Upcycling to Reuse a pretty Rayon!

 

I made a couple of items in August, and cleaned my sewing room a bit. But I really did take a bit of a break! So here is the first thing I made last month. PatternReview was having an upcycling contest, and I had lots of ideas for complicated projects that would be really cool... but what I really needed was a light summer top. 

And, I had this old McCalls 7115 dress that I made way back in 2016 -- never wore it, but saved it because the fabric was so lovely, and had good memories attached. I bought this at my first PatternReview weekend in Chicago, and so really wanted to reuse it. I thought that I'd waited long enough so I found a top pattern in the stash that would fit onto the odd shaped pieces of the unpicked dress and just went for it. 

I chose Simplicity 2147, an easy pattern that I've had in the stash for a long time. It's a yoked top, which means I could fit it onto my fabric. It also has a nice pleat detail at the yoke, even if it's kind of hidden in this print. It does make the fit quite nice, though. 

I laid out the pleated part of the top on my remnant skirt & both front and back fit widthwise -- I just made the top the length of that original skirt & used the existing hem. It's a bit shorter than the "tunic or minidress" description of the pattern, but as I am also quite short, it's not that different! 

I cut the yoke from the dress bodice & so had to incorporate the button placket from the dress into the front yoke. After I finished I decided to stitch on 2 buttons from the dress to give it a little extra touch. They are nonfunctional.

So while I didn't get around to a complicated upcycle, I am very pleased with this one. It was great to finally reuse this dress, and I have worn this top three times since I finished it. It's light and comfortable, and I feel pleased that I finally made something from the disappointing dress. There are a couple of other items in my stash which could probably use the same treatment. Maybe I'll upcycle something else soon! 

Factory Top in 30s Print

I have had this project in mind for a while! I had this cotton print in my stash and couldn't figure out what to do with it, it's pretty busy. I decided that making something with very simple lines would be the best choice for this one. I have made the Merchant & Mills Factory Dress before, and have also made a top version, so picked this pattern to remake. 

This was quite finicky, trying to get the pattern matched up, especially across the front. I thought I had done it perfectly, but it's a little off. Not enough to redo it, though, as when looking at it, the strong lines of the print carry through well enough to make it okay. 

I added 6.5" to the bottom of the bodice pattern in order to fold under a 3" hem. I added a band to my first top version of this size, and feel that it helps keep the shape and fall of the top more aligned with the deep double layer. I worried about there being some print show through, but thankfully it's not an issue. 

This took a while to put together, despite the pattern being pretty easy. The print was challenging, as I mentioned, but I was also quite busy over the past couple of weeks and didn't want to work on this tired! Fortunately I've finished it and am pleased with the outcome. I also had a set of buttons from the thrift store that I felt would match this print perfectly - so I added them on as decorative elements along the front seam when I was done. I think this is so cute and will enjoy wearing it! 

Burda Swing Top in leafy print

The Make a Garment a Month Group on Instagram had a January challenge -- "Jungle January". I really wanted to make something as I had two excellent fabric choices in my stash. After some waffling, I decided to reuse a pattern for a swing top from Burdastyle magazine which I've made before (Burda 115-11-2018). I had just enough fabric for this easy top. 

My fabric is a light and stretchy knit, so I used straight stitches on the shoulders to try to keep them from stretching out too much. There is supposed to be a bit more gathering on the shoulder seams but I found that the weight of the shoulder seam has reduced the effect a bit. I'm thinking of going back in and stitching a small piece of elastic to the shoulder seam to regather and hold the gathers too! 

Otherwise this was a quick and fun make. I'm used to the pattern now, with all my adjustments (mainly adding 3" to the hem length) even if it does look a little different in each fabric I've used. I love the bright green (more vibrant in real life) and the rayon knit is super soft to wear. 

