I walk the line

So a while back I got this shirt from work(with sleeves intact), someone had carelessly left it behind and had not called to claim it for at least 2 months. That meant it was up for grabs and it was all mine. I had originally intended for the shirt to be turned into a short sleeved hoodie, I honestly don't know how it turned into this off the shoulder number.

From the front:The sleeves can be worn either on top on or off of the shoulder.

From the side: I added gray and black striped jersey panels to both sides for visual interest

Sleeve detail: Three rows of zig zag stitching (2 black, 1 pink) were added to the edge of the sleeve to create a decorative ruffle.

Well, there it is in a nutshell. The tank top underneath the shirt is to preserve my internet modesty, but now that I see it I'm thinking I may add some kind of half tank in the gray and black fabric. For now I'm happy with how it is.

Comfiest lounge pants ever

Recently I've been seeing a lot of posts using this tutorial on the t-shirt surgery live journal community, so I figured why not jump on the band wagon. It was just luck that my bf happened to be getting rid of some HUGE t-shirts he has received from work and school over the past year.

Here's my first attempt, not too shabby. The only thing I did differently was cut the shirt in half from front to back, rather than right up the middle (and through the design).

The whole project took about 3 hours with multiple 15 minute breaks, but not counting the time I spent the night before ripping out the sleeves while watching the Simpsons.

These shorts/gauchos turned out to be incredibly comfortable, absolutely perfect for summer days spent around the apartment. So thats one shirt down, four more to go.

long time no post

So I've been working a bunch, and switching back and forth between working days and nights which has led to my lack of posting (insert sad emoticon). I have been getting things done though.
I made my first bag ever which I'm pretty excited about. Its going to be an overnight bag pretty much. I based the bag on a smaller messenger bag that I've been using for years and made a few changes to suit my needs. I added on an elastic cup holder for my coffee mug (works with water bottles as well. The bag that I based my pattern on had no inside pockets which I've always hated due to the constant shifting of things during my commute. I added in a zippered pouch/divider pocket so I can keep my electronics separated from my keys, wallet, and reading materials among other things.

Next up is a fairly quick clothing recon (majority of it done in less than 5 hours-that's good for me). I bought the shirt at target a few years back, wore it a few times, but as always I hated the t-shirt neck line. The green fabric was a fat quarter I picked up at Michael's a few weeks back. For this recon I "drafted" a pattern piece for the green fabric I used due to the fact that I didn't have much room for error. After showing it off to the bf he suggested adding some of the green fabric elsewhere on the shirt to give the shirt a "more unified" look. Not a bad idea, I'm just too lazy to do it right now. No action shots yet, maybe once its fully completed

Fit to be Dyed Part II

So here they are, dyed and everything. Unfortunately I didn't take any dye process pictures, but you didn't miss much, just some navy blue RIT dye.

Here a quick picture of the back. About 20 minutes into dying the jeans I looked over at my sewing station and saw the back pockets chilling with my pin cushion, I quickly tossed them in hoping that they would be able to soak up some color. They did, but not as much as the actual pants did.

Despite the mismatched/wonky back pockets I'm pretty happy with the jeans. I'm hoping that once they go through the wash some of the residual dye will come out and the pockets won't look so bad (to me).

Its nice to know that I can overcome whatever issues the fashion industry has with my body by taking matters into my own hands.

Fit to be Dyed

For a while now I've been wanting to try out the whole skinny pant leg trend thats been so popular. I've tried on pairs in stores and I could never find a pair that looked right, it would be loose at the waist, fit at the thigh, and bunch up like crazy at the knees. I figured why not give it a go myself. I had seen a bunch of tutorials on craftster and similar sites, but they all started out with jeans that fit properly through the waist and thighs. The particular pair of jeans I had in mind were about four sizes too big.

After a trip to the library I came home and began looking over the readers digest complete guide to sewing to see how to go about reconstructing these or if it was even possible. I began by removing the waist band and back pockets, then tried them on. Holding the excess fabric in the back I pinned it into a large dart. Then after carefully removing the pants I measured the pinned fabric, divided the number in half and made two darts going through the middle of each pocket...is that clear?

After getting the waist to fit I tried the pants on inside out and marked where I wanted the pant legs taken in. Then after taking off the pants I basted the new inseam and tried on the jeans to see if they needed any more adjustments. Once I was happy with the new inseam I sewed the new inseam using a straight stitch and then reinforced the new seam with a zig zag stitch.

I was overall happy with the end result, but light denim skinny jeans aren't the most flattering thing on earth, I knew what had to be done, it was time to dye.

Mens shirt to summer shirt

It all started out with a striped mens shirt from H&M, I spotted it the second I walked into the salvation army a few months ago. Originally I thought about turning it into a simple racer back tank top and doing some free hand embroidery. However, after beginning the project I started to not like the horizontal stripes as much as I originally thought I would (Please excuse the mess in the pictures).

After a bit of playing around with it I cut off the torso of the shirt and made an empire waist by adding a band of vertical stripes. I cut the remaining torso fabric in half and added extra fabric from the sleeves to give the bottom part of the shirt more swing. I also added a scalloped/ruffled edge on the bottom of the extra fabric and on the edge of the sleeves.



The finished product:

Wardrobe refashion pledge

The Pledge

I Rebecca (a.k.a. dustbuunnyodoom), pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 2 months. I pledge that i shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoated, recylcled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftyness brings!

Signed, Rebecca.

Wardrobe Refashion