FO: Stripey Plan-Frew Refashion

You guys - I made my first ever striped shirt! And it's a refashion!

Here is what the shirt originally was purchased as:

It was a Bobbie Brooks rayon/poly size small maxi dress. It was a fine enough (if poorly made) dress to begin with, but I am no size small and I liked the fabric. For $1.00, I figured it would be a good opportunity to try out stripe matching.

I've been really into a looser fit on striped shirts lately. I have 2 thrifted shirts that I love the fit of - this one was my example. I started off with the Plantain pattern since it's loose at the waist, and I compared the pattern to the cut of this shirt. I ended up adding in a 1" wedge to the side seam at the bust line. I also did my usual change of raising the neckline. Then I started cutting. The fabric is a light weight sweater knit that stretches well horizontally, but had zero vertical stretch. This meant it loved to roll at the edge, plus it wanted to unravel. I took my time cutting everything out so I could match the stripes.

I started off by adjusting the body pattern to be closer to my inspiration shirt. I simply folded that shirt perfectly in half, then laid the plantain front pattern piece over top to see what the difference was. I ended up adding a 1" wedge to the top of the underarm on the body, then did the same thing to the back pattern piece. This way I get a slightly looser fit at the bust and the rest of the pattern is already flowy enough to match the inspiration shirt.

Here's the stripe matching on my side seams. One side is perfect while the other is just ever so slightly off. I don't think anyone will ever notice, but I wish I had been a bit more careful. Oh well, it's way better than ready to wear clothes (especially considering this dress had zero stripes matched anywhere) and it will not keep me from enjoying it.

Here's my matched sleeve seam. I used the method of stripe matching that Sarai put out with the Dahlia Dress where you match it at the notches on the sleeves. This worked out great at that point, but it is a little off on all the other stripes :/ Oh well, you can't have everything and it's at least slightly off in the same way on each side so it looks symmetrical. It matches pretty well at the bust line, but you can see how it starts to veer apart. I think next time I will try to match it up a little higher so others can visually appreciate it, lol.

I decided to play with the stripe directions and cut the neckband on the cross grain. I was a little worried about i tat first since this fabric has absolutely no stretch in the cross direction, but the original dress had it so I thought it must work ok. Only after cutting out and piecing the neckband together did I notice the original was on the bias :/ It worked out ok though, and I lined up the seam I had to piece on the stripe edge so you would never know it was pieced together - score! The neckband certainly has less give than my other shirts, but I kind of like it that way - I don't have to worry about it sagging when I sit down. My other big change I made to the pattern was to raise the neckline to the Renfrew height and use that neckband pattern piece (thus the Plan-frew title). I love the height of this neckline!

My favorite part of this shirt is that perpendicular striped neckband - it's just so cool looking! I don't think I've ever had a ready to wear shirt that made this design choice, so it feels fancy I guess. 

I'm really happy with this little experiment, and I feel a little more confident in my pattern matching now while still learning things I need to change next time. 

Summary:
Fabric: thrifted Bobbie Brooks rayon/poly maxi dress - $1.00
Pattern: Deer + Doe Plantain with Sewaholic Renfrew neckline plus fit hacks
Notions: black knit stay tape - $0.15, thread - stash
Hours: 3
Total Cost: $1.15

FO: Southern Lady Plantain

It seems I have a Labor Day tradition of sewing t-shirts. Last year I used labor day to make my first ever knit tops, so I thought this year would be fun to keep that going. Plus, who am I kidding? Like I really need an excuse to make a t-shirt. 

I've had a stack of thrifted shirts sitting around waiting for new life to be stitched into them, and I thought that I would just whip them all up that day. That didn't happen, lol, but I did cut into almost all of them before I got bored and changed my project of the day. At least I finished this one first!

This spent the first who-knows-how-many-years of its existence looking like this:

Ugh, sorry for the terrible photos.

It's not too sad, really. I didn't like the neckline (or the huge facing inside - say no to knit neckline facings!), and the shoulders were a little wide, but I didn't mind the shirt other than those two things. I LOVE the print. I'm a big fan of paisley, and this shirt is a nice soft interlock (fast becoming my favorite fabric for cute t-shirts), and I even contemplated keeping the longer sleeves or at least keeping them elbow length. One of the best aspects of this shirt is the tag from the design company that made it: it's called Southern Lady! I thought it was so swanky that I just had to keep that name alive, thus the title of this shirt, lol.

