refashioned shirt quilt

I've been blog-dead for many moons, but this year I decided to participate in The Refashioners, hosted by Portia, because it seemed like a fun and creative way to reengage with the sewing blogosphere. The challenge was to refashion a man's shirt, but I took it in a slightly oddball direction. I decided to make a quilt out of many men's shirts! My goal was to make a cool modern quilt that happened to use secondhand shirts, instead of making a "shirt quilt" that looked like a bunch of men's shirts, so it took me many thrift shopping trips to find these bold solid colors that matched my home decor.

Head over to Portia's blog to see my full post about the process, and while there be sure to check out the rest of what The Refashioners have done this year. Pretty amazing stuff! If you decide to participate yourself, there's an enormous prize package to be had by one random winner. Yeah, it's like laughably enormous. 

I do plan to be back soon with a brief tutorial, and perhaps a post about the Colette Cooper backpack I recently made. As you probably know, you can always keep up with me at Instagram (@foursquarewalls) where I'm slightly more active...

Get shirty!

farmer's daughter banksia dress

Guys and gals, I took your advice on my last post and decided to move on from winter sewing to the fun stuff for spring. Therefore, I blame you for how cold I was taking these pictures in my open doorway. Just kidding... your encouragement helped this little dress come to fruition and I think it's wonderful. It's not denim, by the way; it's a $3 blue cotton bedsheet!

Hey, wrinkly bum, this serves as a reminder to not sit down & play around on Pinterest before a photo shoot. 

The pattern is (mostly) Megan Nielsen's newest release - the Banksia Top, which she describes as a: "Semi-fitted [top] with button-up placket front and large peter pan collar... elbow-length sleeves and shaping darts at the bust line." In the back of the instruction booklet, Megan suggests some possible modifications to the top, such as lengthening the hem to make a dress. Well, that sounded brilliant, so I did it.

I added about 15 inches to the pattern piece to begin with, I think, and sewed a fairly deep hem. It was quite loose-fitting as it was, and the bunched-up fabric looked sloppy when I belted it. I decided to add elastic to the waist so it'd have a better fit and the gathers would be more even. It also gave me a way to line the skirt without having to cut the dress at the waist to create two pieces. Here's the beauuutiful inside:

Yes, that's black thread for the serged edges, tan thread for machine stitching, and white lining. Some of the seams have light blue thread, too, since that's what I started with before I switched to tan. Don't judge me for ugly mismatched garment interiors, please.

Don't tell anyone but I left off the buttonholes; I just sewed the buttons through both layers of the placket because the neckline's low enough to pull the dress on over my head without having to unbutton it. So, why bother, amirite? I added a box with an X (an X-box?) to the bottom of the placket, mostly because I had messy placket sewing skills and I wanted to distract from the unevenness along the bottom seam. I highly recommend, if you make this pattern, to very carefully and evenly mark, cut and sew the placket lines. It makes a big difference in how neatly everything will fold and fit together at the bottom. Oh and another "design" element I added was narrowly tucked sleeve hems with double stitching.

I lowered the bust darts and had them slant upward at a diagonal to the bust point. The original pattern has high horizontal darts, just like the Darling Ranges Dress, which I learned don't quite work for my shape. So I used my Lisette Traveler's Dress pattern as a guide, since those bust darts had better positioning.

I was in the middle of sewing this dress and didn't know what color buttons I wanted. I just happened to see Mary of Idle Fancy pin this on her Pinterest that same day I was thinking about it:

Hey! Looks familiar. I then knew mine would have to have brown buttons, too. By the way, Mary has a lovely "Sew Much Inspiration" pin board chock full of beautiful dresses to ogle - I recommend you follow her if you have a Pinterest account.

This dress is pretty cutesy with the collar, buttons and elastic. I won't lie, I feel kind of farmer's daughterish in it. "Well hi there folks!"

Nothing wrong with that, though, and you never know when some hay-pitchin' opportunities will arise, so I best be dressed right.

project linked to sew country chick

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Is the Banksia Top (or dress!) in your sewing queue?

two skirt refashions

Once upon a time, two days ago, there was a men's shirt that wasn't being worn. Not anymore, y'all.

The shirt is Patagonia brand so it's very well made. Its content is 55% hemp and 45% organic cotton, basically my dream fabric. I love hemp fabric, I do. It lasts forever. I also respect Patagonia's environmentalism and the lengths they go to use sustainable textiles & responsible manufacturing processes. I think they'd appreciate my refashioning efforts.

There are a few tutorials around the sewing blogosphere on how to make a skirt from a men's shirt (see here, here and here). 

Here's my basic run-down:

- I kept the side seams, bottom hem and button placket intact. 

- I made the waistband from the shirt's yoke (top back), using a skirt pattern I have that I knew would fit.

- I cut off another piece of the remaining button placket to use on the waistband, and stitched it on the front center so it would align. 

- I gathered the top edge of the front and back pieces to fit the waistband.

- I used one of the sleeves to make belt loops.

The waistband facing is bright blue cotton scrap.

That's that one.

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And now for another...

This was a very large black corduroy jumper from the 1970s (or so they say). I got it for $5 from the "rough rack" at the local vintage thrift store. 

I used Simplicity 2152, view E. I added an inch to the overall length, but it's still a bit shorter than the model's.

I didn't lap the zipper in center back, and instead left the gold teeth exposed. What can I say, playas gonna play.

It's a nice simple pattern, and came together really quickly and easily. I'm just glad to have an office-appropriate black skirt now. My last attempt at making a corduroy skirt was an epic fail, too, so I'm glad this one worked out.

Apparently my hair is red today.

For the waistband facing I used a cotton print in my stash. The cord would have been too bulky.

During this time of major material consumption for the holidays, I hope you find some ways to reuse and repurpose as well. It's much more gratifying!

