FO: This Vera Top Used To Be a Dress!

This project had an unconventional start. I was walking through Old Navy (which is an incredibly rare occurrence one its own) and was loving the fact that they had so many items in my favorite color green. I grabbed a few items, but they had one that I would never wear: A spaghetti strap knit dress.

 

The fabric was a lovely and soft viscose jersey and I felt it thinking I wish it was not this dress. I went home and was ordering a different dress from their website (because they didn't have my size in the store) and I had the idea - Duh! I can sew things. And this dress has more than enough fabric to remake into a top I would love. 

I made a whole video where I outline the whole process of using this dress as yardage - things to consider, how to know if you have enough for the pattern you want to make, etc. Click through to watch the video and see how to do this for yourself!

This is still a blog though, so now back to the regular post about this FO :)

I was able to cut the front and back pieces on the fold at the center front and back of the dress, so these areas all look exactly as any other shirt would. I went with my new love - The Vera Knit Top, which is a free pattern from Forget-Me-Not Patterns. This pattern is everything a free pattern should be - a wonderful gift to test out the style of that company's patterns and get a great garment in the process.

The first time I made this pattern, I was very happy with how it turned out, but having never sewn a V neckline before it wasn't 100% perfect. I am so proud of the V on this version. It turned out exactly with the seam on the middle line of the V. Excellent. 

Really the only difference between this version and one sewn from yardage is that I have a seam going down the center of the sleeves. With these large sleeves and limited fabric, I had to use the original side seams. I just made sure to line up that seam with the center of the pattern piece and it is perfectly aligned with the shoulder seam, so it looks very deliberate. If I didn't tell people this was formerly the skirt of a dress, they would never know. The seam line just looks like a design detail.

I am so incredibly happy with how this top turned out. I have worn it several times already and it goes with a surprising amount of my skirts, which is a great bonus considering I was so smitten with the color that I didn't really think about how well it would incorporate into my wardrobe, lol. Now no knit dress is safe! They all look like fabric to me :)

Summary:

Fabric: Size 4X Old Navy Dress - $15

Pattern: Vera Top by Forget me Not Patterns - Free

Notions: Thread - Free

Time: 3 Hours

Total Cost: $15

FO: Khaki Linen Skirt Refashion

I have been on a major linen kick lately - not just with sewing, but also hunting it down in thrift stores and online second hand apps like Mercari, Poshmark, and ThredUp. This skirt was found at Goodwill (who honestly just tick me off every time I go in one, but I digress) for $6.99, which is way more expensive than I would usually pay for a skirt at a thrift store, but it was a neutral color, ankle length, 100% linen skirt from a good brand that I knew I could refashion into something I would wear, so I bought it. 

At first my plan was just to shorten the skirt to knee length and add patch pockets using the piece of fabric I cut from the bottom, so I started there. I just put the skirt on and folded up the hem until it hit were I wanted and pinned it. This wound up being just over 10 inches shorter than it came to me as. I sewed a 1 inch hem to match the original (which took like 20 minutes) and then tried it on. It was definitely better, but I just didn't love the elastic waist on me, so I decided to jump into altering the waist to have elastic in the back and a flat front. This lead to me unpicking the French seams at the sides (never in my life have I owned a store bought item with French seams), then cutting a curve to the front edges and stabilizing the front waistband before resewing the side seams and casing at the back. I didn't love how the fabric pulled at the side seams where it changed from front to elastic back, but I decided to just see if pockets distracted from this issue.

I moved on to the pockets. I decided to draft my own because I wasn't finding any patterns in my stash with patch pockets like I was envisioning. To do this I just laid my phone down on a piece of tracing paper and traced out a pocket that would be big enough to hold it. Then I cut  from the excess fabric piece using the original hem as the top of the pocket opening to save myself a little work. I eyeballed my first pocket placement and then measured to make the other look symmetrical. Then I top stitched in hopes that I was finished with this skirt. When I tried it on at the end, I discovered that the pockets were placed just a bit too high and center - I should have tried it on and then placed the first pocket in the mirror *sigh*. It was wearable, for sure, but that night I thought I would unpick it all again to redo. I hung it in my closet and just worked on other things until I felt like unpicking it again, but then I was taking photos of the other things I've made lately and decided to go ahead and photograph this one as well just like it was. And you know what? I don't hate it. 