I wanted to make my beloved Plantain out of this as much as was possible. The shirt wasn't wide enough to cut and sew again, so I kept it together at the sides, just tapering in a bit at the bust. I carefully cut the lined the shirt up at the side seams and traced the neckline on first. I made the neckline the highest I could make work with the button placket that was already there (which is the photo you see above), so it's higher than the pattern calls for but perfect for me. Then I cut a new armscye, cutting the sleeves off carefully at the seam line. I had hoped to keep elbow length sleeves and add elbow patches, but I was stuck with where to get the fabric for the new neckband. I couldn't use the facing I cut off because it was heavily interfaced and wouldn't stretch, and the hem was already the perfect length (with an oh so fancy blind hem to boot). In the end the only place I could harvest the fabric was from the sleeves, so I went with short sleeves and pieced the neckband out of two pieces from across the sleeves.

The one down side of this project was my thread choice. I wanted to make this that day, but the only thread I had in an appropriate color was actually button thread. Button thread is much thicker than regular thread, but I hoped that it wouldn't make much difference. Ho boy, I was wrong there. This is the only thing I've ever made where I can feel the thread while wearing it, and sadly it's a little scratchy - particularly at the arms. It's a more relaxed fit though overall, so it's not a deal breaker. I've worn the heck out of this shirt since Labor Day (including on that day as soon as I finished it). I did taper the sides in a little to meet up with the new armscyes, but left the body as it came everywhere else.

Details of course! Whenever I have to piece a neckband together, I make sure that the seams are near the shoulders so I avoid any visible seam lines. It ended up just a few inches in front of the shoulder seam here and with this busy fabric you can't see it at all. For some odd reason I decided to do the sleeve hems just single row like a normal hem. They are loose enough, so it's not an issue not having the extra stretch of the twin needle, plus I had no desire to wind a bobbin of that thick thread. And I just had to show off the fancy hem. Southern Lady indeed!

I seriously love this shirt and I love that it's sort of fall colored so I can feel seasonably appropriate for the rest of the world while staying cool in the still ridiculous Florida heat (though it is finally cooling down - yay!) I'm pretty proud of the fact that this shirt is so transformed and now I can wear it without feeling like a granny. And I just had to show my extra special touch ...

I sewed the original tag onto the seam allowance at the side seam! Now I can be a Southern Lady forever :) (the photo on the left is the tag attached to the original facing).

Summary:
Fabric: Southern Lady cotton interlock long sleeve shirt - thrifted, $1.00
Pattern: Plantain by Deer + Doe - Free
Notions: button thread - from stash
Hours: 2
Total Cost: $1.00

FO: Floral Plantain (a.k.a. The "Sexy Nightie" Shirt)

I'm seriously so stoked about the project I'm showing you today - it's easily my favorite t-shirt I've ever made! It has rather interesting beginnings, but first of all here is the finished product:

Hard to believe it came to me like this:

Isn't that a sexy photo? Now, this Carol Hochman nightgown was given to me by my husband's grandma probably a year or two ago. I'm appreciative, really, I'm just not a nightie wearer, you know? I knew I wouldn't wear it as it was, but being the hoarder I am I held onto it for the day that I got up the courage to make a t-shirt out of it since I really loved the floral print on the fabric.

When I pulled this out last few weeks ago, I had a decision to make - do I keep the top as-is and just hem it t-shirt length? Or should I redo it completely? The deciding factor ended up being the sleeves - the sleeves had a big gap below my armpit, and I knew that would never wear it like that out in public. So, I laid out my favorite t-shirt pattern, the Deer + Doe Plantain, and happily it fit! I could fit the front and back piece as well as the neck binding if I pieced it together. I found some white interlock in my stash that I could use for the sleeves, so I set to work dutifully picking everything apart to preserve as much fabric as possible. I've made this pattern a few times before, and while I love it, I've made little tweaks each time. Last time was my Cherry, Cherry Plantain, and I wear it quite a bit, but I have a few small issues I wanted to change this time: the neckline is just barely too low for my comfort, the seams have pulled a bit at the sides of the bust so I think it's a smidge too tight there, and the arms are a bit snug. These are all just minor things, but I figured I'd change them this time around to see if I liked it better a bit looser. My answer to the tightness was to simply use a smaller seam allowance - the pattern calls for 5/8", but I'm fairly confident with knits now so I just used a 3/8" allowance everywhere to see what this slight difference would feel like.

