Shirt Refashion

Back from Reno. I'll post pictures soon. Hopefully a lot quicker than the last road trip pictures were posted. ;-)

The night before leaving, I took this man's shirt:


and made it into this cutey:


Very comfy and Very cool! AND....very easy! The hardest part was getting the straps to be the right length (and I'm still not sure I've got it right, but it's good enough for me).

Wordless Month????.......and Shirt Refashion

HA!HA!HA! Didn't mean for Wordless Wednesday to turn into Wordless MONTH! LOL

The beginning of the school year (what we call "launch") is super hectic with 10-12 hour work days, 7 days a week. It's been crazy!

But, today I said to heck with work and finished refashioning this shirt for DD.

I started with this:


It was an old man's shirt (not like an "old man with a cane", but an "old" shirt that a man would wear - LOL).

I first took off the collar which left me with a stand up band-collar (sorry I don't know what those are called - maybe a mandarian collar?).

I took the breast pocket off, added a stripe of solid turqouise to the top of the pocket for accent and repositioned it on the lower right front of the shirt.

I cut a couple inches off each side seam to make it a little more fitted and curvey. Can't make it TOO fitted though as DD is still growing.

Then, I took off the sleeves. I shortened those and added the solid turquoise band at the bottom to make them more girly. (There is a thin turqouise stripe which runs through the plaid on the shirt.) When I reattached them, I did a little gathering at the shoulders.

Finally, I added a slightly gathered stripe of the turqouise on each side of the button placket to give it more color. (Well, actually it's main purpose was to cover up a spot that I couldn't get out.) I wanted it to be more ruffled and puckered, but after I had attached it, I wasn't about to take it back off.

I would have liked to cut the bottom to make it straight, but DD wanted me to leave it curved.

Here is the final refashion:

Wardrobe Refashion

I've taken the pledge. The 2 month Wardrobe Refashion pledge that is.

What is "Wardrobe Refashion"?

Wardrobe Refashion was started by Nichola Prested after deciding to quit buying new manufactured clothing in a bid to do her part for the planet, save money and improve her sewing skills.

Those who take the pledge promise to not purchase new, manufactured clothing for the period of 2, 4, 6 months OR LIFE. They pledge to refashion, renovate, and recycle preloved items with their own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium or make their own from scratch.

Since I'm already doing this anyway because of my current financial situation due to the California budget crisis, I figured I'd take it one step further and take the pledge for 2 months to start. I can't afford to buy anything new anyway.

This round of the Wardrobe Refashion doesn't officially begin until September 1st, but I've already got my first project completed (I hope that's OK).

Remember my Thrifty Thursday post about the old white sheets? Click HERE.



You know I have zero money right now so when DD announced to me that she only had one shirt that still fit, I wasn't quite sure what we were going to do.

One white sheet, a little scrap fabric, a pattern from my collection, a few hours on the sewing machine and this is what we came up with.







I had to adapt the pattern a bit because the front was TOO low for Miss Modesty (aka DD) so I added the additional pink fabric at the top. I think it actually makes this top better by matching the band and ties. Oh, and I didn't have the right width elastic so I took apart a fitted sheet and used the elastic from that. Talk about a recycled and refashioned project!

DD loves it! I love it! It looks SO cute on her! I'd say this pattern is a keeper for us. It's adaptable with different types of sleeves from sleeveless to long sleeve and we can always do different lengths as well.

Thrifty Thursday - A New Slip

First, I just found out that the Salvation Army Thrift Store that I go to in the "city" has 50% off all clothing on every Wednesday and Friday. While that might not be exciting to some, I'm thrilled. Why? Because I love thrift stores ALMOST as much as I love libraries and craft/fabric stores. Also, this same store marks clothing down to 50% if it has been in the store for more than 7 days. The tags on the clothing are marked with the day they are received so it's pretty easy to figure out. Say, you find a wonderful skirt that is marked $3.30. The date is June 26 on the tag, and the date that you find this skirt is July 22. Well, that brings it to $1.15. Then, July 22 just happens to be a Wednesday so another 50% off that and your final purchase price for a new-to-you skirt is 0.58. That's right - 58 cents! Yippee for me! Now to convince DD that it's really alright to buy clothes at the thrift store again. (She's kind of burned out on the whole thrift store experience due to her mother's overzealousness during her younger years.)

On to the main "Thrifty Thursday" feature of the day:

I have a couple longer dresses and my "new-to-me" skirt from the above example. They are great for summer as they are flowy and cool. But, I have a problem. In the sunlight, you can see right through them.

Enter the half slip. The half slip solves the peep show problem...sort of. You see, my half-slip is above the knee so it looks really funky when you stand in the sun and can still see through the bottom half of the skirt. Plus, it's nylon (or some other equally synthetic fabric). Not a good fabric for summer comfort.

I have no money to buy a new slip so I think to myself, "How hard could it be to make one?" So that's what I did. I found some instructions online. I went to my beautifully organized fabric stash and pulled out an old, ivory-colored sheet (perfect for summer because it's cotton). I had some elastic in my sewing notions basket just waiting to be made into a waistband. Then, it was just a matter of a couple cuts with the rotary cutter, some pinning, a few runs through the sewing machine, and VOILA a new half slip perfect for my longer skirt/dresses and summer-time heat.


My favorite part is the lace trim. It's from my inheritance from one of my Grandmas. It's so pretty!

New half slip for FREE!!!!

AND, it was so easy I think I may make myself a skirt or two using these same instructions. Different fabric, of course! Maybe even a colorful sheet if I find one on my next thrift store scavenge.