22. A Denim Make-Over

You'll notice I have moved, and my mirror image no longer has a clean background. I will have to work on that... In the meantime, I thought I'd show a nice summery outfit. It has been pretty warm here lately, and this outfit is both easy and good enough for "town".
Skirt is a recent make,  and if you are visiting for the how-to, please scroll down.

skirt: me-made 2013
top: Liz Claiborne 2006
belt: H&M 2002
shoes: Vagabond 2009

Some close-ups of my favorite parts as the main photo is so grainy:

 I love the cross-hatch pattern and inky blue of the top, and the unabashed hippie vibe of the belt.

These babouche flats are a dream. They are comfy and pretty - I especially like the reverse applique.




Now for the Refashion Part:

Stonewashed denim may be in again...

... but this 90's full skirt certainly isn't!
It was good lightweight chambray, so I grabbed it. It was a full circle with some hideous netting flounce underneath.

 

I removed the lining and the flounce, opened up the seams and spread it out. It was huge. Large enough to be making something substantial with it.

I took the Marcy Tilton V  pattern. As it is a tunic, I folded away the tops and used just the bottom parts to create a skirt. I love Marcy Tilton for her shapes, her patterns always have a twist.

I am not fond of pale denim. When the skirt was finished, I threw it into a dye bath. I wanted a dark indigo but ended up with a medium blue. Well, sometimes you can't have it all...
The skirt has been previously shown with different tops and accessories in posts #15 and 16.

I am very happy with the skirt, it cost me all of 1€  in material plus the dye (and several hours worth of work).

linking with:
Refashion First Friday
Recycled Fashion
Visible Monday
Mix-It
Me-Made-Mittwoch

20. Freezing in red and brown

It's freezing again. There hasn't been much summer yet, I see some people wearing their winter coats (fake fur looks so wrong in May) or tights and boots. I refuse to wear winter garb anymore, there will be a long winter to do just that.
Instead I grabbed some darker colors and a bit heavier materials. Everything is cotton, but just thicker. (Yes, those are bare legs. I refuse tights in summer.) At home I wear woolly socks and wrap myself in a blankie, that's how cold it is.

skirt: Flare (Stockholm 2010)
tee: Pimkie (Wien 2013)
cardi: a recent remake
shoes: Gabor (2010)

A close-up on the beautiful patterns that work surprisingly well together:

I love the earrings, they are a recent acquisition from etsy. This is how I wear my florals!

It's funny to think that next week this time I'll be working. I'm cramming for last exams (Monday Tuesday) and then off I go. I am not particularly looking forward to my new job, but a girl's got to eat...it's one of the realities in life.

14. mayday, mayday

On May 1st Europe shuts down. It's our Labor Day, day for marching along for better work conditions (if so inclined) or for having a picnic, barbeque or a long walk in the woods (if so inclined).

I am invited to a barbeque, which is not going to be in a park nor in a garden, instead in the stony court yard of a city apartment. Weather is coolish, so I may wear this outfit.  There is a draped jersey tank  under the leather jacket and a jersey skirt (patterned as not to show spills...).
If you are looking for Recycled Fashion, please scroll down.

jacket: me-made (2013)
skirt: me-made (2013)
top: H&M (2006)
shoes: Gabor (2009)
necklace and pin (2013)

I played around with jewelry and hung a yellow flower bouquet brooch pin onto the necklace that is fashioned from two bracelets a while ago (see post#7). I thought the pin adds the outfit a nice spring flair.  Though maybe a tad much for a barbeque?

jersey fabric with a houndstooth netting for lining

Skirt is a recent make. I showed one last week that I had made out of one yard of jersey - this is the very same cut. Another impulse buy fabric which I spontaneously liked but originally thought hard to combine. But it turns out I have things to combine. I like summer darks like aubergine and bittersweet,  both go well with this.

Now for the Refashion part:
I have been coveting a draped suede cardigan jacket. This Draped Paper Weight Suede Jacket made my heart go pitty-pat - it would have been a dream. But as always, dreams come with a hefty price tag...
When life threw a vintage 1980's suede costume my direction I grabbed it with both hands. 2€ for the set, I could not believe my ears.

 

It was of course very dated plus several sizes too small.

For my draped jacket, I took a Burda pattern (from magazine 11/2012 #132). I modified the fronts to be more square and extended them a good 8"/ 20cm to give them enough drape.
I cut the back from the existing back, sleeves from sleeves and the fronts from the skirt.
I used the old lining, too. I took no photos of the process, so I leave you with the finished photo for comparison of before - after.

Now I am left with a heap of odd leather bits which I am going to use to make something for my Medieval wardrobe. By the by,  I have added a link to my Medieval blog for those who might be interested. Be warned, there is no juicy clothing to be seen just yet (as I lost all the photos from last year), just a few random thoughts on research.

Had there been enough leftover scraps, this is what I would have loved to make! Leather ...um... stockings? What do you think?

linking with:
me-made-Mittwoch
Mix-it
Recycled Fashion Finds
we are beautiful
Refashion Co-op First Friday

11. Wednesday is upon us

- and so is warm weather. I love the transition for it's layering possibilities. One still needs a jacket, sometimes a cardigan will do, too. Legs can be bared, shoes can get thinner and more playful, oh yes, this is my kind of weather.