I had a little trouble with the neckband though - I could only fit the piece if I cut the piece about 1/3 narrower than the pattern piece. I hoped it would still work since the pattern has you cut off about that much in excess anyway, but with the seams underneath I just couldn't get the neckband to look good. It was wavy and not folded evenly no matter how hard I tried. So, I went back to the drawing board. I laid the white knit I was using for the sleeves under the neckline to see if I liked the look - it was ok, but seemed a bit too casual (if that makes sense) - it reminded me of a ringer tee. I had a sudden spark though when thinking of the picot trim around the neckline of the nightgown. It was certainly a nightgown-ish touch on the original product, but would it wok on my neckline here to dress things up a bit? I'm not a big "embellish-er" generally speaking. Personally I think most home-applied trims look very "Becky Home-Ecky", so I was hesitant. I sewed the white neckband on with a twin needle, and then figured, "What the hay?" and just put the picot trim on with the twin needle as well. I was still unsure ... until I finished the top. Now I absolutely LOVE this detail!

The smaller seam allowance made the fit on this spot on - it's loose and comfy, but fitted enough to give me a shape. I do notice some wrinkles above my armpit (when my arms are down - you can't see it in these photos), so I think next time I will do the 5/8" seam allowance just around the sleeves with the 3/8" everywhere else. I also love the neckline height - I brought the center of it up by 1" and shortened the neckband piece by 1" to compensate. It's now just high enough that I don't have to worry about flashing anyone my undies. I will confess that I was also worried about the different weights of the fabric on this (the floral is a thin jersey, while the white is a standard interlock weight), but it worked out just fine.

Just a few up-close shots. Check the neckline trim! Isn't it cute?! I'm glad that I went for it on this despite my hesitation. I think it gives the shirt just enough to make it a bit different - maybe not quite like an Anthropologie piece, but something like that, you know? It keeps the shirt nice and feminine without being in-your-face about it. Also, I'm really loving my twin hems now I've done so many - I'm learning what tensions work best and they feel much more sturdy now.

Not a ton of hanger appeal on this make, but my clothes are usually that way, lol.  These shots just really show the colors. Plus you can see how neat the neckband looks at the back :)

So, there you have it - my favorite t-shirt I've made so far. I've already worn this several times and I get compliments on it each time (sometimes before they know I made it - win!). I love wearing it with jeans because it feels relaxed but now sloppy. I've definitely learned that this pattern works best with this weight of jersey, so I'm sure you will see more jersey weight plantains from me in the future. Thanks, Nanny, for the cute night gown! I love it, lol.

Summary:
Fabric: Carole Hochman floral jersey nightgown - gifted, white interlock knit - stash
Pattern: Deer + Doe Plantain
Notions: pink picot trim - gifted (off of night gown), thread - stash
Hours: 4 (including unpicking)

FO: Altered Navy Pin Dot Skirt

I purchased this rather large skirt from a thrift store probably a year ago (maybe longer, to be honest). I was good and started pinning out the excess, but then had to stop for some reason ... and there it sat ... for probably that full year ... in my "wip" drawer. It still had the pins in it when I decided to unearth things in that drawer a few weeks ago. I'm not sure why I never finished this, but it was quick and easy and now I have a lovely new skirt!

I ended up removing about 5 or 6 inches from the waistline of this skirt. I split the difference between both sides, tapered out at my hips, then just angled ever so slightly out to the original fullness at the bottom hem. Seriously, this took an hour from conception to finish and I just love it - bless you center back zippers! It is only because the zipper is at the center back on this skirt that this was such a quick project. And by quick I mean that this was basically one long seam on each side since there is no "waistband". So simple!

The original tag was cut out of this by the previous owner, so I'm not sure of the brand or original size. The fabric is a lovely navy rayon-ish material with white pin dots and a navy blue lining. It's a little longer than I usually make my skirts, but I didn't want to mess with the narrow rolled hem yet. I'm actually quite surprised at how much I like the length, but if I ever decide it's too frumpy I can always go back and shorten it a smidge.

