Have you heard about the Refashioners Challenge before? I had vaguely heard something about it last year, in the days before I had a blog, and I never really looked into what it was all about. Then just last week I saw a link to the blog, The Makery, and it caught my eye, especially as last week I was posting about my latest refashioning project, and since taking part in Fashion Revolution, I have pledged to become more conscious in my wardrobe. I took a look at what the challenge is, and I have decided that I am going to be taking part this year!
The gist behind the Refashioners challenge is taking something that we usually toss out, (basically an end of life garment) and turning it into something new, but it is not a simple challenge- oh no there are guidelines! Last year’s challenge was a men’s button up shirt, which people made some great things from! This years challenge is: jeans. Basically it is wide open- take a pair, or multiple pairs, of jeans, and refashion them into something new.
But I think that the challenge this year is going to make us all work for that prize! Jeans are a tough one for me, as there isn’t much fabric to work with, and I don’t really wear denim all that much. I used to live in jeans, but since converting to a vintage style of dress, I hardly wear them anymore. Not that you can’t have vintage style denim- I’ve just never found any that fit yet, and I’ve not gotten around to sewing any yet.
So, I had to think long and hard about what I could make from a pair of jeans that:
1. Would use such a minimal amount of fabric
2. I could piece, without it ending up looking like a hippie patchwork. Other people totally rock that style, but I wouldn’t like to wear it myself.
3.Which brings me to- would I actually wear it? That would be the key- something I would want to wear afterwards. As that is pretty much the whole point of refashioning 🙂 I am not a fan of the faded, washed denim style, so any jeans I use, will need to look fresh, not faded, and I will need to be able to make them into something that doesn’t look too “crafty” if you know what I mean.
But the thought of overcoming the challenge, the satisfaction of refashioning something old into something new, being part of this online community, and- oh yeah- the amazing prize packages, really drew me in and so I decided that I would join in.
The challenge runs until the end of September, so if you are thinking of joining in you’ve still got plenty of time! (Did I mention the amazing prize packages yet???)
I’m not giving any hints yet as to what I have decided to do, and I am still in the planning stages- as I need to hit up a thrift store for the perfect pair of jeans, (remember I don’t have any old pairs lying around!) but it is definitely going to be vintage inspired. I am going to try and keep as many original denim details in the final design, so that it is obvious that it was a refashioned piece, hopefully without making it look too “crafty”.
Oh, and of course, this challenge would come along, right as my summer/fall gets busy, so the pressure is on.
Time to get sewing!
Have you heard about the Refashioners Challenge before?
Are you planning on taking part?
No, I am not making any of these things, I just wanted to include a picture of sewing related stuff!
Do you remember back in June when I visited Rowena, the Retro Glam clothing store in Edmonton? Well, today I am excited to share with you the other item that I purchased that day: my brand new Hell Bunny Trench Coat!
I have been looking for a new rain coat for a long time. There wasn’t really anything wrong with my old cream trench coat, which I have had for six years now. It was in great shape, which is surprising considering that it was a Smart Set coat I got second hand, but sometimes I found that the fitted style was hard to layer over full 50’s style skirts, and- let’s be honest- I am fickle and easily bored with my closet and I was really ready for a change. However, do you know how hard it is to find a plain old, classic style, trench coat that is not $3000.00, or “modernized”, or covered in ruffles, or patterned in polka dots, or exactly like the one I already had? Not that I dislike polka dots, it’s just that I have an abundance of patterns in my wardrobe, and I need some basics. And, it seems like the last few seasons have been filled with every kind of rain coat under the sun- except for a basic coat with a classic, retro feel. I searched the thrift stores for a vintage one, with no luck, and even ended up picking up a London Fog coat from the 80’s, which had working buttons and flaps (in short a real trench coat). It turned out to be too long and boxy though, and I was too intimidated to try and refashion it, (Maybe I’ll be brave enough to do that someday!) so off it went to the thrift store again. (I should add at this point that I rarely ever buy clothes online, as I have had some bad experiences before, and I prefer to try on before I buy. Especially as in Canada, we don’t usually get free shipping or returns.)
