Vintage towel refashion...

Here's something crazy I made from a big old vintage towel. This was one of those 'because I can' moments.

Towel, Found at the op shop for $1. My mum used to have one like this when I was a kid.

A few snips and lines of sewing and it becomes a circle skirt. Just watch me twirl!

Also doubles as a bather cover up.

Crazy I know, but fun.

By Sharon Newth

From layer cake to lovely.

I haven't done much refashioning lately.  My time has been taken up on many other things, and my wardrobe is getting a little full of vintage frocks, but when I spotted this amazing green dress at the op shop this morning I knew it was there just for me. The bodice fitted like a glove, but I looked a little like a layer cake. This was such a simple refashion, but wow what a difference.

I repaired a little rip at the back with a few sneaky stitches.

It has these clever bra clip things which are awesome. I've never seen them before.

It's fully lined, and the bottom layer was sewn to the lining, so all I did was chop off the bottom.

And here's how it ended up. A very elegant shape, a great fit and an amazing colour.

By Sharon Newth

A cottage garden bag

I got given a bag of fabric and old clothing and linens to go through recently before it went to the op shop. This skirt below was a find, with a couple of holes and a broken zip. I loved the ruffles, and needed a new bag, so it was obvious to me what I needed to do.

I cut it into the size and shape I needed. Big enough to fit a nappy, some wipes and a few snacks since I still have little ones. I used a vintage sheet to make the bag fully lined, and some scraps to make pockets and embellishments.

When I'm making a bag I try to think of all of the things about handbags that annoy me. So I have an outside pocket for my sunglasses, a little hook to hang my keys one, and an inside pocket for other things I need to locate in a hurry.

The inside.

30 days of Vintage/op shopped/handmade

So I decided to do 30 days of only wearing vintage/op shopped/handmade. 

Here are my first 12 days. It's been fun getting dressed each day with an extra challenge.

Day 1 was vintage pants, my love shack refashion and my decoupage shoes.

Day 2 was vintage flower power top and denim skirt refashioned from a long maternity skirt. With my handmade boots by the Thai hill tribe ladies.

Next was a vintage dress and jacket, with op shopped skull leggings.

Then homemade pants from op shopped fabric with vintage crochet top and op shopped chocolate top.

Day 5 was a vintage dress I refashioned with darts and taking in at the sides to give it more shape.

Day 6 - Vintage groovy fish body shirt and op shopped pants.

Day 7 - Vintage dress and op shopped coat.

Day 8 - Vintage green body shirt and vintage pants.

Day 9 - Skirt made from a vintage sheet and top free from a stuff sharers group.

Day 10 - Vintage mellow yellow top and op shopped jeans.

Day 11 - Vintage dress.

Day 12 - Vintage tunic refashioned from a mini dress and skirt refashioned from an old t shirt. 

Oh you may notice we've gone away for a couple of days of amazing family time. Yay!!!!

Flower Power

Here is the refashion of the vintage dress I got on the weekend. I'm going to be wearing it on Saturday night for a dinner. Love it!

To start it was incredibly short and too wide for me. No way I would wear something that short. When I purchased it I was thinking I might turn it into a tunic to wear over pants, but something else evolved.

First I unpicked and removed the tie around the neck, which wasn't really my style.

Luckily, it had a huge hem, which was sewn only into the inside of the fabric, so it didn't show on the outside. This gave me about 2 inches extra length when I let this down.

Each side got at least an inch chopped off it and taken in.

I opened up the ties.

Then I sewed them together into one continuous strip. I then added this to the bottom of the dress for another extra couple of inches of length.

There were a couple of holes due to old age.

So I used these tiny scraps from the tie to make some patches. One at the front and a couple at the back.

Here's a patch close up.

 I'm very happy now. The hemline is slightly asymmetrical as I decided to go with the way the tie was angled.

You can see the flower patch at the front in this one.

Rockin' the denim

Here's another refashion of one of my old t shirts. I won this (glow in the dark) top in a competition way back in my uni days. It's about 20 years ago. Yikes!

 I chopped it today and added it the the denim jacket I got for Dylan at the op shop the other day.

Jacket.

T shirt. Barely worn as it was a really narrow fit that squashed my chest making it look like I had a mono boob. You know the type?

                               

Mr D rocking the jacket! With his sweater pants.

Yes Mum, I do need to sit in mud whilst wearing wool pants.

Oh look, Dad's home. xxxxx

From table to foot stool to baby skirt

Happy Friday everyone!

First I have to share how cute Mr D was looking at Liam's first footy training session the other night. He is wearing the new jumper I got him at the op shop for a dollar, sandals that were gifted from a friend, and these awesome electric blue velvet pants I made Aidan when he was the same age. I bought this fabric for 50 cents at a market and it was the perfect amount for a little pair of blue trousers. The velvet is a fantastic quality and really thick and luscious.

You may remember I made this patchwork stool from one of my Gram's old tables.

Well my dear Mr Liam sat on it and rocked around a bit as he does, and look what happened. It was beyond repair.

Never fear, I used the fabric to make an adorable little baby skirt. One of our friends has just had a baby girl, and I like to see little girls in colours other than pink sometimes. 

Explorer socks to toddler leggings

If you were a reader of my old blog you might remember these sweater pants I made for my little man. I love them and he got lots of compliments whenever he wore them. There's a link to them here.

Ever since I made them I've been thinking about a sock version, and then I stumbled across these old explorer socks of mine when I was getting out some winter clothes yesterday. I wasn't sure if he was too big for me to make them now, but they look adorable on him. A little snug, but very cute.

Here are my socks. These are thick woollen hiking socks.

I cut the toes off and then cut each sock from the top down to the heel.

Then it was just a matter of turning one sock inside out, putting the other one inside it, matching the two cut seams and sewing them together. The heal to top of sock area became the crotch seam.

Then I made a little casing at the top and put some elastic in.

I'm feeling some serious love for these.

By Sharon Newth