The best part of this skirt - it's swish-ability factor! It's so wonderfully drapey, but full enough to have a fun swish, which I love :) Hooray for quick, fun projects that leave you with a great wardrobe staple!


Summary:
Fabric: thrifted rayon skirt (navy blue with white pin dots) - $1.00
Notions: thread - stash
Hours: About 1 total

FO: Skirt No More Renfrew

As I've mentioned many times before, I am a big time thrift store shopper. For a long time, I only looked for items I could already wear or that I could alter slightly to fit me. After taking the Tailoring Ready-To-Wear class on Craftsy, I learned to look at my thrifting differently. I started to look for things that I could remake completely - I mean, fabric is fabric, right? I started looking at curtains and sheets and even dresses and skirts and whatnot to assess their potential remake-ability. 

I purchased this skirt several months ago - it's an Indigo Moon poly/cotton knit skirt, and it's a size Small. I looked this up before I cut into it and apparently Indigo Moon is known for their crazy "art teacher"-like jackets (seriously, Google search them). I paid 50¢ for the skirt, knowing it would be a prime candidate for a refashion - plenty of fabric to play around with and cheap enough that I wouldn't be too upset if it didn't work out. I liked the floral appliqué (and it has sequins too!), so I thought it might make a pretty t-shirt. A few weeks ago I finally picked it all apart and laid out my t-shirt patterns to see what would work. The Plantain was my first choice, but the skirt wasn't quite wide enough plus to be honest the fabric was a bit too thick for that. I pulled out the Renfrew and the pieces fit great :) I had literally just enough fabric - I even had to unpick the elastic waistband to use as the neck binding piece - I was left with just a few small scraps afterward ... and a new shirt!

At first I was afraid that the flower hit in a strange place - ideally I would have wanted the flower along the side of my torso, but now that it's finished I don't mind where it ends up :) The fabric is wonderfully soft and thick enough to look nice and smooth without being too warm. And I love the color!

I'm not entirely sure if the wrinkles on the back are because of how I'm standing or if I need a sway back adjustment - is that possible on a knit? Anyone know for sure? The only change I made to the pattern was to leave off the hem bands. I'm not a big fan of the bands on my first Renfrew (I have to adjust the bottom of the shirt a lot when I wear it), so I just added 2" to the bottom hem when I cut out the pieces. I also just used the skirt hem as the shirt bottom as well - why make more work for myself, right?

Up close shots - I love the subtle sequins in the appliqué. They mean that I do have to hand wash this, but it's not a big deal. I decide to twin needle around the neckline for a more professional looking finish - I'm sure it's just in my head, but the zig zag stitch on my first one kind of makes me crazy, lol. I also had to get really creative with the neckband. I was able to squeeze it out by unpicking the elastic waistband (which was serged to the elastic all the way around - ugh), but it still wasn't quite enough fabric so I had to piece it together. I made sure to put the extra seam at the back and it ended up near the shoulder seam. I don't think anyone would even notice it, so that's good. Also I made sure to match up the coverstitching on the hem at the side seams (I guess I should cut that thread I see in the photo too, lol). This part bugs me a smidge when I look at this photo just because I know that ready to wear shirts are always coverstitched last. It doesn't wear any differently though, so I just try not to think about it :)

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with this experiment :) The shirt is very comfy and easy to wear. It's one of those items that I can dress up or down depending on what skirt I wear with it. I love the color in particular, and I think the appliqué makes it look more store bought. I love that I can wear it with lighter colored bottoms to be more casual and summery too. I'm sure this see lots of wear in the future and it was such a success that I hope to find more jersey maxi skirts to chop up, ha ha!

Summary:
Fabric: thrifted Indigo Moon size small maxi skirt - $0.50
Pattern: Sewaholic Renfrew
Notions: thread and knit seam tape - stash
Hours: 3.5 including unpicking the skirt

FO: (Altered) Maroon Skirt

So, I have a cute new skirt ... that I didn't make, lol. I picked this up at a thrift store probably a year ago, and I finally grabbed it out of the pile to figure out my minor adjustments. Just to show you, originally it looked like this:

Isn't that a sexy photo? You are so welcome. The skirt is clearly from the late 1980s judging by the weird length and the tag style. It has elastic across the back waistband, which I originally hated when I purchased it. When I bought this skirt, I had every intention of making a big time alteration like I did on my navy button down skirt, but when I pulled it out and saw that it already fit fine, I decided to take the easy way out and just make it shorter. I tried the skirt on and just pinned it up until I liked the look of the length, then ended up cutting off 9 inches(!) from the hem. Then I just turned under 1/4" and then another 1" and stitched it down.

