Black glitter skirt and long mitts - all upcycled from a winter sweater

Stash smashing has become quite an obsession for me this month. I have lots of second hand clothing in my stash as well as new fabrics because I often find the print or weave is lovely on some old clothing thrown away by a relative or even bought from a  thrift shop so I save it. Some of the thrift shops have sales as well and sell items for 50p or £1.

So, thinking of a new winter wardrobe made from my stash I decided to make a skirt from an old sweater - originally bought from Primark for Christmas when I was very strapped for cash, this was never comfortable but I do love a bit of glitter. Its about 10 years old now.

Easy to make into a skirt, chop off just below the sleeve, overlock and hem then thread with 1inch wide elastic. Sorted.

And there is a very quick pair of wrist warmers here too!

For them I cut a hole for my thumb, overlocked and thats it!

Thanks for visiting

Bracken

Oki dress - Moon Goddess

I made this pattern previously for the The Monthly Stitch Indie Pattern Month 2018 but in stretch black canvas. I prefer the first version because until I made this dress I had no idea the grainlines on the pattern are wrong.


Its too late now because I have made this and I do still like it but its not right at all so I am pretty P**sed Off if I am honest because this is special fabric bought from Ikea as a limited edition a couple of years ago and I cannot get any more. 

 I did my first ever proper exposed zip on the back of this dress too. I am reasonably pleased with that although its defo not perfect but you have to begin somewhere and it does work so thats OK>

 

I never had enought to pattern match which is also a problem but the fact the grainlines are out - see the sleeves! is terrible and very disapointing and I spent a lot of time lining everything up to make it work out as best I could because I knew I would have some mismatches pattern-wise anyway but never realised when I made the black dress that the grain arrows on the sleeves are completely wrong. 

The sleeves are weird obviously because thats the whole point of the pattern so I never realised till I sewed it all up.

Its still wearable and I still like it but yes this is disappointing. Its what you expect from a Big Four pattern rather than an indie designer. Tho why I think like that I have no idea. But anyway if I want to make this pattern again I will only use plain fabrics as of now because I do not think my brain can cope with sorting this out with the weird pattern pieces.

So yes I do like this dress but its far from being a big hit with me. Its just too imperfect and the strange part of this imperfection is I expected to have it imperfect but that was down to me not being an expert with exposed zips and knowing it would not be pattern matched with this print would show( it does!) but its the best I can manage but to have the grain lines out thats just crappy! And not my fault.

Will I make another? Yes probably in a sweatshirt type fabric in a plain colour because I think it would work. Never again in a  print tho!

Thanks for visiting and I hope this post helps someone else with the Oki Lola pattern!

Bracken

Lindy petal in faux leather and satin backed crepe

Today I decided to have another crack at making the Lindy Petal skirt so here it is in red faux leather and black satin - its really a satin backed stretch crepe but this time I have used the satin side of the fabric.

I have previously made this in lace which worked really well and I love and also in a naff polyester crepe.

I had not then worked out that its nicer when that crepe stretch polyerster fabric is reversed as is used in most of my recent posts so that particular skirt was worn once, hated and sent to the charity shop.

The Lindy Petal skirt pattern comes free from On the Cutting Floor.
http://www.onthecuttingfloor.com/roundup-15-easy-free-skirt-patterns/

Both of these skirts sew up very fast so its a satisfying make.


This pattern has been around for ages and nearly every sewist seems to have made it at some point. As Indie patterns go I think its lovely.  And still being free is of course fantastic.

 Because the pattern is actually meant for stretch knits unless you have a seriously stretchy woven its best to stick with knits. As you can see its worked ok though with both of these fabrics!


Both of these fabrics are actually woven and this pattern is for stretch knits only.

The red faux leather is a stretch woven but this is very stretchy.  I then decided to use up some woven satin backed crepe which I used to make my fishtail skirt and that has also worked out well and will make an excellent work skirt to compliment my Winter capsule wardrobe collection. Mind you it has to now be said that my Winter Capsule Wardrobe is no longer a capsule having grown somewhat over the last few months. Its more just a new winter work wardrobe now. The red skirt is not really work worthy.

I had to add a centre back seam to the red version due to making this from the offcuts from other projects since I did not have enough to cut the back as just one piece as the pattern tells you.  ( the CB seam is meant to go on a fold so I cut onto two peices of fabric as mirror images and adding seam allowance then sewedtogether and continued as pattern directions). For both versions I omitted the waistband. Infcat so far none of my Lindy Petals have an actual waistband.


I added a a lace edge to the red skirt since I could not get the hem to lie smoothly. I had this problem with similar faux leather previously as well when I made the lace and leather T shirt  which is shown below with my black Lindy skirt. Lace does give a nice edge and works well for the waistband on this version as well. Mind you it does crease! Probably it is best not to wear with my faux leather and lace top on blog posts because I do not think the creases show so bad in daylight as they do in the photos. Or at least they annoy me less. As you can see even when just stored in the wardrobe it is always creased. I love this top but dare not iron properly hence the creases which never quite drop out. I shall dry on a hanger next wash and see if they helps at all. I am hoping the red faux leather will be less creasy but time will tell.

 

This version of the skirt is slightly shorter because I decided the pattern is a bit too long for me. I do not want a micro mini but I do want a definite mini if you know what I mean.
I think the satin version is so far my best Lindy and I suspect this will be very well work for both work and play because its really very "me". Though looking at the photos I now also love the red skirt!

Thanks for visiting

Bracken

Dog tooth check dress pattern hack

I bought this fabric which is actually another rubbish stretch crepe and probably polyester, last spring and had no idea what to do with it.

There was only 1.2m of this so its a tight squeeze getting a dress out of it and it is not at all pattern matched. I never even tried to match it. There was just not way to do that. I had to slightly cut off grain one sleeve as well but I think it works OK and you cannot tell.

This is the version D of Butterick B5562 top without the neck addition so it makes a simple boat neck and extended into a dress by adding the bottom of McCalls M6612 onto it. Then I flared the sleeve as much as possible. Sleeves are 3/4 because they are made from the oddments left over after cutting out the body and that is all there was left.

 

Its totally overlocked except for the hem which is twin needle stitched and I added black non-stretch lace to the edge of the sleeves to give it a bit of extra something. I am hoping since the sleeves have a bit of flare that the fact the lace is not stretch when the dress is will not matter.

By the way the photo-bombing dog is a lurcher called Jack. We also have Sally and were given the names by the kennelmaid who works at the rescue kennels they came from ( Pawprints). It took us a couple of days to cotton on to them being called after The Nightmare Before Christmas but yes he really is Jack Nightmare!

   Apparently their surname is Skellington but Nightmare is more apt. He is though very young yet but has so far destroyed two doors and we have had to change the door handles on the rest cos he can open them all!

I could write along list of destruction and problems but he is lovely as well.

Anyway this is a nice little dress and for once I am also on trend. How about that for a random bit of fabric I bought with no idea what to do with it and virtually no pattern that would fit on it. Kind of proves if you do see a random fabric and its cheap maybe you should add that one to your stash!

 I reckon its worked out rather good considering everything and works well as a work dress too which is a big bonus.

Thanks for visiting my blog

Bracken