DIY Lace Kimono Update!

So I posted this easy lace kimono 'tutorial' last week. I left the raw edges unfinished and asked for feedback on how you'd finish them off. Well, my lovely inter webs friend, JJ, of Natural Medley gave me a wonderful idea! I was leaning heavily towards a baby or rolled hem, but her suggestion appealed so much so that I immediately knew that's what I'd do. She said, "I went looking for ideas for hemming and found this lovely idea. Tissue paper or fusible paper underneath and hem with a fancy scallop stitch, with no turning, which you then cut away afterwards to mimic the scalloped hemline at the base. http://mellysews.com/2014/02/sew-lace.html". Let me just say, yes! 

Here's the final result folks, and the tissue paper was recycled from previously used gift wrap that I save in a drawer ;).

Isn't it pretty? Not bad for my first time trying this, and I may need to try it again very soon.

What I'm having trouble with is styling it...does it look too 'bedroom' or does this work? I don't normally second-guess things, but this one has me scratching my head a bit. Maybe a beach cover-up? Though, admittedly, it wouldn't cover much. We'll see.

Here's another close-up of those scalloped edges in action :). Thanks again, JJ, for such a perfect idea and be sure to head over to Melly Sews for this and many many more helpful sewing hints!

Now, what shall I refashion/diy next...time to dig through my stash!

Peace,
Andrea

DIY Lace Kimono

I picked up a piece of pink lace last month at the thrift store. It was about 63 inches long by 38 inches wide. I think it cost $2.

I started by trimming off the ends to leave the pretty scalloped edge for the hem. Then I folded it in half and wrong sides together, sewed up each side about 2/3 from the bottom. I trimmed the seam allowance and turned it inside out, then sewed up each seam enclosing the raw edges. French seams are much cleaner and nice when you don't have a serger to finish raw edges.

Next, I folded the 'top' in half and cut out a shallow hole along the fold/top to create a neck hole.

Once I'd finished that, I then pulled the 'back' fabric out, and cut along the fold through just the 'front' layer.

And that's where I've left off. I haven't finished off my raw edges because I'd love to pose the question to you all. How would you finish off the edges of this lace kimono? Would you simply fold once and topstitch? Fold twice? Or use some sort of trim? I want to keep the relaxed edges, but am afraid that if I finish them off it will change the drape and annoy me ;). I was considering a baby hem, but same issue...so, what would you do? What would have the least impact on drape while leaving the garment looking finished? Can't wait to hear your ideas!!! Meanwhile, I love this light and airy kimono that will be great over a casual work outfit or over a dress for a date night! I'll do some more styling once I finish it off :)

Peace,

Andrea

#MMMay14: Day 9

Ready for Day 9 of Me-Made May 2014?!?! I'm excited because today I'm sharing two, YES 2!!!, refashions that I've just completed :). And they make me happy...on another gray, rainy day.

First up, I tackled this lace sleeveless top. I bought it for $2.50 at the thrift store planning to use the lace for scarves or something. But then I got an idea in my head and figured I'd try it out. I started by cutting straight across the top a few inches below the bust. I then cut this portion into two equal size pieces.

I pieced these bottom two loops together by opening up the ends, gathered the top edge and sewed it back to the top using a strip of elastic. Here's how it turned out.

I wasn't completely satisfied as I'd left it loose and the width of the straps wasn't working for me, so I made some pleats along the back portion of the elastic waist to cinch it in, then bunched up the lace at the shoulders and sewed them in place. Much better.

Next I grabbed this floral t-shirt that I bought for $4 at the thrift store. It's a nice thick stretchy knit and this morning it struck me that it would make a perfect little jacket or cardigan. I don't own many cardigans with patterns (only one leopard print) so I figured a floral cardi would make the perfect addition to my growing collection ;). I started by cutting straight up the middle, then chopped off a few inches to make this more of a cropped length.

I grabbed my enamel cub of twill tape, bias binding, etc. and found what I needed to finish off the now open front. I first hemmed the bottom, then used my twill tape and bias tape to finish off the front edges. I then decided to take it in on each side a bit to get a better fit, as well.

And that was that! Here's the before and after...which segues into today's OOTD!

I layered an ivory tank top underneath my new lace peplum top, put the floral cardi over top and finished off with thrifted 'skinnified' jeans and boots for a bit of edge.

I ventured out into the misty gray day and took these shots while trying to avoid getting my phone too wet...

A messy braid and some geometric gold earrings add both to the romantic and edgy look that I was going for today...just a little edge was needed to balance off all of that floral lacy goodness!

So, what do you think? I find this one lifts my mood as the grayness continues outside...I hope you like it, cause I love it! :) And I can see myself wearing both of these new pieces often. In fact, I'm already planning how to wear them next.