This is a fun silhouette and I do love an oversized top with a straight skirt. I'm wearing my staple knit skirt, the free Lindy Skirt from Itch to Stitch (with added pockets) which I wear constantly. Burda does have some fun designs and I'm glad I saw the IG sewalong to give me a bit of a boost to make this top. I got it done on the last day of January, so just squeaked in to the sewalong, but would definitely would not have finished without a deadline! Do you enjoy contests/sewalongs/challenges? I often find them stressful, but in this case, I had something in my long-term queue that fit into the challenge and this gave me enough of a kick to get going on it. I'm finding I like these deadlines more and more ;) 

Anyhow off to swish around in my flowy new top! 

A Zoe Top from Simple Sew

I just made this Zoe top, from Simple Sew -- I have had this pattern for ages and always thought it would be a fun project but you know how that sewing queue goes. 

In any case, the PatternReview Fabric & Pattern Stash contest got me looking through my stashes to see what I had, and this one caught my eye again. I decided to make the dress view, using a crisp linen blend that a friend gave me a year or so ago. There was 5 m. of this fabric so plenty to experiment with! 

Well, spoiler -- I ended up cutting off the dress to a top length before even finishing it. I was nearly done and tried it on, well, it looked like a hospital gown! Not sure if it is the plain colour alongside the loose fit that caused it but it was inescapable. 

The dress is fairly basic. It's a front, back and facing, along with sleeve cuffs and a pocket. The front and back have a centre seam, and the pattern is designed to have topstitching along the seams for a little extra touch. I started out with this plan, and found a thread that was very similar in tone to the fabric, as I didn't want strongly contrasting topstiching. There is one pocket on the dress view, attached over the right side side seam. I even got that on, and it had beautiful topstitching, I was so proud, lol. 

The dress came along very quickly, even with the topstitching, and before I hemmed it I decided it was not going to work as a dress. So I unpicked the perfect pocket, and recut the dress to a longer top length. I pressed up the hem and there it was. SO much better as a top to wear with fun skirts. I actually really like it as a top and think I'll be able to wear this quite often. 

The neckline is a lot wider than I had realized when cutting it out, however. I don't usually wear a boat neck style, but fortunately I picked up some lingerie guards at the thrift store recently. These are very convenient - they pin onto your shoulder seam/facing, and the ribbon goes around your bra strap and snaps. Easy to keep your bra straps up and yet out of sight, and also you can quickly move them to any top as they are just pinned in. Great find. 

Anyhow, from the dress I had envisioned, to a top I will actually wear, even before leaving the sewing room for the first time ;) This colour is a delight and it's something I don't already have in my closet. I love the clear tones of the colour, and am really pleased it could be easily rescued to be wearable as a top.

Retro upcycling: stash skirt to top

 

Today's project is a quick refashion -- well, sewing it up was quick, although it's been cut and in my to-sew pile for months! I had a gathered skirt that I'd bought at a thrift store YEARS ago, because I loved the fabric. But it didn't fit and the style was just too old-fashioned. So I took the waistband off, and the gathered skirt turned out to be quite a large rectangle of this lovely drapy paisley print. But even a large skirt doesn't have tons of fabric, so a sleek top it would have to be.

I had this McCalls 4632 from 1989 in the stash, and thought that View F, the sleeveless one in blue, would be perfect. I was able to fit this onto the fabric neatly, cutting the hem of the top on the hem of the skirt, so that I didn't have to redo the hem but could use the pretty ribbon-edged one that already existed. This also made the project faster. 

Putting it together was fairly easy, with a couple of adjustments for my precut pieces. I sewed up the gathers and shoulder seams, then moved on to the facings. Because the front neckline is so closely fitted, there is a slash opening in the back and there are supposed to be a couple of buttons with thread loops. I was able to find an appropriate button in my stash, after auditioning about 6 varieties. They not only had to be smallish shank buttons which matched the fabric, I had to be sure they were very lightweight as well, since this fabric is very drapy and soft. I finally went with one button only, because I had this perfect choice but only one of them! 

Then it was a simple double fold hem on the sleeve openings, and I just double folded the side seam in the hem allowance and hand tacked it down, to keep things neat and tidy. And that's it! This pattern calls for shoulder pads, which I always leave out, but the fit of this one might just need some small ones. I'm thinking of adding in some 1/4" shoulder pads to hold the sleeve out a bit -- I think it'll show off the shoulder gathers a little better. 

