Refashionista

This weeks challenge over at The Sew Weekly is all about re-fashioning, I've been a bit lax with the challenges recently so in determination to complete this one I delved into the box of clothes we had put aside containing things that are no longer worn.  In that box I found these black jeans

I don't really know why I don't wear them anymore but they were in the box so they were getting used!
I knew as soon as I saw them that they were going to have a new lease of life as a denim skirt. So I tootled upstairs grabbed my un-picker and began to take the inside leg seams apart. Once that was finished I had two triangle pieces in the middle where I needed to decide if they should be filled with the surplus denim from the bottom of the trousers or to use a funky fabric as an insert.  Instead of deciding all by myself I asked B for help, he immediately picked the funky fabric option and I'm glad he did, I love how it has turned out.

I also managed to finish the pillowcase challenge - et viola

One pillowcase shirt complete with paisley collar details.  My only regret with this shirt is that I didn't interface the bit for the buttons so it has a tendency to pop open, eek must remember to wear a vest under this as I had serious paranoia all day at work when I wore it last week...

Treasure!

It is official I have overcome my fear of Ye Olde Charity Shop. We found some most awesome things today.

Knitting Machine £3.99

Knit Radar £1.99 Not really sure what this does but it looked cool

99p Patterns - Loving the 80's one

I also got about 1 metre of fabric but I put it into the wash before I remembered to take a picture...
Doh! Oh well I have plans for a skirt for it so you might see it at some point soon :)

Ginger the 2nd

Last week I finished my other Ginger, its the exact reverse of the first Ginger but I added a lining (Faux silk too, oooh the luxury!) and the pockets to this one. Now I don't know which one I like best...

 The Lowdown

• Pattern : Ginger by Colette
• Material: 1.2m Blue Floral £6.60 p/m, 0.75m Faux Silk £2.80 p/m, Blue Polyester scrap for piping
• Notions: White Zip £1.35, 2 Red Buttons £1.00, Interfacing from stash, Piping Cord from stash
• Total Cost £12.37

Carry on regardless?

Soo... Your sewing away and your machine starts to make an odd noise and feel a little weird when sewing do you...

A. Carry on regardless and hope that "All is well"
or
B. Immediately stop sewing and check it out. Re-thread the machine and grab a piece of scrap fabric to test it out

If your answer is B well done, your a better person than I think most of us are! :)
If your answer is A then your probably going to end up with something like this

Eeek what a mess, Its a good job that it is on the inside and the top stitching looks fine otherwise I would be screaming right now.

What are you making do I hear you say, well I'm attempting the Sew Weekly Pillowcase challenge, ok I know its late but I had a bit a of faff trying to find some funky pillow cases.  I admitted defeat with this when I found these

EXTRA LARGE!!! Win! So I decided to attempt a shirt out of them (they are humongous!) and I'm a little concerned about how easily they came apart.  I mean I pulled at a thread and it just unraveled on me... Worrying!

Saturday Shopping

Due to my Monday-Friday job I tend to allocate Saturdays to shopping where I can - Fabric, food, upcoming birthdays etc (hmm fabric came before food...).  So yesterday I popped on my new Ginger skirt and headed into town with my list of things to do

• B's Birthday presents
• Pillowcase (this weeks Sew Weekly Challenge)
• Food

I managed to do B's Birthday presents and the food. But the pillowcase however is a whole different story.  Have you ever tried to find pillowcases that have a pattern that don't come as part of a duvet set?  It looks like this challenge will be harder than I first thought since all of the shops I looked in just had plain old boring pillowcases :( So I gave up and went to the fabric shop instead, since my Ginger skirt felt fabulous on I decided to make another one in the reverse of the original and for that I would need some lining fabric.  Although the fabric isn't see through I have this fear that it is too thin and you'd be able to see my butt in it.

This is what I walked away with

Sorry about the blinding white one, I couldn't get the purple colour to show otherwise, and it is a gorgeous purple!

Feeling a little better about things, its amazing how just buying fabric can have this effect on me, I decided to head home.  On my way back to the car I passed a charity shop, now I had a fear of charity shops when I was younger but seeing other peoples amazing finds on bedlinen I plucked up the courage and ventured into the shop.  I didn't find any pillowcases but what I did find has made me a lover of ye olde charity shop

Look at it! How amazing! Ok its not the most amazing fabric in the world but like I care! There is about 4 meters of fabric here and how much were these crazy people asking for said 4 meters of fabric?

99p!

Yes you read that right 99p! for 4 meters!  Now I know its a boring fabric but do you think anybody would mind if I used this for the pillowcase challenge? I'll only use a pillowcase amount, promise!!

Word of the day: Pangram - A sentence, verse etc. that includes all letters of the alphabet

Ginger is done

Well I finished on Thursday but that's not the point now is it?

I 'm rather pleased with it but I'm still deciding if I should add pockets to it or not.

The lowdown
Pattern - Ginger by Colette Patterns
Fabric - Some crazy Royal Blue polyester stuff from the stash (£2.50 p/m??), The pretty floral cotton from the London Dress (probably about £1 for the amount used)
Notions - Piping cord (stash), Invisible Zip (£1.35)
Total cost - £1.35 actually spent to be able to make it but it probably actually cost me around £8
Time to make - including pattern adjustment and mock up skirt around 6 hours

I was a little dubious about how easy this skirt would be to put together at first since everybody has been raving about it, seriously they can't all be right!  Well consider me proved wrong, it is easy.  Aside from the pattern adjustment I had to make, which was made a gazillion times easier with Sunni's directions, it went together rather well.  Although it took me 6 hours to make from start to finish, it won't actually take me half that time when I make it again since the fit was fine with the mock up I don't need to do any other adjustments to the pattern, yay!

Oh and Note to Self: if you want to use the crazy polyester stuff again remember that it doesn't like to iron during construction of garments!

It Arrived!

What little beauty was in my letter box when I got home from a busy day at work?  Oh yes you've guessed it a lovely jiffy bag addressed to me containing none other than my Colette patterns.

Well I ran through the door screaming

WOOOHOOO!!!!

B then calmly said "is that your patterns?" to which I just replied with a manic grin and a "see ya later, I'm off upstairs"
So that was 6 o'clock and its now 10 o'clock, with a break for some food (Gotta love B :) ) what have I achieved?

Well I traced the pattern, and sized it appropriately. Cut out all of my blue fabric. Basted everything together. Checked the fit. Possibly sorted out a weird indent in the front. Took it all apart again. Stitched the waistband and skirt again. Then decided enough is enough. Dang no wonder I'm sleepy now writing it all out makes it look like a days work!
Here it is so far on Maybell

Tomorrow I finish so I can attend the Ginger Partay! (otherwise I'll just be fashionably late).

On another note, how weird is it when you find something you'd forgotten that you had but when you find it you wonder how you'd forgotten it was there?  Well I was searching round the house for something to do yesterday and came across this box of buttons and things.

How in the hell did I forget I had them?!?