I had to tell Husband I just won’t can’t repair these any more.
A moment of silence please.
He offered them as fabric-in-the-shape-of, but right now I don’t know how I might be able to recycle these. Any suggestions?
Posted in Makeover/Recycle
Those poor pants which suffered so badly in the “unfortunate ballet move.” What could be done with them? They were really nice pants.
This is a tutorial I had been wanting to try for a while, and it was ready-made for the purpose: Denim Do-it-all Bins.
At first I didn’t realize that you get ONE bin out of TWO pants legs. The nice thing is, even if you start with fairly small pants, you still get a nice size bin. In fact, if you make the large, it is quite a large bin. In the picture it is shown holding magazines, but somehow that didn’t quite translate in my head. It really is a LARGE in, 8-1/2 inches across and just about 10 inches tall.
Particularly if you make the size large bin, include the interfacing. It is worth the effort.
As this makeover item it heading right back to daughter, I used the leftover backing fabric from her show quilt for the liner. After all, one of the joys of recycling is the memories involved–THOSE pants and THAT quilt.
Thank you for joining me for All Small Week. I am so glad I finally got around to making some of these projects that had appealed to me and been put on the “someday” list. If you have some projects like this filed away, get them out and give it a go. Very rewarding!
Also, do you have a favorite you would recommend? Let me know, I might like it, too. And, if you are looking for a small project, there are a few in the TUTORIALS tab at the top of this page.
PS–The URL for the tutorial, if you would like:
Posted in Makeover/Recycle, Show and Tell, Tutorials
About 2 months ago, I mentioned that Daughter had destroyed a pair of pants in an “unfortunate ballet move.”
Here are the pants. Yes, it happened at school. Have you even seen such dramatic results? She worries about her flexibility, but she is obviouly more flexible than those pants.
I didn’t want to just throw them out, but repairs were…improbable, at best.
So, I am planning a recycling/remodeling project. Check back tomorrow to see the results in All Small Week Day 5 (one day late). Thank you for being patient with the delay. The quilt show is my only excuse.
Posted in Makeover/Recycle, Work in Progress
Daughter NEEDED a new skirt–she really did. After all, we have a quilt show to attend. 
More quickly than I would have guessed, a piece of fabric on hand–a somewhat Hawaiian-print knit–became a circle skirt. Thanks to Amber for her great tutorial. Because I was able to cut the skirt in a single piece, this was a one-evening project.
Circle skirts use a surprising amount of fabric–2 yards of 54″ wide fabric for daughter, who isn’t very big. I used a separate waist band and elastic, as the jacket and top will cover the band and render a zipper unnecessary.
Amber warned of the woes of hemming a circle skirt, but by serging first, which gathers ever so slightly, and only turning a single hem, it really wasn’t bad, but not for the pin-phobic. I used a pin probably every 4-6 inches, which means a lot of pins. But, the quick, smooth stitching results were worth it.
We matched the skirt with a thrift store jacket and belt. She looks show ready (and will wear it to the last band concert of the year. A two-for-one special).
Perhaps you have an occasion coming up that would call for a new outfit? For Daughter this really is a SMALL project, but even if your size is closer to mine, I count it as a All Small Week project because of the small amount of time involved. Check back tomorrow for Day Three of All Small Week and another tutorial that might be just the right size for you.
PS–if the link doesn’t work for you, here is the URL: http://rufflesandrosescrafts.blogspot.com/2010/06/summer-of-skirts-circle-skirt-tutorial.html
Posted in Makeover/Recycle, Show and Tell, Tutorials
This week as I was hand-stitching lace sleeves, and wondering just a little why I was doing it, Ifinally acknowledged that I have a deeply-rooted belief that every special occasion in Daughter’s life deserves a new dress. Why?
Well, 35 years ago, or so, another little girl’s Mother made her a new dress for every special occasion, particularly band concerts.
And, 55 years ago, another little girl had closets of beautiful clothes, carefully made or made over by my Grandmother, Carmen Rosalee. Carmen had a hard childhood, and in overcoming that she has passed on fairy-tale dreams through three generations.
Which brings us to today. At the thrift store last fall I came across this beautiful blue silk dress for 99-cents. It had a stain on the front (again, no “before” pictures), but I decided to take a chance. I brought it home, applied stain treatment, and threw it in the washer. (Yes, it said Dry Clean Only, but…) After hanging it dry (I have decided that the dryer ruins more clothes than the washer does), the stain was gone.