In short, I was despairing of ever finding a coat.
Enter, the “Bacall” Hell Bunny trench coat (which I have no doubt Lauren Bacall, whom I assume it is named for, would not hesitate to wear, as it is that glamorous). It is pretty much all of my raincoat dreams come true.
When I was shopping in Rowena, we had been in the store for almost an hour, I had picked out a dress to buy, and as I was heading to the till, we realized that we only had a few minutes left on our parking meter. Then, I saw a rack of coats, and had to take a quick detour to look through them. When I saw this trench coat, I didn’t hesitate for a second to try it on, even though I knew we were in a hurry to leave. I first tried the medium, but it was a bit too big. They didn’t have any other sizes out front, but they had more in the back, so the sales girl went to check. In the meantime, the clock was ticking, and it was a race against time! She found the coat and brought it, still in the bag. I quickly tried on the coat to find that it fit, bought it and the dress, and we rushed out the door and made it to the vehicle with less than a minute to spare on the meter! It was the fastest purchase I have ever made in my life, and I usually need a lot of time to think my purchases through, but I have absolutely no regrets about buying this coat.
So, what do I love about it?
It is the perfect length to wear over knee length skirts, and is full enough to accommodate a petticoat, if I choose to wear one.
It has a tie belt, rather than a belt with a buckle- that is just a personal preference.
The lapel collar has a button hole so it can be buttoned across to keep out the wind and rain, like real trench coats do. And the separate back yoke gives the classic trench coat silhouette.
The sateen finish on the fabric makes the coat a bit dressier (especially compared to my last coat).
And, the best part: you can pop the collar up and pretend that you are a lady spy from the 1950’s. (While taking pictures in front of a mural that is right beside an intersection, so everyone driving by can stop and see you and wonder what on earth you are doing. But the pictures were worth it, and this coat really is perfect for blending into the black and white mural. Which makes it great for pretending that I am a spy.)
What don’t I like about the coat?
It is only available in black. (And, I looked on their site, it doesn’t appear to be available from them at all anymore, although many retailers are still carrying it. I’m not sure if they have discontinued it or not?) Black is classic, but I own a lot of brown, which, although not impossible to pair with black, takes more thought and effort to pass off well. It is simply not as effortless, for my personal wardrobe, as a khaki or tan coat would be. That being said, the black is lovely, and I will get a lot of wear out of it.
The other thing I don’t like, is that the buttons stop just past the waist, and the skirt of the coat is liable to blow open in the wind and rain. You will get wet if the wind catches it (voice of experience). I am not sure why they didn’t add a couple more rows of buttons, as that would have solved the problem, and made this coat so much better for blustery, windy weather.
It is, as far as I know, not fair trade. The coat is made in China, and I don’t know what that entails. I did struggle with my decision to purchase this coat, as it goes against my goals for an ethical wardrobe, since I don’t know where/how it was made. More transparency in their manufacturing process would be good.
Here you can see how far the coat opens, which can catch in the wind, resulting in… you getting wet.
The only regret that I do have, which is not Hell Bunny’s fault in the least, is that I was so excited to get a new coat, that I got rid of my old one a tad hastily. This coat is just not suitable for all situations and colour schemes, and I kind of miss my old one. Oh well, that just means that I am on the hunt for another coat- this time a classic khaki one. It’ll probably only take me another 6 years. 😉
I know I have some new readers lately, so this is perfect timing to say “Hi” to y’all and let you get to know me a little bit better 🙂 None of these are deep questions, but more like little known facts. I was always one of those people 10 years ago who would send out those “get to know your friends better” spammy emails to all of my friends and drive them crazy, so it’s kind of fun to do it again! Read on to find out some random facts about me.