I checked my thread racks and didn't have anything close to the color I needed, so I perused my hoard of antique wooden spools of thread - I have an inexplicable urge to purchase all wooden spools of thread at thrift stores even though I never use them. I believe I read somewhere that thread gets brittle with age, so now I have nightmares of all my seams spontaneously splitting open, ha ha. Anyway, I happened to have two different spools of thread that matched this really well. One of the threads was slightly heavier than the other, so I used that in the bobbin. I had just barely enough thread :) Hooray for not having to go out to buy thread!

So now I have (what I believe is) a very cute knee length skirt that I will wear the heck out of :) I love the pockets in particular, and I love the fullness. And I know these pictures make the front seem longer than the back, but I just must have stood weird - I swear it's level.

In reality, I never wear anything tucked in, so this is how this skirt will look out in the wild. Not quite as retro looking this way, but I still like it. Also, I have yet to figure out any other colors I can wear with this skirt but white or black. Maybe navy, but I don't have any solid navy skirts, so we shall see. This thrifted white button down does the job well for now.

So, since this post kind of feels like a cop-out as it was such a minimal amount of sewing, I figured I'd bore you further with reports on some mending I finally took care of, lol. 

I purchased these awesome dragonfly embroidered stretch twill capri pants at a thrift store and I didn't notice that they had two little holes until the first time I wore them. At least they were only $0.16, right? So, I finally decided to sew up the little holes. I just grabbed some khaki thread and pulled the holes closed. Done! Also, I caught my Golden Afternoon Renfrew on a door at work and ripped a little hole in the hem band. I was not happy at the time, but it was a fairly small hole, so I just used some sort-of-not-quite-matching thread and sewed it up. It's a busy enough pattern that you wouldn't see it unless I pointed it out, and that's good by me. I haven't worn this in probably 4 months, so it's nice to have it back in rotation :)

The last "alteration" I made was on these capri pants. I bought them at a thrift store for $0.16 (bag sales are wonderful things), and they fit great but I hated the cuffs. I know cuffs are supposed to be in or something, but I think they look pretty dumb, not gonna lie. Thankfully these were just barely tacked up at the top, so I just took a seam ripper to it and ironed it down with the clapper to help minimize the crease. I learned the clapper trick in the Tailoring Ready-To-Wear class on Craftsy. When you have a hem that was factory pressed, you just steam the living daylights out of it and press the clapper on it and it will minimize the original pressing line much more than just the iron alone. I'm sure it will level out with a washing or two as well. Now I have a pair of capris I will actually wear :)

So, I guess the moral of this post is that sometimes all things need is a really basic alteration or fix to be wearable. Three cheers for less work! Yay!

Summary:
Skirt: thrifted, $1.00
Notions: vintage thread, thrifted, $0.25
Hours: 1 from thought to finish (including searching for thread, lol)

Refashion: "Bake Them Cookies, Lucille!"

I've been dabbling in altering thrift store clothing over the past year, but I had yet to completely remake a thrifted item ... until now :)

Let's start at the very beginning. I honestly can't tell you 100% why I was so drawn to this particular old lady shirt a few weeks ago at a local thrift store. I mean, this baby was granny-tastic to say the least. I guess I have just developed the eye of a refashioner and saw potential in the awesome green color and cookie recipe print. I've certainly never seen anyone with a cookie recipe printed on their shirt before. Why not see if I can breathe new life into this old gal? I got excited just while I was in the shop about the sheer challenge of it all. I mean if I can make this into something acceptable by today's standards that would certainly up my fashion cred several points, right? I thought so.

Here's a few close ups of the sheer wonder of this baby. Isn't the baking print awesome?! The collar on the other hand ... I honestly could barely fit my big noggin through that neck opening. The thing is - this is just a normal crew-neck t-shirt that has a ridiculous polo-style collar. The collar has a little embroidered design of hearts - isn't that sweet? lol Ugh. The funny thing is that the collar is just zig zag stitched over the seam line of the ribbed collar.

