outfit, but this time it was the other way 'round:  I had made these shoes in London and had no jacket to go with them... 
In came CUT Nr. 8 01/13, containing a cool blazer pattern with leather detail on the shoulder, and I just had to make it. Just like in my backpack recently (from the same CUT issue), I was able to use left-over leather from the shoe-course. You can leaf through the CUT magazine here, I am not getting anything for this recommendation by the way, I just really think it's a cool magazine and leaf-through feature... But enough of this linking-galore, on to the pictures!

CUT Backpack with leather details!

When I saw the backpack in CUT Nr. 8 01/13 I immediately knew I had to make one. I have been wanting a backpack for a while now - for all the heavy stuff my left shoulder doesn't want to carry alone anymore. Usually backpacks are quite sportive looking... I love sports, don't get me wrong, but I wanted one that looked cute, cool, city-esque! After all, I won't be carrying it for hours at a time, walking over a mountain, but just for those commuting minutes either on the bike or the subway...

Well, here it is!

What also tempted me to try this pattern is that it is using leather. A material I want to get to know more anyway, and I have plenty left-overs from my shoe-making course in London...

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 #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.

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 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!