Four places I have lived
I have spent the entirety of my life in Alberta, Canada hopping between: the suburbs of Calgary, acreages outside of Calgary, the city of Grande Prairie (8 years with my family, and 1 year with two roommates in a townhouse), and now east of Edmonton, on another acreage. We just like acreages.
Four places I have visited
Camping across the Yukon Territory (almost every summer growing up), Vancouver Island, in a lovely house on the beach, Last summer in England, in a cottage in the village of Stow-on-the-Wold. (You can see some of that trip here.) And well, as far as traveling goes, that is pretty much it. I tend to stay pretty close to home 🙂
Trip to England, Sudeley Castle, in 2015
Four TV shows I watch
I don’t have TV, so any shows I watch are once they come out on DVD. I love a lot of old shows, and British shows. So, the four that I can think of off the top of my head would be: Foyle’s War, Columbo, Get Smart and Call the Midwife. What a strange mix of murder, drama and comedy! 🙂
Four of my favourite foods
How can I choose? Four that I can think of off the top of my head are Curry, Pasta and Meatsauce (as long as it has lots of vegetables in it), Spicy Sriracha Shrimp and Noodle Soup, and Black Forest Cheesecake (which I have almost every year on my birthday!)
Spicy Sriracha Shrimp and Noodle Soup
Four things I like to drink
Tea (too many times a day), Water- in order to counteract the intake of tea 🙂 Eis Shokolade (which is a German drink of chilled hot chocolate poured over gelato), and Stewart’s Lime Soda, which tastes like a lime creamsicle.
The perfect combination: tea, a sweet and a good book
Four pet peeves
People chewing loudly, people chewing with their mouths open, double standards, people not cleaning up after themselves or just messes in general. I am a neat freak!
Four wacky or odd things about me:
Well, I consider nothing about myself to be wacky or odd. . . haha. . . just kidding. Maybe that, despite the fact that I seem like such a girly girl (and I am really), I know almost everything there is to know about installing tile and have done several installations myself too. I worked in a tile store and learned about the whole industry. Which was also pretty funny, as I wore vintage style skirts and dresses to work, which just confused people as it was kind of warehouse environment (like Home Depot). But I wear skirts and dresses most days- which lots of people consider odd, and I just consider comfortable. So that’s two odd things. Two more would be: Despite the fact that I am an adult (am I?) my last Christmas gift was a Barbie. But it was the vintage reproduction one, so that kind of makes sense? And, maybe the fact that I like old things better than new things. Almost always. But even though lots of people consider that odd, I don’t, and I am sure many of my fellow vintage lovers would agree 🙂 . . .
The bathroom I tiled for my parents
So. There you have it!
Now to tag some more ladies to take part, if they would like to. And if you would like to introduce yourself, feel free to comment leaving your answers below 🙂 I’d love to meet you too!
Do you ever have an idea of a project, and then when you do it, for one reason or another it doesn’t turn out anything like the original plan?
I got this dress a few years ago (yes. . . years) from the thrift store, with the thought that I would refashion it into something a little less “1980’s bag lady”. However, time went on, and I could never quite figure out what to do with it, as there never seemed to be enough material to do anything with. I loved the gingham print, though, and the fabric was rayon, which I would much rather prefer to the poly/cotton blends that all gingham seem to come in. So, I didn’t give up on it, and finally, a few weeks ago, when the canola was in full bloom and I needed something to wear in the field, this gingham came to mind: it was the push to finally do something with it!
My first plan was a simple dress, like this sketch below. Simply remove the sleeves, dart the bodice in, hem it to knee length using the excess fabric from the hem to create a tie belt, and add some eyelet lace. It would be easy and simple and wouldn’t take too long.