Admittedly, the tush area is not exactly doing me any favors. It just feels like there is too much fabric gathered there. I think the main issue is actually that it should be slightly more snug over my hips. This added area from it being a wider size originally is kind of giving my hips the illusion of being wider, which is not something that ever makes feel my best. The reality is, though, that I will always wear this with a shirt that covers the waistband area. If I wear it with a looser top - like my linen Cielo, for example - the problem areas are all covered up and it's just a straight khaki skirt. So I'm keeping it as-is for now.

I did a little tag alteration wizardry on this piece as well. The tag was originally longer and said size 18 at the top with a name written in the space above in permanent marker. Now I'm not squeamish about wearing secondhand clothing in any way whatsoever at this point, but having someone's name inside tells me that this belonged to someone in a nursing home of some kind, and the fact that they gave this skirt away kind of tells me they are probably no longer with us. That's just the reality of donated clothes, but at the same time it's not something I want to be reminded of every time I put on a piece of clothing, you know? Since I had the waistband open anyway, I decided to unpick that tag and just fold it lower so I could tuck the unwanted info up inside and stitch over it. The result came out better than I expected - now the previous owner's name as well as the original size are completely gone. I'm not prissy about sizes in clothes either - things either fit you or they don't, the number doesn't matter - but at the same time it's nice to not have to see a size that I was before I lost weight every time I put this skirt on. Maybe that's vanity, but either way it was a simple change to make, and this skirt is no longer that size anyway. Now it's size Megan.

The finished skirt came out as a great basic in a beautiful fabric. This khaki has a greenish tinge to it - the thread I used was obviously green and it matched perfectly - but it actually is the perfect cool tone to go with a lot of other things I wear.

The pockets are maybe a bit narrow, but still fit my hand or my phone, so that's all I can ask for, really. I like the shape.

I still don't absolutely love the waistband transition from the elastic to non areas, but it's not bugging me enough to change it yet and I have worn this to work with no issues.

And this is how the skirt looks how I will wear it. Still looks good to me :) This is a really comfy basic skirt to have, and the linen makes it wonderfully breezy for Florida summer. I'm sure this will be used for a long time to come.

WIP Wednesday: New MKAL, Seaming, and Refashioning!

Well, my kids are officially in school, which means I have just bumped up my knitting time in a huge way. Due to when their school starts compared to when I have to be at work combined with the distance I live from said school and work, I wind up with a couple of hours of time to kill each morning now. PLUS I have the car pickup line to knit as well. I've been frustrated about not having much knitting time this whole summer, but now it's been a huge consolation for having to wake up so early. 

I decided a month ago that I would join the Sweet Georgia Yarns' Playin' My Song mystery shawl knit along, so I pre-purchased the pattern and then waited for August 15th for the first clue to be released. I've gone a bit rogue with my yarn choices - they recommend sock yarn, but I've chose this set of lace weight Swan Lake by Lotus Yarns that I got from Temu a few months ago and I just really want to work with. These are a cashmere/wool/angora blend and they are just so soft and lovely. The lace weight makes for a light and airy shawl, but living in Florida I could use a little airiness for sure. So I'm about to cast on my shawl and have fun with the mystery :)

My car knitting has been to finish the second front panel of my Susan Shaw cardigan. I followed the original vintage directions and pressed the pieces with a damp cloth and it actually worked very well. I've only ever soaked and pinned out to dry for blocking before, but I was pretty impressed by the results with this method and it was so much faster.

Now I'm working on seaming the panels together so I can try it on and then I have to decide if I want to seam the sleeves like the pattern calls for or just knit the sleeve on the arm hole. I'm still undecided. I've never really made many seamed designs before (not intentional, I just have always been drawn to designs that are seamless), so I'm hoping this goes well.

And on the sewing front, I've been working on what I thought would be a quickie refashion, but has turned into a full reconstruction, lol. I got this Orvis brand linen skirt at a thrift store with the plan of making it knee length and adding patch pockets, but it's turned out to be much more work than that. All worth it, though, to have a good khaki skirt in such a lovely fabric, so I will persevere!

What are you working on this week? Are you feeling the approach of fall yet?

FO: Halloween Costumes 2022

I just posted my kids' Christmas dresses thinking I had finished posting about last year's makes. Wrong! I skipped Halloween, lol. I went into last Halloween a few months before thinking I would sew my kids' costumes. They ask me if I will make them a _____ for Halloween all year long, and I always say yes, but they change it every few days all year long. When it gets closer to the actual month it will happen, I pay attention to what they as for, and they had both been stuck on something very specific for a few months by the time Halloween actually came around. One wanted to be Brutus from The Rescuers (a crocodile, lol), and the other wanted to be a Blue Fairy. I thought this wouldn't be a problem, but I honestly looked for 2 months for green fabric that wasn't fleece and I couldn't find anything. My sister happened to be at Target and saw an alligator costume for $25, so I decided that her being happy and me being off the hook was more important than me feeling like I made the whole thing. I bought one. 