Hope you're having a beautiful day...
Peace,
Andrea

Lace Cutout Skirt

I'm composing this via the mobile Blogger app...so we'll see how it goes ;).

For one, I can't figure out how to change the alignment from centered to the left...maybe I'll figure that out by the end.

Anywho, I found this lace pencil skirt months ago and had planned on doing a simple alteration to the size. Well, I do address the size issue but I also decided to do something I've seen others DIY and have been planning on trying.

I started by cutting away the lining at the bottom of the skirt as close to the seams as possible. I removed about 4 inches from the bottom hem up and finished off the raw edges with a simple zigzag stitch for now. My son was pulling me out the door to the park, so I'll hem the bottom edge with a cleaner finish later on.

I followed by sewing a straight stitch up each side about 3/4 inch in from the original seam. I trimmed off the excess and zigzagged the edge to finish.

And that's it! I achieved the cutout look I desired, which adds a little extra sexy to a fitted lace pencil skirt, without losing the length.

What do you think? Is this a 'trend' that still translates as 'classic' in this piece? 

Here's one last look at the before and after:

Peace, 

Andrea

P.S. Did you notice the change in paragraph alignment? I didn't actually figure out how to change it...that happened on its own ;).

Black Silk Tent

Seriously, yes, a tent...these pants could've been dismantled to make a tent...or a parachute! ;) But when you see this much silk for $4 then, you gotta go for it.

Now if I were more adventurous, I might have kept these as they were and just wore them because they give the functionality of pants and the look of a skirt. Win, win, right?! Instead, I decided to take these apart and just before starting I decided on what I'd want to make...

First up, I took the waistband off and separated the legs from each other. One leg could totally be a dress all on its own!

Now, one of the things I liked about the original piece was the high waisted fit but all of that pleating was just too much, which is why I unpicked the pleats. It did leave a lot of lines, but I feel that they end up blending in.

I took some freezer paper and traced out the inseam and crotch of one of the legs and then cut out the 'pattern' piece. I had already measured the desired rise (from waistline to crotch plus a bit for seam allowance) and my desired waist measurement (several inches bigger than my own in order to allow for some gathering at the waist). I laid it on the individual legs lining up the outer edges so that I could maintain the pockets and that makes less work when putting these back together :). I ended up cutting the length of each piece to be a few inches shorter than my pattern piece.

So, yeah, I'm making shorts (hopefully you've figured that out by now, lol). I sewed up the inner leg seam by using a french seam...nice and neat for straight edges. Then, I sewed the two new legs together using a straight stitch and finished off the raw edges with a zig zag stitch. I gathered the waist by measuring out a piece of elastic a couple of inches shorter than my waist measurement and stretched it as I zigzagged it onto the waist. Next, I thought to reattach the existing waistband, but it didn't end up being as substantial as I wanted. So, I cut off the hem of one of the original legs and used it to make a casing to cover up the elastic and raw edges.

Next step I had to decide what to do about the waist. I wanted it to be thick, so I got to looking through my stash for just the right piece...pieces. I came across this black sash and a length of lace that I had thought to sew onto the sash to wear as a belt. Perfect for this project :). First, I sewed the sash onto the waistband. Sorry for pic quality here, this project took me way longer to complete than I'd expected and daylight didn't last.

Next, I sewed on the lace along the top flat edge of it. I finished off the back by adding snap buttons and folding the edges over and sewing in place. Now, I didn't sew the black sash all the way around. I left around an inch and a half open in the back to allow for a bit of stretch so that I could put these shorts on, while not leaving too much slack causing gaping when they are buttoned up. For the moment, I've finished off the bottom hem by cutting across them with my pinking shears...that will probably change but I hadn't decided how I wanted to do the hem.

Here's the new waistband!

And here are the shorts! I'll be able to dress them up and down and I'm loving the flowy light feel. And they have pockets :). 'Nough said.

 Here's one last look at the before and after:

The only thing left to do is decide what to do with all of the leftover silk! No worries, I'm pretty sure I'll be turning that into a top :). Hope you like this one. I sure do :).

Peace,
Andrea

Spring Scarf Tutorial: Part V

We are nearing the end of the week, and today you get two for the price of one! And that's because I didn't do a 'real' tutorial for either one....oops! But I'll talk ya through it, k? Cool. First things first, grab some old t-shirts, tank tops, scraps, whatever! Make tubes...you can either do this by taking a squarish shaped piece and fold it over, sewing along the long open side and then invert (make sure you are sewing right sides together); or, you can cut two long rectangles, sew up the two long sides and invert. To make a long chain of these tubes, you turn one inside out, slide it over another and line up the ends and sew around the edge...and continue to add another length until you have a scarf long enough to wrap as many times as you want.