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linked to:

sew country chick

copper penny tablecloth skirt

Before

After

Who uses tablecloths? Not me. Who wears skirts? Yeah, me.

This is Simplicity 2512, a Cynthia Rowley design, view B. For the material I used a large copper-colored tablecloth with herringbone weaving. Thrifted for $4. It's actually pure coincidence that the Sew Weekly theme this week is garments made from household fabrics (curtains, tablecloths, sheets). That's just how I roll almost every week.

The pattern's curvy sweetheart-like waistband reminded me of the Ginger skirt from Colette Patterns but I liked the gathers and shape of this skirt more (from the front, anyway).

I wish I had made the belt tie longer, as some other reviews of this pattern suggested, so it could be tied in a bow. I followed the pattern exactly but my ties look thinner than the envelope model's.

I made the pockets with thin beige lining from a deconstructed skirt in my scrap basket. I didn't want to use the tablecloth material for the pockets because of the bulk.

I wonder why pockets are so coveted in modern skirt/dress patterns. Does anyone actually carry stuff in there? I stopped carrying anything in my pockets after an unfortunate melting chapstick incident. Ain't stopping me from making them, though. They still look cute and have a cute name. Pocket.

But let's be real. This skirt's fine from the front but it's awfully bubbly in the back because of the way it's gathered and then curves in towards the hem. This is an exaggerated pose but you definitely get the point:

 

 Right??:

Yet another skirt for the "Wear only with long sweaters to avoid Teletubbiness" category. Yea, I have a couple of those now. Bummer.

Another reason this sewing story doesn't have a happy ending: while removing the skirt after I modeled it, the zipper pull decided to pop off one of its tracks. (Yes, zipper pulls make decisions, as ways to spite me). I fixed it, which was a painstaking process, but then it just did it again the next time I unzipped the skirt. I believe it's because this material is fairly thick, and the waistband, facing, ties and binding all layered upon each other at the top is too much for the invisible zipper to handle. Maybe I'll replace it with a regular zipper, or I don't know. Any suggestions??

:(

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linked to...

sew country chick

dresses dresses dresses

I'm tellin' ya, folks. Thrifted vintage bed sheets make the best apparel. Here's another.

Simplicity 2177. I wavered over buying this one, mostly because it looks like this chick is wearing hers to Easter mass:

Not really the look I wanted. But I liked the design and shape of the dress, particularly the bodice features and how the front is cut on a diagonal.

I banned floral patterns from my wardrobe for awhile, but I'm slowly starting to embrace them. I like when they're small scale and simply designed, anyway.

Pockets!

The back has a 20" lapped zipper, which only gave me a minor headache when putting in. I still have trouble making a smooth transition from the bottom of a zipper to the regular seam below it. I got this one to work for the most part. 

The back neckline gaped a bit, so I added a couple darts up there to take in the fabric. I don't know if upper back darts are a real allowable thing, but I did it anyway. It still gapes open when I bring my shoulders forward in a hunch, or when I do the chicken dance/flap my arm wings -- yes, of course I tried that. Guess I can't wear this to a wedding reception, then.

I considered adding long sleeves, but thought all those flowers might be too overwhelming. During my midway fitting, the dress seemed kinda Little House on the Prairie, but that was easily remedied by slashing off a few inches off the hem and making sure the bodice was nice & fitted to the waist.

The sleeveless version of this dress calls for bias tape to finish the straps, but I just made my own from my fabric instead of buying a solid color. They stick out a little but I'm terrible at sewing narrow bias tape. And may I report: today I finally (finally!) bought a rotary cutter and ruled mat (finally!). HELLO, STRAIGHT & EVEN BIAS STRIPS OF FABRIC CUT AT PERFECT 45 DEGREE ANGLES TO THE SELVEDGE. I also bought a seam gauge (finally!) and a tracing wheel with tracing paper (finally!). Um, best day of my sewing life.

So, this dress works for summer but the colors pair well with brown so I can definitely layer it for fall. Nothin' better.

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Linked to:

Our Creative Spaces

and

my first sewn shirt, ever

I branched out and bought my first shirt pattern. Yea, and I call myself an "advanced" beginner? New Look 6963 is labeled easy so I thought it'd be a good (& inexpensive) way to learn how to make collars and buttonholes. Not the chicest of blouses, though, by the looks of the cover:

The wind in her hair is a nice touch, New Look. I wonder where sewing pattern models rank in the modeling hierarchy. I usually just feel bad for them because of the things they're often forced to wear.

Anyway, my shirt.

I made view C, with the shorter tab-less sleeves. The construction was pretty simple, but I did stumble on a couple things. The upper back facing is kind of a mess; the shape seems completely wrong and doesn't lay flat. I had to pleat it in a few places because there was so much excess fabric flopping around. I'm blaming the pattern.

Fabric and collar close-up:

Also, I'm pretty sure I accidentally gathered the sleeves at the shoulders. It seemed like I was supposed to ease the sleeve in and still have it lay flat & ungathered? I couldn't see how this was possible due to how much fabric I had to ease in-- probably because I'm a sleeve novice -- but I liked the look so I just made it my way.

Side (wrinkled):

Back:

The shape's a bit too boxy from the front, so I think I will only wear it tucked in with a higher-waisted skirt. The back has a nice shape because of the long darts, but the front looks a little bit like a bowling shirt. Here is the back, untucked:

Oh, and my fabric of choice? Another bedsheet. Can't get enough of this idea. This was a Martha Stewart Living flat sheet in my parents' guest room linen closet that they haven't used in years. I like it as a shirt more, I think.

I guess I've found my calling - giving new life to crumbled linens.

Total price of project: $2.99 pattern + $0 sheet + $1.25 buttons + scrap interfacing