So one girl was done, but the blue fairy proved much more complicated. They had one fairy looking dress at Target, but it was not blue, and it was also $25 so I didn't want to spend the money if it wasn't what she wanted, you know? Then no joke 2 days later I was looking around in a thrift store and found THE EXACT dress I had looked at on Target's website. It was the right size and it was only $2, so I decided the universe was throwing me a bone and I bought it. 

So this was what I started with - a green and purple dress. I had about a yard of blue poly crepe satin in my stash that someone gave me who knows when. I used tracing paper to trace out the general shape of the bodice and then cut out a piece of satin. I serged the edges (because this stuff frays like the dickens), and then I just folded the edges under as needed and hand sewed it under the trim pieces. The trim covered the stitching perfectly and it worked great. The back got a little more complex, but honestly it still finished off cleaner than the store had left theirs (all these cheap costumes are just serged on the edges and then have velcro spots sewn on for closure).

Next came the skirt. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a few yards of each color of blue tulle they had. Tulle is just so cheap that it wasn't a big deal to grab a bunch to play with. At home I played around with layering the blue tulle pieces over top of the purple that was already there. I wound up using just one color of the tulle I bought but I believe this is 3 or 4 layers of it. I sewed a gathering stitch at the waist and then just hand sewed it under the green flaps at the waist to secure it. The blue tulle wasn't quite as long as the original purple, but this was actually better because it meant my daughter wouldn't step on the blue and rip the whole thing off.

I felt bad that my crocodile didn't get anything made by me for her costume, so when she asked me for hand and feet covers, I decided to go for it. I grabbed some cheap green fabric at Hobby Lobby (this is that paper stuff they make reusable shopping bags out of) simply because it was the only fabric that was the right color. I grabbed the shoe covers from a costume they wore years before (a puppy) and just eye-balled the same shape but made them fit their current shoes. Then I took triangles of green felt and sewed on claws. I added an elastic strap across the bottom of the foot and it was good. The hands are done in a similar fashion but with 2 straps of clear elastic to hold them on. Done!

For this part being so cheap and thrown together, I was actually pretty pleased with how they turned out. My little crocodile was happy too.

Next she kept saying that she needed to be fat like Brutus in the movie, so I used the remainder of the blue poly satin and sewed a pillow to stuff in her tummy. 

So things might not be as home made as I wanted them to be, but I'm pretty proud of what I was able to pull off for my little ladies. They both loved their costumes and still dress up in them now all the time.

We went to our church Trunk or Treat as well as trick or treating around my parents' neighborhood. They weren't too sweaty, which is quite a feat in Florida, and they got lots of candy. The crocodile even had glow in the dark spots. Everyone was happy, which is really all you can ask for, right?

I'm glad I was able to make my girls the exact costumes they wanted and that they got to choose things to customize them. They love Halloween and I know this coming year with be no different. Sheesh, I can't believe it's already almost the fall. Gotta start planning, lol. 

 

FO: Stonecrop Tote #SomethingOldSomethingNewMAL

We are jumping around in making order with this post. This is actually something that I just recently finished (whaaat?). The deadline for this project is June 7th, so I wanted to have all the particulars posted by then.

I love make alongs - it's rare that I can join them due to usually having a deadline I need to finish certain projects by, etc. Every once in a while one comes along at the right time and I am able to jump in and I find it's like inspiration and motivation just flow. Love it.

This project came about due from the Something Old, Something New Make Along hosted by Tayler Earl of Wool Needles Hands. In honor of Earth Day being last month, she wanted this to be about repurposing and using what we have - both things I love to do. The prompt was:

• Not a garment or wearable accessory
• Made with stash yarn
• Incorporate something repurposed (i.e. yarn from an unraveled sweater, etc)
• 1 month to complete

I love a challenge and a precise framework, and it just so happens that I had a great idea. I had learned about the Stonecrop Tote from a different podcaster, The Copycat Stitch (can you tell I like watching knitting podcasts? lol). It looked very cute so I had it on my wish list already, but having a challenge come up that was mainly about making bags made me look at it closer. I used Ravelry to hunt my stash for appropriate yarn and came up with 2 skeins of James C. Brett Marble Chunky in the purple colorway. This yarn had been given to me by a woman who was destashing her sewing supplies to me, but she tried knitting once and decided she didn't like it. So she gave me a big handmade duffle bag with about 5 skeins of bulky and super bulky yarns. I so rarely use yarn that big that I had no idea what I would do with these gigantic skeins, so when I saw that they would work for this pattern I knew it was meant to be. 