(Something like this, minus the ruffles. I love the ruffles, but didn’t have enough fabric)
Yes. Well. Nothing in life is easy, and most definitely not refashioning garments. So, here I outline how I ended up, not with a sleeveless dress, but a pinafore instead. (And in the process, reveal all the wonky bits that didn’t turn out quite as nicely as I would’ve liked them to!) 🙂
The first step, was removing the sleeves and fitting the bodice. This was easily done, however there was a malfunction when I fit and cut the armscye. (Which, by the way, is the curve of the armhole, and is pronounced arms-eye. In case you didn’t know that already. I didn’t know that for the longest time and was going around tongue twisting “arm-sky”, or “arm-sis”, which are not correct in the least. So, now I have saved you embarrassment, or maybe I have just embarrassed myself, I’m not sure which.) I cut the new armscye shape, and the cloth shifted when I cut it, and it ended up too low on one side. . . and so basically the bodice was ruined. Ooops.
So, now that the armhole on one side was too low, I wasn’t sure what to do. I thought about it for a while, and then decided that gingham would be perfect for a pinafore, as a pinafore doesn’t have armholes anyways. So, on to plan B!
I was looking through some of my sewing books, and through some vintage blogs. I came across the picture above of a yellow gingham pinafore style dress which I liked, from one of my sewing books, and I also remembered this dress from that Solanah of Vixen Vintage wore a few years back that I had on my list of ‘dresses to make”, and I thought that I could make this dress work.
I ended up picking apart the bodice on the sides, and detaching it from the skirt, so I had two flat pieces to work from, rather than a partially constructed bodice (as that had already been proven to lead to disaster). Once I had the two pieces flat, I cut the neckline straight down at an angle, basically just cutting out the rounded corners, measuring each side to make sure they were even. (The straps were 2″ wide.)
Then, I cut out the new sides, leaving 4 inches up from the waist, which would form a fake “waistband’ on the side. I cut it at 4″, which allowed for 1/2 seam allowances on top and bottom for a finished 3” side panel. Remember to leave seam allowances for all of your seams. With this project I used 1/2 inch as I didn’t have much fabric to work with. For reference, the finished bib width is 13 1/2″ at the outer top edge of the straps, and is 9″ wide at the bottom (where to the two yellow lines form a right angle in the diagram above).
I left the side pieces as a waistband, even though most pinafores don’t have a side panel. A few years ago I sewed a pinafore and it ended up looking so much like an apron that I actually ended up turning it into an apron. For the longest time I couldn’t quite place my finger on why it looked like an apron instead of a dress, and I have come to the conclusion that it is because the sides were completely removed. By leaving a couple of inches, it gave some structure for the skirt, and it looked more like a dress. Because even though a pinafore is an apron, I don’t really want people to think that I am actually wearing an apron.
After I had finished cutting the bodice pieces, I traced the shape and cut out two pieces of lining fabric, lining the entire bodice so that all the seams would be encased.
(This refashioned dress I made a few years ago, used the same technique as I did for this one, only instead of cutting the sides and neckline square, I curved them, so you can see how you could use this technique for a different style of dress)
Once the bodice was finished, it was time to attach the skirt. At this point, I discovered that the fabric had, over time, stretched out of shape, and the front button placket no longer hung straight. I also discovered that when the fabric had initially been cut, it was cut off grain. This was noticeable as the gingham pattern revealed the fact, but there wasn’t much I could do to square it up, without sacrificing too much material. So, I left it: I wasn’t concerned that it would shrink, as it was a pre-owned and washed garment. I made the decision to remove the button placket on the skirt and just leave the four decorative buttons on the bodice. Once the skirt was gathered and sewn to the bodice, I inserted a side invisible zipper. I would have liked to have used a white zipper, but I did not have one and the local store doesn’t sell invisible zips. So, I used a navy zipper, which worked out ok- it’s on the side anyways, so is not super visible. I was really in a “it’s now or never” state of mind at that point (two days in). If I had to place the dress to the side, I don’t think I would have finished it, with the amount of frustrations I had already had with it. That, and the canola was in full bloom, and I needed the dress now, not next week when it would be too late!
