Tag: upcycling

Making Do and Mending

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Well, isn’t this irritating? One freshly-dyed white t-shirt (Dylon Rosewood Red, not as lurid as it appears in these photos!) complete with stain that, annoyingly, wasn’t visible when the t-shirt was white. Now that the t-shirt’s dyed I can’t use a stain-removal product or scrub at the fabric, as that will most likely take off the dye as well as the stain. My only option now is to cover it up with something.

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That’s better! A bit out of focus, but these are floral motifs carefully snipped from a small piece of Lancaster & Cornish organic cotton lace. I’m hoping there might be just enough loose dye still in the fabric that a little bit of it leaches out into the lace the next time it’s washed, just to soften the cream colour a little bit. But if that doesn’t happen, no worries, because the cream lace makes the white stitching on the t-shirt look as bit more as though it’s supposed to be white on purpose.

Knowing that the stitching wouldn’t take the dye was the main reason I chose the colours I did for dyeing my trousers – beige to dark brown, and pale blue to dark grey. With the contrast stitching they just look like smart, lightweight jeans. I also have plans for mending all of my funny-coloured trousers in the future. I’m on the look-out for small pieces of Liberty print fabrics that I can use for patching, and maybe for adding a hint-of-a-print on the turn-ups. Hopefully that will be a long way off yet though!

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While I was mending things, I made the decision to take two of my most beloved t-shirts out of my wardrobe. This Suzanne Vega t-shirt is from the very first gig I ever went to – at the Wulfrun Civic Hall in Wolverhampton, on April 8th 1993. (We were sitting three rows from the back, and Suzanne Vega had a cough.) Having been worn pretty often over the past 22 years, although recently relegated to hospital wear or pyjamas only, it’s safe to say that this t-shirt is very much past its best! But there was no way on earth I was going to throw it out, and it’s really not fit to give to a charity shop, so it was the work of about five minutes to turn it into a cushion. The tour dates are on the back.

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The same fate befell my other favourite t-shirt, also purchased in 1993, this time from Forbidden Plant in Hanley. I didn’t own any other green clothes, and it was far too big for me (being a men’s size XL), but I just had to have it. It saw me through art college and University, but again, it’s not even really fit to wear as pyjamas any more. But, because it was still in my wardrobe, it kept mysteriously finding its way out and onto my body. Drastic measures clearly had to be taken. So, cushion it is.

(No, I don’t iron my bedding. Sorry, Mum!)

Making these two cushions from my favourite t-shirts has made me wonder though – are there any items in my current wardrobe that I can imagine myself still wanting to keep in 22 years’ time?!

Not quite a pillowcase top

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Still feeling inspired by the Great British Sewing Bee, this time the alteration challenge to create something from a pair of curtains. I’ve done a fair amount of fabric recycling in the past, from curtains, duvet covers, and end-of-roll fabrics. The tunic dress above was made from a gorgeous brand new vintage bed sheet, and I was able to use the border print along the hem.

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I was suddenly inspired to make a little cropped layering top, that I could fit onto just a pillowcase-sized piece of fabric, so I opened up my pattern drafting software and came up with this. Sadly it doesn’t fit onto a pillowcase, because I hadn’t taken into account the actual size of a pillowcase when I was working on the design. Oops. It does however fit onto a single metre of fabric, so it’s a very economical little top.

This prototype version is cut on the bias and has a seam down the centre front and back. The only reason for that is because the pieces were cut from the skirt of a dress that I made years ago, and never wore, so it’s still fabric recycling in that sense. It would definitely look better without the seam, and in this type of fabric I don’t think having it on the bias really makes all that much difference.

IMG_4931I’d originally envisaged wearing this with trousers and a long-sleeved t-shirt, or maybe over a camisole top in the summer. When I had a rummage in my wardrobe though, I spotted this empire-line dress and thought they’d go really well together!

The top is designed to be reversible, with the v-neck at the front if you have a pretty necklace to show off, or at the back if you have, say, a lovely tattoo, or perhaps you just prefer the higher neckline. This one is finished with some vintage nylon lingerie trim, but I can also imagine it with very fine organic cotton lace. In fact it would look lovely with some deeper lace around the hem as well.

10406953_10152469716633829_8661130960669008137_nIn fact, way back in May, I bought a little pile of organic cotton fabrics, most of which are about a metre in size. The bicycle print and the matching spots have been turned into a tunic for a friend, but all the others are still sitting in my stash. I think I might have just discovered what to do with them!

 

 

 

Test Vest

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This is Kwik Sew 3524, a simple-looking strappy vest top. It’s made from two of Paul’s old t-shirts. It looks okay, but there are a couple of things I’d change. The join of the straps to the body is a bit bulky, I’m sure there’s a better way of putting that togther. And the neck is just a little bit wonky, which a line of top stitching would fix, no problem.

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This is the inside, which is lined with a shelf bra. Again, it’s okay, but I don’t like having that inch of nylon elastic directly against the skin, when it could be hidden between the two layers of nice soft cotton. And I need to join the two layers together at the side seam, otherwise it takes a certain amount of faffing about to make the two layers line up neatly. And who has time for faffing when they’re trying to put their vest on in the morning?

Anyway, thanks to our impending house move (have I mentioned that yet? I’m not really on top of what’s going on around here lately), Paul has pulled a big pile of surplus-to-requirements t-shirts out of his wardrobe. His clear-out is my gain, because I now have plenty of nice soft jersey to have a couple more test runs at this.

Hopefully the eventual result will be a nice soft, comfortable vest!