I did make some alterations to this pattern on the fly. It has you create the bottom and then just crochet in the round up from there, but when I made the prescribed bottom piece I knew the bag would be much smaller than I was wanting from the example photo. I am a notoriously tight crocheter - I make toys, after all - so I don't fault the pattern for this size discrepancy. I decided to just increase the bottom until it had 11 stitches between each short corner and then follow the directions from there. As the bag got taller, the sides seemed to splay out more than I wanted, so I did a decrease at each corner about 5 inches up from the bottom, then kept on going. Toward the top, I noticed it was still a little too wide open, so I decreased 4 stitches again about 5 rows from the top edge, and this certainly seemed to do the trick. My repurposed element would take care of the handles, so I just crocheted this baby until I used up all the yarn, which is great because now a yarn that I had no idea what to do with is not taking up room in my stash and it is a useful item. Perfect :)

Now for the repurposed part. I had planned on using some of the creamy colored leather pieces that I scalped off a couch that was in the trash at a condo I lived in years ago. I've used it here and there for a few handles, but barely made a dent in the stash. Perfect opportunity to use some more! BUT when I pulled out my box of leather, I discovered several belts that I forgot I had thrifted at some point. I had 2 other options, but I decided to go with a brown belt (originally from The Limited). I unpicked the seaming to hold the buckle on, gauged how big I could make the handles, and cut. I rounded the exposed edges and then used a heavy duty upholstery thread in my stash and started off just using the old stitching lines from the buckle and then matched that by hand on the other ends to attach it to the bag. Because of the size I wanted the handles to be, I decided to just incorporate some of the original belt holes on one side, and honestly I really like this as a feature now. It's a nice little nod to what this originally was. 

Once the handle was on, I could have just stopped and had a useable bag. Being me, I couldn't just let it lie. I didn't want to the bag to stretch out over time, and I knew a lining would greatly help with that situation. I went through my stash of fabric that was given to me (by a different person), and after much deliberation, I decided on a dark paisley print cotton. I was feeling a little of the ~dark academia~ vibe from the bag in general, so I felt that this print complimented that idea. 

To make the lining, I laid the bag out on the fabric and cut around (accounting for seam allowance). Then I cut out a pocket. I sewed the pocket first, then top stitched it to the lining, then put the lining together. Next, I wanted to add a magnetic closure to the top. I was given a lot of these as well, so why not? I added the closure to the lining, interfacing the area where the tabs to secure the closure. I did have to add some tucks in the fabric to account for my decreasing as the bag got taller, but I just did that as I hand stitched the lining below the top edge. 

So this is truly the most repurposed project I could muster - all the materials were pre-owned, most of which were destashed to me. The only thing I bought was the belt YEARS ago, and that was only $1. I'm pretty ridiculously proud of that. I could have gone a step further and used an old sweater worth of yarn, but realistically with my schedule and how crazy my life has been, I know I would not have been able to make that happen in the 1 month time period. I'm very happy with my new bag :) So much so that I've been carrying it to work everyday since I finished it. It works great to carry my lunch, my knitting, a book, etc. I was worried maybe the handles would need reinforcing, but they've held up great. The bag gets a little lumpy sometimes, but that's just the nature of anything crocheted or knitted, you know? It holds everything I need and it contributes to my general librarian-esque aesthetic. What's not to love?

I'm so glad that I found out about this Make Along. I had a lot of fun puzzling out this project and just as much fun making it up. Now I have a bag to use that I'm sure I would never have made otherwise. Thanks to Taylor of Wool Needles Hands for such a great prompt and excuse to make this up!

Summary:

Yarn: 2 Skeins of James C Brett Marble in Purple - Free

Fabric: 1/2 yard paisley cotton - Free

Notions: Leather belt (thrifted) - $1.00, magnetic purse closure - Free

Time: 1 week

Total Cost: $1.00

Refreshing Old Makes: Dying My Favorite Skirt

Today's post is another simple one with a big result. My Brown Melissa Skirt is, to this day, still one of my favorite things I've ever sewn. I posted this back in November of 2015 (!) and I wore this skirt at least once a week (usually a few times a week, to be honest) for years. Years! But over time, the color in the skirt faded pretty badly - also I gained weight and wasn't able to wear this for about a year - plus one day when I did try to wear it, I noticed a few oil spots that I spent quite a bit of time trying to remove to no avail. I folded this up in my sewing stuff and would occasionally try removing the stains only to be disappointed each time. Last month I started going through some of my old makes I hadn't been able to fit into due to my weight gain - I've lost weight recently and wanted to see what beloved pieces were now wearable again - and this skirt popped into my head. When I discovered it fit great, I knew it was time to finally buy some hard core dye and try to get this back into rotation again.