Now the dress was almost done, and needed only to be hemmed and lace attached at the bottom. This was the part where I was tempted to cry tears of frustration. Remember how I said that the cloth had stretched and warped over time? Well, it was completely out of whack, and I couldn’t straighten it along the pattern. I tried measuring down, I tried measuring from the edge, and every time I pinned it, it was crooked and hung down in the back or the side. And nothing makes a garment look worse than a crooked hem. (Unless I suppose it is a train, and is done on purpose, which in that case is great!) Finally, after pulling out all my hair (oh and did I mention that I was doing this at 12:00 at night?) I decided to measure up from the floor, like those hem markers do. I placed the dress on my mannequin and measured up with a yardstick, pinning and pressing it into place to see if it worked- and it did! So, as you can see the hem does not follow the pattern of the gingham, but it is straight from the floor! And as long as I stand on level ground it will be so 😉 I decided that I would rather have a straight hem, than worry about the pattern of the fabric, and as it is at the hem, no one is going to notice it anyways. Well, I guess now you will. Oops.
The last step was attaching the lace to the hem, adding the pocket, and then changing the buttons to white, as the other ones looked a bit dingy with age. I made the pocket out of one of the sleeves, and edged with the same eyelet. There were originally supposed to be two pockets, but the measurement was off, and it would have run over the zipper. So, I decided the dress was good with just one pocket, and called it done! I placed the pocket at an angle, as the fabric squares wouldn’t line up, and also so you could see it on such a busy background.
Whew. Somehow this project rapidly went from a quick and easy alteration, to three days of tears and frustration! But, it worked, and I am satisfied with it, as it turned out looking a lot like the 1940’s style pinafores. And, for all of the headache it caused, I love that my “new” dress is also keeping one more garment out of the textile waste cycle.
(Oh, and we got the pictures in the canola field too, which is why I started this whole escapade in the first place!)
Do you ever start projects and have to change to plan B, C or D partway through?
Do you like refashioning garments, or would you rather start from scratch?
My Grandma and my Mom are amazing gardeners. I am not a gardener. I don’t enjoy digging in the dirt and planting, and watering and weeding and all of the assorted chores that a garden entails. However, I do absolutely love the flowers that result. I also enjoy being in the garden, and I especially love to take pictures of the flowers that grow. (As you can probably have guessed by now, considering the number of floral themed photos that appear on this blog!) This means that, even though I don’t personally enjoy gardening, I will always have flowers, as houses and yards without them, are so cheerless.
I am constantly amazed by the rainbow of colours in nature, the enormous variety of species, the unique details of the petals. . . I like taking photos of flowers as they are so easygoing: they don’t move out of frame (unless it’s windy I guess), they sit nicely while I compose my shot, and I don’t have to worry about them not smiling nicely 🙂
Both my Grandma’s backyard, and my Mom’s garden are full of such vibrant flowers – so, today’s garden is brought to you in technicolor!
Magenta Purple Daisy
Orange Lily & Hybrid purple and yellow Lupin. I say “hybrid” because the first year, they were purple and the next year they grew up, both purple and yellow combined.
Coneflower
I have no clue what variety this rose of my Grandma’s is, but it is absolutely stunning. The entire shrub is just covered in hundreds of bright pink blossoms, that fade to a delicious pale pink. The first picture in this post, is also from the same rosebush.
Soft Blue Cornflower
Such vibrant colours in this Blanketflower
Cornflower & Sweet Williams
Turk’s Cap Yellow Lily. It’s called ‘Turk’s cap” because the lilies hang downwards instead of up.
Allium, or Ornamental Onion. One of my favourites as they are a large, 4″ balls of spiky flowers!
*All technical and horticultural information in this post, brought to you by my mom. I did not remember what all of these flowers were and so I asked her for the names of them 🙂