This one is quite long, so looks much better tucked in, I think. Because it's just a geometric shape with no darts I think I could probably even wear it backwards if I wanted a front neckline slash tunic, though ;) I enjoyed this quick refashion and am happy to save this silky fabric and make into something wearable once more. 

Refashioning a Favourite Frock

This weekend while going through some of my fabric stash I discovered some old clothes that I had put aside to mend or refashion someday -- and I do mean someday!

One of the dresses was a favourite of mine that I wore and wore, probably 20 years ago! I know I bought it in Montreal when I lived there in the 90s. But despite the fact that it was too small and not really in fashion anymore, I couldn't give it away. I love the crinkle stretch rayon and the print, and always thought I should do something with it. I used to wear a lot of those long full skirted dresses and they do have quite a bit of fabric in them. 

So I got it out this weekend and thought I'd probably be able to fit a top onto the skirt pieces. The sleeveless empire bodice is too small and has too many buttons and details to be able to use much of it but the skirt was perfect.

I tested out a couple of small cap sleeve top patterns to see what would fit. I finally decided on the Cap Sleeve Top from the recent book Print Pattern Sew by Jen Hewett.

While the pattern is made for a stable woven, this fabric is a bit stretchier due to the crinkle rayon it is made from. So when I cut it out, and graded out a bit at the waist to hem to give it more of a swing feel, I failed to account for the stretchiness!

It came out quite roomy. Fortunately the neckline and sleeves were fine, not very stretched out at all, but the body was quite full around the bust area. I really liked how the back fit, though, so wasn't sure I wanted to pull in the side seams in the bust area. I pinched out a couple of fish eye darts under the bust, wondering if that would work, but also wanted to be careful not to take any of the fullness out of the hip/hem area, which I really liked. As I was pinching the fabric I had a sudden idea and just brought the centres together on the front. I pinned it and then sewed one of the original dress buttons onto the join to hold it all together. I really love the effect!

And I still have 20 black buttons to use on other projects -- this dress was a motherlode of scavenged buttons -- four on the bodice front, 3 on the back, 2 spares on the inside, and a random button placket all the way down the right side seam with 12 more buttons! I am sorely in need of black buttons right now; my stash is depleted. So this was a great reuse in many ways.

I enjoyed this unexpected project and am so glad I can enjoy this pretty fabric once more. It's light and comfortable - the stretch and breathability are what I liked about it in its original shape, and the print is just so summery and lovely. I'll have to do more of this kind of thing!

Harmonious Upcycling

This week I followed up my recent pattern tracing marathon with a bit of pattern cutting! I cut out three tops, and spent this week working on this one, the Harmony Blouse from Love Notions. 

This was a particularly thrifty sew; I am on the Love Notions fb page and watch for her weekly sales. A few weeks ago this blouse was on sale for $5, and since I've made & loved the Love Notions Margot Peplum top, I thought I'd give this one a go as well.

It's also a thrifty make because I used a thrift store April Cornell dress as my source material. I picked up this large and outdated style of dress over a year ago just because the fabric was so beautiful, and have been trying to find the perfect pattern for it. This top was just the right shape to take advantage of the dress fabric.

I started by cutting the skirt off just under the funny wiggly waistline, then cut the seams out so I had two rather trapezoidal chunks of fabric. I cut front and back from these pieces. Then I used the bodice pieces to cut the cap sleeve option. I could have used the short sleeve option (slightly longer) but there were double darts in the bodice, front and back, that I would have had in the sleeve hems so opted for the shorter length to make it easier.

I was even able to reuse the button back closure from the original dress as my new button back closure. I just picked out the stitches for the loop and button, and reattached them to my new top! I also used a 50¢ vintage packet of cream coloured nylon bias tape to finish the neckline. It's very lightweight and slightly silky, and worked perfectly.

Pattern alterations:

As for the pattern itself, I love it. It fits beautifully. I fall between the Med & Large on these patterns, so I traced it off between those lines at the neck to just below the bust where I graded out the large pattern line. I also traced a halfway line between M/L for the sleeves. It fits just right.