This skirt is made of a mystery thrift store fabric that I have never been able to successfully identify. I knew it had some polyester in it, which meant that regular Rit dye wouldn't work. I had to buy Rit Dye More, which is designed for synthetic fabrics. I will confess I was afraid that I would spill this dye in my kitchen and irreparably stain something, which also made my put off this project. But I really wanted to wear this on my trip to Epcot in September, so I bit the bullet and risked it. 

Unlike regular Rit dye, Rit Dye More is a bit more particular with how to get the best results. You have to do this in a pot on the stove to keep the temperature consistently high. You're supposed to mix the dye then sustain just before boiling in the water for the entire duration and you're supposed to keep your piece in the dye for at least 30 minutes, stirring constantly. 

Not having any throw away utensils on hand, I used a large wooden paint stick to stir my skirt. Waiting for that huge pot to almost boil took quite a while (I used my canning pot because it's the biggest I have and it doesn't get any food put in it so I wouldn't worry about ingesting chemicals from the dye later on), but then the standing at the pot and stirring for 30 minutes felt a bit like an eternity. The whole process took about an hour and a half with all that heat up time and everything. Then it tells you to rinse in cool water until the water runs clean, and for good measure I threw it in the washing machine with a color catcher and a mild detergent just to make sure I wouldn't end up with dye transfer later.

After all was finished and dried, this was my skirt :) It's not quite as dark as when I first made it, but I love this nice medium brown I achieved. It's certainly much deeper than the faded mess I started with. Also if I decide I want it darker one day, I could just do the whole process again and maybe keep it in longer. We'll see if the sewing lasts long enough for me to contemplate that, lol.

And happily, my oil stain is almost completely masked by the darker color. I can see it because I knew exactly where it was, but no one else notices a thing while I'm wearing it. Success! Also a happy byproduct of the dye is that it dyed my buttons as well. The buttons are a carved resin, and a few of them had worn down through the brown colored outside into the gray centers with time and probably slapping the insides of my dryer. Now the buttons are evenly brown again, even on the areas that were gray. Yay!

I know this is a terrible picture, but this is how it looks on :) I wore this to Disney all day and had no dye rubbed on my undies, which was another worry of mine. I'm happy to report that dying this was much easier, if a little more time consuming, than I originally thought and I would have no qualms dying a synthetic fabric again in the future should the need arise. Now I have my favorite skirt back and wearable. Yay for refreshing old makes!

FO: Refashioned Old Navy Top

So this project is so simple it kind of feels like cheating to even make a blog post about it, but I haven't posted any refashions in a while and I thought I could show how such a simple thing can transform a piece into something you love. 

I found this at a thrift store a while ago - it was an odd length - too long to be a shirt, too short to be a dress for anyone with any decency, lol. I suppose it was a "tunic", but I just don't do tunic length anything. It's probably the most unflattering length I could wear. I really liked the top itself, and I purchased it knowing I would shorten the hem. During the time when I was waiting for Hurricane Dorian to not show up, I came across this top and decided that I could totally have a new shirt to wear that day with very little effort. So I finally re-did the hem :)

I really like a lot of the details on this top. It's originally from Old Navy, but I love the exposed zipper at the neck, the contrast fabric yoke and pocket. It's just a fun piece that I doubt I would've ever made myself yet I really love.

I started by putting it on and deciding on the length I wanted. I marked it all around and chopped off about 9 or 10 inches from the length.

See what I mean? Indecent dress length, lol. At least on me, that is.

 Next, I just pressed my hem under and stitched it with my preferred twin needle and wooly nylon thread in the bobbin.

Just look at that fine hem! This whole thing took seriously about 20 minutes, and most of that was deciding on the length I wanted and then marking it correctly. 

So there you go - my shirt that I was able to wear out 20 minutes later :) I love the finished product, and I just share it to show that refashions don't have to be some big ordeal. Sometimes it's the really simple fixes that give us pieces we can love and wear for a long time. Yay for easy changes!