Now, at this point you need to do something to join the ends, and I chose lace. Similar to the first scarf, I'm wrapping a section of lace around the raw edges of the jersey knit and sewing it in place. You can go a step further and finish off the edges of the lace, or make another tube as with the other pieces of fabric and then topstitch it over the scarf ends as shown below. 

And there you have it! I chose a mix of mustard, blush, and tribal print along with the white lace, so that I could add interest to a basic outfit (which most days my style is pretty simple). Easy to throw on for a bit of color or print and can be easier and cozier than jewelry :). Though, I love jewelry, so this can just be another layer to your accessorizing!

This next scarf/necklace is one that uses a common finger-weaving technique. A great tutorial for learning how to do this (if you don't already know) can be found here. I made this t-shirt yarn from an old stretched out top that I wore through/after my pregnancy. I loved the floral print and combination of rich colors, but it had seen better days as a top (it was thrifted and already slightly worn). This is also another example of a fabric that, when stretched, covers the print and so I weaved it trying to keep the outside of the fabric visible. Once I'd reached a length that I liked, I simply knotted the ends together and trimmed them to be the same length. I like all of the colors and raw edges (a minor obsession of mine).

And paired over a simple top it really stands out. I definitely see this as more of a necklace than a scarf, but it could also be layered over another scarf to create a different look. And, the fact that it's no-sew makes this such a quick project! Love it :).

One last day for scarves and I'm thinking this final one will be my favorite! Stick around to see how it turns out...

Peace,
Andrea

Spring Scarf Tutorials: Part I

Let the spring scarf madness begin! I got so inspired by 'recreating' the above scarf that I went a bit overboard and made lots of scarves...they are all unique but also quite easy to make. I'll be taking this week before the official start of spring (Mar. 20) to show you how you can freshen up your scarf stash!

To start, I put together a really quick tutorial on how to make t-shirt yarn as it is a big part of most of the scarves I made. You'll find it here. If you don't need it, no need to click over! You can skip down to the next step :)

Before you get into cutting and braiding and the like you need to determine how long you want your finished scarf to be. Do you want it to wrap around once, twice? Do you want the braids to be different/graduated lengths? Once you decide, get to braiding your yarn! There are so many options on how to do this, but I went with a basic braid.

Ok, now let's get down to it! You've got your yarn all braided up. You've got the lengths and thicknesses that you want. Next you need a length of lace. It can be a wide lace trim, it can be a remnant of stretch lace...be creative :). And some other fabric as a background to the braids (preferably jersey knit so that you don't need to worry about finishing raw edges). If you choose a solid colored braid, go with a patterned/printed under fabric. Or go with 2-3 different colors. this is all up to your personal tastes. Here's some great news...you can hand sew this scarf. I hand sewed the original because I didn't have my machine yet and it was the easiest thing ever. (Though you'll see that my stitching was far from perfect!)

Now, in recreating this scarf I took the liberty of not doing an exact copy...because that wouldn't be much fun, would it! ;) But I'm including close-ups of the original so that you can see the parallels and differences as we go.

Okay, so the original scarf has this length of lace which was an old tank top I cut up. Because it is a stretch lace it doesn't unravel and so I treated it like jersey knit. I rolled it over on itself, wrapping it around the jersey knit and braids before hand stitching it in place.

The jersey knit is a mint green $1 scarf that I grabbed at a Marshall's. It was actually an infinity scarf that I simply took apart at the seam. I did this because as an infinity scarf I couldn't wrap it around twice comfortably, but hanging on my neck it was a little too long. Adding the length of lace made it just long enough to wrap twice and hang to my liking. As you can see, I was very professional here and just gathered it up in my fist before sewing it in place inside of the lace ;).

The braids, as I mentioned above, do show some raw edges (which I like), and are slightly varying in thickness. I simply tacked the ends so they wouldn't come undone then also sewed them in place wrapped up in the jersey knit and lace. And that's it! I can pin a brooch on the hand stitched area to add another touch of spring (a butterfly attracted to the flowers!) or you could add buttons, notions, etc.

Now, let's take a look at the new scarf. I started with this sweater that I thrifted with a refashion in mind. I loved the colors, stripes and the beautiful lace knit patterns. I paired it with a length of crocheted lace that I'd salvaged from another top and some pink braided jersey knit (from a remnant of thrifted fabric). Oh, and for this one I'm doing a bit more sewing, so I grabbed some matching thread from my grandma's old stash :).

I removed the bottom from the sweater, and then tied it around my neck with the back at the front to see how it would drape and it's perfect!

How about that early morning mug! ;)

All I need to do is get rid of the sleeves...I turned it inside out, sewed along the edge of the sleeve slanting towards the neck (roughly along the line of the scissors) and then trimmed them off making sure to leave the actual sleeve intact for future use. I zigzagged the cut edges to keep them from fraying and turned the sweater right side out.