A touch windy here, thus the wrinkly bits - it does fall nicely in back usually!

Next time I'll take a touch out horizontally at the level of the back slit; I always seem to get a little bubble of excess on this style of top right at the upper back, which I'd forgotten from the last time I made something similar. And I'll probably make the back swoop a little less prominent; hi-lo isn't my favourite look and I didn't realize it would be quite so different -- perhaps I made a little boo boo while tracing, or it's just my shape. In any case, I will retrace the back bottom to be a much shallower curve next time around.

I really enjoyed the challenge of making this and it's been a comfy wear so far today! I recommend getting on to the mailing lists and/or FB pages of designers you like and waiting for sales or promotions, if you need to save money while sewing. It's a way to stretch the sewing budget. I also check thrift stores for fabric and reusable clothing often, and note when thrift stores are having sales or if there is a special senior's discount day we can take advantage of, or other options like that. It keeps me sewing and keeps my budget in line.

The Lindy Skirt, The Sorrel Top: matchy matchy!

I have a few items I made over the past few months that I've neglected to share here thus far.

But they were interesting and useful projects, so I am getting around to writing them up and also getting some pictures of them now that I can go outside without a parka hiding everything.

First off is this set of coordinating makes for which I used a black polkadot knit I found at the Goodwill -- the Lindy Petal Skirt from Itch to Stitch (a free pattern) and the Sorrel Top from Seamster Patterns (and most unfortunately it looks like Seamster is no longer in business).

I started with the Lindy Petal skirt, and tried to adapt it to have some cut on pockets, discovering as I was putting together the overlapping layers that you have to put the pockets into the outer layer ON BOTH SIDES if you want to get your hands in to them....  But, since I had tons of the polkadot knit, I recut the underlayer and now have two useable pockets. I do like having them, but there is a bit of bumpiness in this kind of slinky knit which doesn't 100% work with the silhouette. Since I always wear something covering the top of my skirt it doesn't bother me terribly, and I have worn this skirt a lot since it was finished. The tiny beige dots on the black read as a solid from a distance, and both that flexibility in matching with things and the comfort of this pattern mean I wear this a ton.

The pattern is well laid out, with clear instructions, and is fairly easy to make. I'd prefer another waistband elastic method, as my waistband ended up pretty puckered and uneven on first try -- I redid it using the technique from the Jalie Eleonore waistband and it seemed to stabilize it a bit more. That could be entirely due to my slippery fabric though, and no walking foot.

The only change I made, other than trying to add pockets, was to cut the bottom petal edge at a less acute angle to give myself a little more knee coverage. This is a great easy knit pattern and has such a nice finished effect. I recommend it for beginners as it's a little bit different and unique, and yet still easy to make. I also used this pattern to mash up with the Moneta bodice during a sewalong with the Monthly Stitch last summer, in a more stable knit, and it worked a dream.

Next up is the Sorrel Top. I love the look of the faux collar; it is actually set in, quite cleverly. It did take some head scratching and a bit of patience to get the collar curve to fit and meet at the points correctly but practice makes perfect. Also, I clearly had no idea how to get a hem right on this kind of knit when I made this - yikes! Good thing it was a working muslin and I haven't actually worn it anywhere ;)

I used a bit of black stretchy knit from my scraps stash for the body of the shirt, and the polkadot knit for the collar. Unfortunately, because the small dots read as a solid from a distance, the effect is rather lost on this version. But it was a trial attempt, and I will be altering a few things about it in future anyhow.

You can see that there is quite a bit of fabric pooling across the back, so I'll be taking some of that out on the next go. Also, I will be using a knit that is a little less shiny and slippery to make things easier on myself! Even with all that, I quite like this one. The style is cute and the fit is nice, even with the adjustments I'll have to make. This outfit is fun and seems just perfect for my new thrifted vintage sandals too.

These are both interesting designs, and I recommend trying out the Lindy yourself -- it's free, what have you got to lose? I am really sad that Seamster is no longer up and running, as I really liked this top and am a huge fan of her Rose Hip Tights. If you have one of the original patterns, I recommend trying it out.