Do you use Google Reader?

Hi friends. If you’re following my refashions using Google Reader it’s time for a change! You probably already know that Google Reader is going away, so you know that you need to find a new way to follow your favorite blogs. The one I have decided on is Bloglovin’ – it is actually easier and has more features than Google Reader, so I’m very pleased with it.

I look forward to seeing you in the blogosphere!

Summer Skirt Series?

I wasn’t planning on a summer skirt series, but my first two refashions after starting this blog just happened to be skirts. I have discovered that I like knee-length-or-just-below skirts, and they’re so comfortable in hot temperatures! (Well, they would be if we would just have some hot temperatures.)
A couple weeks ago I found the skirt in this photo at a thrift store, and I liked the idea of taking the bottom part of the skirt and adding it to something else to make a new garment.

The top part was too slim for my generous hips, but there’s some good elastic in the waistband, so that’s a bonus. I looked around the store a bit to find something that would work with the white-and-floral knit and found the navy striped shirt. It’s a nice, soft knit with good stretch, and the navy works fine with the white/navy print. I decided I would use the body of the shirt to make a yoga band and use the floral skirt bottom for my garment.
To start off, I used my scientific method to see how much of the skirt top I needed to cut off – I found the bottoms of the pockets, folded the skirt over at that point, and held it up to my body to see where the hem would come if that was where my skirt started. It was perfect. Then I measured how far that was down the sides. It turned out to be 11 inches, so I made marks 11 inches down from the top in 6 or 8 places across the front – I wanted to make sure I got the right curve in the skirt, so I didn’t want to cut straight across.

When I connected all those marks and cut it along my curved line I had the swirly, swooshie part of the skirt.

Next, I laid the shirt out and measured from the sleeve/side seam down to the bottom of the seam. The length was 15 inches – just one inch short of what I used previously for my yoga band, so I decided that was close enough. All I had to do was cut across from underarm to underarm (I was even able to follow the white stripe), and then across from where the side seam split on the left to the matching spot on the right side. Voila! I had a yoga band! Normally, I make them about 42” around, but this was 52”, so I laid it out flat (now it was 26” because it’s already a circle) and cut off 5 inches. That took a total of 10” off the band. I stitched up the seam to make it a circle again.
Now it was time to put the two together. I folded this circle in half to make my yoga band – it’s 7.5” now – and started pinning it to the right side of the skirt with raw edges together.

Once the pinning was done, it was sewing time. Sorry – you don’t get a sewing picture, but I thought it was probably better not to try to manage sewing and a camera. I used a zigzag stitch because I wanted to make sure it had stretch.
So it was all finished up, but the striped knit was much more stretchy than I expected, and the waistband was now too big. When I tried it on, I decided I could take off 2 inches, and ran a quick seam straight down along one side, 1” in from the existing seam. Yay! Fixed!

(It’s folded here – I didn’t take it in that much.)
So now I have another knee-length summer skirt. Here’s a shot of it in use along with thrifted tank that I recently found with the tags still on.

Here is another option – I have the tank tucked in and the yoga band unfolded.

Have you been creating? I’d love to see what you’ve been making!

Welcome to my inaugural refashion post!

Hi! Thanks for coming by to check out what I’ve been up to!

Today’s remake started with a skirt I loved that was thrifted years ago. I loved the fabric, and I wore it several times, but the length was definitely dated, and the skirt was…well, let’s just say it must have shrunk in the wash. A lot.

Here is the skirt before I started cutting…

(What’s the deal with the stuck-up chin? Weird.)

I love the paisley print, and the pattern band at the bottom of this skirt so I decided to lop the top off this thing. I wanted my finished skirt to be about knee length, and my rough measurements told me that if I cut the top section off just below the zipper it should be perfect. That would also mean I didn’t have to mess with parts of a zipper. Whew.

This had a sort of wrap skirt look to it with a pleat and buttons on the side – it was a fun detail, but in order to make a skirt I could wear, the pleat had to go.

Fortunately, it was just a pleat, and all that fabric was there for me to use.

It just took some seam ripping and a bit of ironing…

At this point I discovered that my skirt was going to be shorter than I wanted if I just turned a waistband under and put elastic in it, so I decided to make a yoga band instead. Since I had just done one for another skirt, I knew that if I wanted about 4 inches of waistband (to give me some folding options), I needed a piece of jersey that was 16 inches long (about 4 times my finished length), and 41 inches wide (my waist minus 4 inches). The only color I had in that width was pink, so pink it is.

I folded that in half and stitched the two ends together to make it a circle, then put that over my skirt (skirt was right side out) with the raw edges together. And I pinned the heck out of it because the skirt was much more full than the waistband. I wanted to make sure I caught all the bits I needed to sew.

I used a zigzag stitch to make sure it would stretch, and stitched that raw edge all the way around.

Here is it with the band sewn on and folded down. I was kinda flying by the seat of my skirt, but this project actually came out better than I had imagined it.

I was thrilled with the results! So much so, that I wore it for my evening out with my sweetie and the “kids” (our adult daughter and her husband). I should also mention, as it seems like the thing to do, that the Verona t-shirt is also a thrifted treasure, as are my fabulous Fashion Bug sandals.

And if you’ve read this far, you deserve a bonus. How ‘bout a little Hokey Pokey?

My daughter Jenny (in the black) and I hokeyed and pokeyed.

One last little note - I have a few refashioned items posted over on my family blog, but there aren’t any instructions, so we’ll just call those “inspiration,” okay? For now, I’ll post my refashions and how I did them on this blog.

Thanks again for stopping – I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Oh, and I linked up here - http://www.flamingotoes.com/2013/06/think-pink-sunday-no-118/. Lots of fun projects to peek at on this page!