Next step was to zigzag the bottom edge of the sweater where I'd removed the wide ribbed knit waist. Then, I crisscrossed the two bottom corners, sewed them in place and tacked them in together where I'm pointing to keep the new front of the scarf from hanging too low. This is now the portion of the scarf that will lay at the back of my neck.

Now, for the crocheted lace. I cut it to length (layed it across the back of my neck and eyeballed where I'd want it to hang), folded over the edge and sewed it down, wrapped it around the braids and sewed straight across once. I repeated this for both ends of the braids, one hanging just slightly longer than the other.

Here, I'm demonstrating what the options could be if you are including another layer of fabric as in the original. You could wrap said fabric around to the front for a cool effect, around to the back, or scrunch (gather) it up before sewing it in place.

And that's it! I decided not to attach these two together as it gives me more options for layering my scarves (something I'm getting more and more into). I love the lace and braids on their own as simple comfy jewelry (great for anyone working with youngsters and/or who have some of their own). Also, great jewelry for winter where I tend to stop wearing necklaces as they take on the cold of outdoors and I just don't want to wear cold jewelry as I'm walking around town running errands.

So, what do you think? One option is almost no-sew (and I'm sure you could find a way to do it with just some fabric glue), and the second includes just a bit more sewing simply for the use of a knit sweater that would easily fray. I feel like I've created another favorite that is warm enough if there's a chill, but also nice and light for the warmer spring days that are sure to come ...eventually ...someday ...maybe. I WON'T LOSE HOPE! lol!

Hopefully, this gives you enough of a starting point to start playing around with ideas of your own. Be creative with what you already have on hand and if you need to go on the hunt for 'materials', try to keep an open mind (and eyes) on what you can make of things.

Be ready for another tutorial on the way tomorrow! AND I'll do a final post on styling all of the scarves I've made next weekend :). Oh, and there'll be a surprise in that post, so make sure you keep coming back to find out what it will be. Happy Refashioning!

Peace,
Andrea

White Lace

I've got another refashion for you all today! Would've had it yesterday, but light is in high demand and it went elsewhere at about 4 pm...yay winter...
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No one else is cheering with me? ;)

Moving on! I found this white linen sweater and a couple of yards of white stretch lace fabric on different thrifting trips sometime last year. I spent no more than $2 on the lace (I have a limit on what I'll pay for fabric depending on size) and I could have spent up to $4 on the sweater but probably less if it was a half-off day.

White sweater meets white lace!

 My first step was to take the lace and make it into a wide trim, which means I had to snip away at a LOT of lace to create a fancy edge. First I made a rough cut across the fabric making sure to not cut across the roses, then I carefully cut along the edges to give it a uniform pattern and stitched up the flat edge with a zigzag stitch. I sewed the ends together of two lengths of lace and made one large loop.

I should totally cut another loop and wear it as an infinity scarf in the spring!!! 

I set the lace aside and started working on reshaping the sweater's hem and neckline. I cut away the back of the neckline (and a little more to lower it slightly), zigzagged it so it wouldn't fray, then chopped off the bottom of the sweater at an angle. I cut the sweater's original hem from the scrap piece, zigzagged its edge, then used it as "bias tape" to finish off the neckline. It was the perfect size, so I didn't have to do anything more than pin it in place and stitch it down.

Cut the neckline, chop off the hem, and reuse it to bind the neckline!

My next step was to grab my lace and get to gathering it. I ended up folding the lace over on itself as it was longer than I wanted and this gave it a little extra body. My method for gathering was more along the lines of pleating or ruffling it as I sewed it to the light blue bias tape. I then sewed my ruffled lace loop to the bottom edge of the sweater. It was a bit thick and you can see on the bias tape that I went over it twice for strength as my machine was missing stitches (all my fault, btw, should have simply changed my needle and thread). I did make one alteration at the side where I folded a section over on itself because it was a bit too voluminous and didn't lay quite right. 

Ruffle, make a quick alteration and voila!

Now, I am constantly trying on my pieces in the process to see how things lay and how or if I should make more changes. At this point, the original cut of the sweater was making this look a bit weird as it narrowed at the hips and was a bit wider up top. So, I stitched down from the armpit out to the hip area, slimming down the silhouette, cut away the excess and zigzagged the edge.

Cut away that extra fabric! Into the scrap bag it goes :)

One last fitting and it passed! The original way to wear the sweater was with the super-low neckline in front (which would have to have been worn over a tank/cami), and this is how it looks worn with the original intentions in mind:

And here's all the lacey goodness!

However, I specifically lowered the back neckline so that I could wear it this way:

Loooooove a low back!

I love how this one turned out and again, though it is not totally my style, I think it is so incredibly pretty! I'll be adding this to my Etsy shop post haste because I've got another one of these in the works! 

Here's one final look at the before and after:

Peace,

Andrea