Anyway, the collar was obviously the first thing that needed to go. I just cut along the seam allowance to separate everything and the above is the carnage I was left with. After the collar was loose, I cut the sleeves off. Fun fact - apparently lots of t-shirts don't have seams down the sides - they are just one knit tube that a neck and sleeves are attached to. So when I got it all apart, it still looked like this:

I lined everything up as perfectly as I could and cut down the sides. Next, I had to make a decision. I knew I wanted to use one of my previously used t-shirt patterns, so I started laying out the body pieces from each to see what would work best.

In the end, I went with the Plantain pattern by Deer + Doe. As you can see up there, the pattern fit the pieces pretty well except that I would lose some of the hip width. This was inevitable give the shape of the piece I was using, but the plantain has extra ease built in anyway so I took a chance that it would fit ok. The only change I had to make was to raise the neckline to accommodate the awesome screen printing. I just laid the Renfrew pattern over the plantain and traced that neckline.

The neckband became a bit of a brain puzzle. Since I was using the full width of the fabric for the body, the only option I had was to take the existing hem off the shirt to repurpose. This would make the shirt shorter, but after trying on my other plantains, I knew it wouldn't be too short with this change. So, I chopped off the entire hem and unpicked the whole thing. It turned out there was just enough width to use the neckband pattern piece. Another issue was that I changed the neckline height, which means the neckband piece should be shorter. To figure the difference, I measured the plantain pattern neckline, then the neckband and noted the difference. I just lopped that difference off my new neckband piece - no biggie. I was worried about the fading and stitch lines from the unpicked hem - I steamed the living daylights out of it, but some of the fading still showed. I just had to accept it and move on.

I put out a little Instagram teaser after I got the pieces cut out last Friday night. After I got home from work on Saturday, the real fun began. I just stitched this together following the instructions of the pattern. It took a couple of hours and I had to be creative with seam allowances in a few places, but everything worked out great :) And here is my finished result:

It's a little tighter than my other plantains to be sure, but I actually kind of like this more fitted look. The only place it's a smidge too tight is the sleeves. I kept the original hem there so they would be a bit longer than the pattern (which I'm happy about), but because I had cut the sleeves open completely, I lost the extra bit of the seam allowance. It's not unwearable, just not the usual ease I prefer.

And the back - tighter, but not a deal breaker. The length is clearly not an issue like I worried :)

I get a lot of wrinkles at the underarms, but the neckline came out the perfect height for the design. I love that it looks like the screen printing was meant to be where it is, you know? The neckband isn't too close or too far away from the printing.

I am particularly proud of the neckband :) I decided to use a twin needle this time because 1) I want to use it on everything and 2) my very favorite plantain (the Cherry, Cherry) has to have the neckband redone because I accidentally popped one stitch - so frustrating! I figure two lines of stitching is more secure than one. I think the double row really helped the fabric lay nice and flat and it also seems to have hidden any of the fading and holes from the previous hem.

All in all, I am beyond thrilled with this refashion :) I love that technically speaking it didn't take all that many changes to take this total Granny shirt and make it into something wearable for someone today under the age of 65. I also love that I don't feel like I'm squeezing my brain out of my head when I put the shirt on, lol. When showing this to my family, everyone was impressed but still thought it still looks like a Grandma shirt. Hopefully the gals at Deer + Doe don't cringe too badly when they see this rendition of their pattern, lol. I don't care - I am gonna wear the heck out of this thing and be super proud doing it!

As far as the name of this shirt, I was struck with genius in homage to one of my favorite moments of the incomparable Disney film, Meet The Robinsons. Bake Them Cookies, Lucille!


This project has really made me excited to try this on every t-shirt I can get my hands on, lol. I mean really, this just solidifies the fact that everything is just "fabric" that can be used differently to make it your own. I found seriously the greatest t-shirt I've ever seen at a thrift store last week and it has super cool plantain written all over it. It's soaking right now to hopefully get some age stains out. I can't wait!

Summary:
Fabric: Grandma's Cookies's T-Shirt, $1.00 at Thrift Store
Pattern: Plantain by Deer + Doe Patterns, Free :)
Hours: About 3 In All