Remaining was a beautiful special-occasion dress. Wonderful color. Not a great fit.
Time to remodel! Cut the shoulders (VERY SCARY) to shorten the bodice and widen the straps. This was the hardest part. Scissors make very permanent alterations. (Love those little strap retainers. I reattached them in the end.)
The lining picked out fairly easily, allowing the strap to be adjusted with less pain than I anticipated. A lot of pinning made the sewing go easier.
Then it could be re-stitched by hand. Not perfect, but it is on the inside, and who is going to look there?
Sleeves are the next most difficult, but can be drafted by measuring the existing arm hole and getting shape suggestions from professional patterns.
After that it was all lace and details from my big pile of junk.
Add a hairpiece made from the very last scraps of lace.
And, ta-dah, the princess is ready for the ball, or the concert in this case.
ps–Just so you don’t think she is completely spoiled, this will most likely also function as her Easter dress for the year.
pps–Sorry for no full-length “after” pictures. The computer “upgrade” of a month ago left me with no picture editing software that I can find. Darn it! But, I am working on that. Trust me, she looks beautiful!
Do you know Mancala?
It is a simple, highly addictive game, more or less the African version of checkers. Played around this house often. Particularly by Daughter and her Best Friend.
But we didn’t have our own gameboard. The enterprising children were using empty egg cartons. But, the deep wells were hard to get the pebbles out of.
The local thrift store yielded two mancala boards this weekend. Oh, there was happiness. One board will stay here.
The other will go to school for rainy-day entertainment. That is where the buttons come in. They are stand-in pebbles. But, the pebbles needed a container. And that is where I come in.
Small draw-string bag. Made out of 5″ charm squares. Nothing fancy or amazing, but efficient. Now, every child has a board, and every board has pebbles, and all pebbles have containers, and all is right with the world.
I thought a tutorial for the draw-string bag, simple though it is, might come in handy. So, that is coming soon.
Some unexpected (but very welcome) house guests joined our family for the past few weeks. Getting ready for church, the man discovered that he had neglected to pack his cufflinks. Emergency? No way!
What do you think of these cufflinks?
They started out as this.
But, you have to look really close to tell.
And people wonder why I keep all those buttons on hand.
Posted in Makeover/Recycle
Saturday I went to the thrift store because Daughter needed a new pair of pants. One pair of her school pants had died a very untimely death over a ballet move that those pants weren’t designed for. Thank goodness for the uniform bank at school. But that is a story for another day.
At the store I found pants. And, to my great surprise, a pair of dress shoes that Young Son desperately needed. He is a hard size to fit.
On my way out, this dress caught my eye.
Eeeep! It is wonderful! But, a little (make that a lot) low in the front.
But, it is only $3.50. And a great color. And the right size.
Do we compromise?
Of course not. We can sew. We can fix this.
Based on a tutorial for a Faux Cami from the Moda Bake Shop, I fashioned Daughter a little layered piece for under the dress.
Yes, much better.
And she is happy! And can wear it without having to worry.
That is one of the points of modesty–to be comfortable in your own skin and comfortable in your clothes. Important at any price.
In the flurry of holiday sewing and holiday makeovers, I decided that it was time to try one for me. It is a lot more fun sewing for others. It is much easier to be comfortable forming fabric to their bodies than to mine. Issues? Oh, well, yes. Maybe. A few.
But, the desire for something new outweighed all other considerations.
This fabric object came home with me from the neighborhood clothing exchange in August.
The print was so much fun and felt a bit Christmas-y with the bold jewel-tone colors.
So, with just a few cut-and-snips it became a wrap skirt for me. I wore it to church on Sunday and felt festive.
Free fabric and half finished before I started! Can’t beat it!
Ah, but I do love makeovers. Economical. Fast. Satisfying.
This rather shapeless and oversized jumper was made of warm. soft stretch velvet in a lovely color–BLUE! (Yep, that’s Daughter serving as my model. Young Son, as agreeable as he generally is, just didn’t want to.)
I separated the top and bottom, shortening the skirt section but otherwise leaving it alone. That will help with the twirl factor.
Using an existing pattern, I cut a new bodice. Sleeves came from the excessive skirt length.
It turned into this nice little girl’s dress for a 7-year old in our neighborhood. By using the existing hem and back ties, which don’t show in this picture, and preserving the button holes, buttons and finished neck seams of the bodice, over half the work was done for me. In all, it only took about 1-1/2 hours sewing time.
The photography needs help, but, hopefully, you get the spirit of the thing. Merry Christmas!