My sewing bee in the Spring Break produced some new clothing.  I need at least one black-and-white skirt in summer. They are so versatile and undemanding, I can pick any color for top and be done with thinking. This one has a pleasing faintly 1970's style geometric pattern and a non-iron fabric.
This being transition I could pair it with a silver grey silk blend cardigan and a midnight navy cowl neck tee. And my Mid Mod pendant was perfect for this look. (A close up of it can be seen in post #3.) Now if only I could find some square toed 60's - 70's style shoes somewhere...

skirt: refashion (2013)
top: Marco Polo (2009)
cardigan: silk knit no-name (2013)
pendant: 1970's design from Finland, via etsy (2012)
shoes: Bally (2010)

Now for the Refashion:
This simple a-line skirt was picked up at a flea market last fall. I liked the fabric and the fact it was about 6 sizes too large, because this would give me enough fabric.

I wasn't going to do anything in the back, so I took out the front waistband only.

The darts were let out. Then I created a soft pleat in the front by marking the center,  folding both sides so that they would overlap.

I cut the front waistband to fit the new front.

I am a sucker for tulip shape and to get that I created an angle along the side seams. As you can see, I let out the hem first, the cut off a wedge on both sides at about 130 degrees angle to the side seam.

I shortened it, too. After some re-hemming I had myself a new skirt. Cost: 1€ and 1h. Can't beat that!

linking with: me-made-Mittwoch
Mix-It

7. Friday colors

I have been called the Queen of Grey. I really truly love grey, almost any shade of it. It's so versatile, it's so elegant, it's so, uh,  - mousy?  It didn't go well with my grey hair which is why I resorted to coloring back to my own brown shade rather than re-thinking my wardrobe choices.
(If you are looking for Refashion how-to, scroll further down.)

The blue of this shirt was my color addiction from my teens to mid-thirties. My grandma was a painter and this was one of the shades she used frequently. Hence I coined the name Grandma Blue, and it stuck in our family. I'm so glad the color is available again. I think I'm ready for another round.

I have been quoted to say I could eat that color with a spoon, I loved it so. It's also a perfect color for an introvert. As I grew out of being painfully shy I started adding other colors, like reds and purples. I don't like to wear black but I see the usefulness of it, like for shoes, tights, pants and skirts.

So in a way today's wardrobe choices are a walk through my personal color history. What about you? Do you have a color history?

The snow has started melting, but this new cord skirt (newly re-fashioned that is) is going to be very useful for the week(s) ahead.

skirt: me-made 2013
shirt: C&A Wien 2013
cardigan: Vienna International Christmas Bazaar, Mongolian Stand, 2012
shoes: Deichmann Wien 2013
red leather necklace: Blickfang Designer Show, Wien 2012
leather "necklace": NDH. It's two such bracelets hung together:

(click to enlarge)





Here comes the refashion part:

My heart skipped a beat when I found these vaguely 70's style cord pants, in grey and black stripe. (The shirt I didn't need as it turned out)
I cut the length using my skirt sloper.

Front and back seams were cut straight and sewed together.

I am far bigger than the pants (see my regular skirt waist above), which means new side panels hat to be cut.

I cut them from the left-over pant legs.

Here is a detail of the inserted panel.

Lining came from another skirt on the to-be-refashioned pile. It was shortened, hemmed and attached.
The bottom was hemmed with a black bias tape.




I sewed a piece of elastic on both sides towards the bottom to make this more of a balloon shape. It didn't work the way I envisioned, I got those funny dutch cap points instead (see first photo). Never mind, it's quirky and I like quirky.

Pants 1€, sewing thread 2.5€, lining for free. Time: a day, on and off.


linking up with: Refashion Co-op's First Friday

4. Is it Spring yet? No? Then let's do some reverse applique...

Mad snowfalls, freezing nights and grey dismal days - no, this is not my idea of spring. Three weeks ago it was warm enough to go in a spring coat, now I have had to resort to winter woolies. Not that I hate woolies, but a change would be nice.

In anticipations of days to come I did a "small" refashion.
I had to use the quotation marks. Because isn't this what all the refashion tutorials tell you, "it only took half an hour", "it was nothing", and the like?

Well, I won't lie. This took me two days, and only because I have spring break and can sew for hours on end.







A friend of mine cleaned up her closet and I was fortunate to get some nice t-shirts. One of them had holes and it was also too short, the second was way too big.

To make a shirt that would fit just right I overlapped the two and sewed the layers together. I used machine for this step, as the purely hand stitched layers I had done in the past disintegrated too fast.

Here you see my sketchy marking lines.

I am preparing here for the reverse applique, a process where part of the top layer is cut off to reveal the color underneath.

After stitching I cut holes (as per design). At this point I was getting lazy and contemplated leaving the  design as is.


Machine sewing had taken several hours, cutting likewise, and I wasn't looking forward to hand stitching.

I am glad I did, though. It looks so much more finished now. The stitching "only" took like four re-runs of Project Runway.
 
I first did my layered embroidery tee-shirts in 2001/2002 when we were living in Brooklyn. It must have been in the water, because Project Alabama was starting their similarly reversed embroidery clothing around that time. Then the founder eventually sold off, went another route and became this lovely supplier of make-it-yourself layered embroidery items.

I don't have all the fancy utensils that are required by Alabama Chanin way of design.
There are lovely projects out there, I found this blogger's work very refreshing. She also works with refashioned t-shirts.
And here is a great entry by another blogger.

Doing a happy dance here which made the photo slightly out of focus. Note how the design curves towards the center, I like that very much.













Back is just plain.

and here is the inside view (when everything was finished)

 Would I do this again? Two free t-shirts into a fabulous conversation piece?? Heck yes! It was not a quickie, but the result is so worth it.