Tag: fabric

Refashion

Keeping a Check on Fashion

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Keeping in with the upcycling theme of my blog, this month I am sharing a little refashion project I did on a sleeveless wrap jacket.

InstagramCapture_bd3bd1fc-0b49-4a87-a242-a63bc8ab25b4I brought this unlined wrap jacket in the early Autumn, I only wore it twice. This is for a couple of reasons one is it has been a really wet winter and the second is it is quite a thin fabric and was getting pretty creased if I wore it sitting in the car.

I decided to line the jacket, to give it a bit of reinforcement which would help it to stop creasing if I sat down in it and I love a funky lining. A great lining is like nice underwear, no one can see it but it makes you feel good.  I didn’t choose a typical lining as it would’ve been too thin, the check is a thin woven wool mix, I purposely chose this to add body to the piece.

The inside of the jacket was fully faced ( in the picture where I am holding the jacket open you will see the black inside where the facing meets the checked lining). I started by measuring the back, then measured for the front side from the side seam to the facing edge and added seam allowance to the pieces.

WP_20160317_16_03_49_ProThese are the finished pieces, when I pinned the pieces to the fabric I made sure that I was following the grain of the fabric. This was easy as the fabric is checked to I had to make sure that straight lines running up the paper were lined up with the straight lines on the check. I could pin the pieces opposite ways up as the check is regular, if you have a one way print, e.g you have flowers that only run up the fabric then you will need to make sure that all of your pieces face in the same direction – which also takes up more fabric.

Here is the finished jacket.  I was really pleased with the end result and after wearing in the car, when I got out it hardly creased at all. Excuse the dodgy modelling, it’s not really my thing! I had some left over fabric so I think I will make a scarf to go over the top, if people catch sight of the lining and the scarf when I go out somewhere, they might think I had a matching set custom-made for me!

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Here’s to spring and dry weather!

 

Hand Sewing · Upcycling

Rags to Riches

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In my personal, and I know, small bid to help stop the world drowning in landfill rubbish, here is the first step on my blog to show people how they can use things they might think are only good for the bin.

Phototastic-03_11_2015_7f0843b5-9c13-4700-ad57-e5944efcef67I made this heart decoration out of waste pieces of fabric left over from a pair of trousers that I altered for a friend of mine.

All of the pieces I had already in my craft box, from bits of broken jewellery and spare buttons, to some left over wadding from my trials with quilting.

Saving odd buttons and beads in a plastic box is a great way to have a little collection of decorative items that you can attach to anything you make, or items that you might want to customise.

The “how to” guide.

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First, I cut the fabric open so that I was able to lay it flat. Next I used a cookie cutter to get the shape,this is a great way to make sure your shape is symmetrical. I placed the hearts as shown in the 3rd picture to minimise the amount of waste generated and to save the other piece for something else to make.

WP_20151027_11_22_48_ProHere, what I have shown is that I used the slightly smaller cookie cutter as a template for the wadding to go inside of the heart. The wadding is three layers thick.

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I used the old hem edge of the jeans to make the loop for hanging, if you cut it close to the stitching the raw edge doesn’t fray.

The length I decided on was 12cm.

When deciding on length, you need to think about where you want to hang the item and the fact that about 1cm will be tucked into the decoration at either end of the loop.

You could also use ribbon and alternatives to wadding could be old tights with fabric inside such as t-shirt jersey because it is soft and flexible.

Phototastic-03_11_2015_2e9026ec-b5eb-4021-91e4-a72677f73c91The next steps are to fold the length for the loop in half, lift up a layer of the wadding, place the loop inside with 1cm in to stitch down, making sure you stitch through all of the layers. Sew a couple of straight stitches and sew over the stitches twice to add some strength.

Place one of the fabric hearts on your work surface with the right side (i.e the side that will be on the outside of the finished piece) of the fabric facing the table, put the wadding with the loop onto the the fabric and place it in the middle.

Place the 2nd heart on top of the wadding with the right side facing you, pin into place, making sure that the loop is in the centre of the indent of the heart.

Now you are ready to stitch your heart together and decorate it.

WP_20151102_10_32_10_ProWP_20151103_13_06_55_ProI have used Blanket Stitch to sew round the raw edge as it is both decorative and stops the edge from fraying.

Where the loop meets the top of the heart I used double running stitch, you will see in the finished picture that I hid this with bow at the top.

Eventually I plan to build a stitch library as part of my blog that will link to the italic writing, but for now  how to do these stitches can be found on the internet.

Come and visit me on a regular basis and I will see what other goodies I can cook up from odd bits of fabric, if you want to comment then put a link to your blog if you have any great bits of recycling involving fabric as well and I will come and visit  you!