Refashion Friday: The Refashioners Return...

With much excitement, today I can announce that Portia (AKA Miss P) is hosting and organising another round of 'The Refashioners'. As she discussed in the recent interview she undertook on this here little blog, Portia explains that the aim of The Refashioners challenge is to encourage sewers to use  existing garments as the basis of some of their projects, and to look at refashioning in a new light. 

Kicking off on her blog on 3rd June, over two weeks we'll be seeing the results of the selected sewing bloggers Miss P has charged with injecting wearability into unloved garments. 'So who are these sewing bloggers Miss P has gathered for the 2013 round of The Refashioners?', you may ask... 

Karen - Did You Make That 
Dixie - Dixie DIY 
Portia - Miss P 
Marie - A Stitching Odyssey 
Joanne - Stitch and Witter 
Lauren - Lladybird
Tasha - By Gum By Golly
Elisalex - Stitch me Softly and By Hand - London
Sally - Charity Shop Chic
Liz - Cotton & Curls 
Zoe (AKA me) - 'So, Zo...' 

I think Portia has done an awesome job in approaching sewers that create a real variety of personal styles and sewing approaches. I'm positive that the results will be as equally varied, with those two weeks providing a healthy dollop of inspiration whatever floats your own stylistic boat.

Shortly we will all be sent our raw materials to get making. I feel a little intimidated about creating something fabulous but wearable whilst in such talented company! Especially because I feel a bit out of practice having not worked for TRAIDremade for six months now. I can only flex the refashioning muscles my mumma gave me I guess!

Leopard Mathilde Blouse

Unless you've been surfing the online sewing community with your eyes closed for the last month or so (you mentalist!), you've no doubt come across the first downloadable pattern, the Matilde Blouse, designed and released by the super-talented Tilly of Tilly and the Buttons blog. Aside from Tilly's own of course, there are some truly fabulous versions of this pattern popping up all over blogville, many of which can be seen on Tilly's maker gallery. Go and see for yourself if you don't believe me...

I was asked by Tilly to one on of her army of testers for this pattern and its instructions. As someone who has developed and released my own sewing patterns, I was thoroughly impressed by the amount of work and attention to detail Tilly put into making the pattern, instructions and everything else that went along with releasing it as flawlessly and user-friendly as humanly possible. IMO, she has seriously put some of the well-known sewing pattern companies to shame in these regards! Everything about Tilly's approach to the process, including garment design, graphics, detailed blog posts, community involvement and so on has been amazing, in my book. 

So ta da!!! Here's my version of this blouse pattern. As Tilly admitted herself, she wasn't sure if the style of this blouse was particularly 'Zo-esque', but we both agreed the final garment is plenty 'Zo', not least thanks to the injection of leopard print! This fabric was a gift from the lovely Karen, and has been languishing in my stash for a year or so. When the Mathilde blouse called for something light-weight with a bit of drape, I knew it was time to get this fabric deployed! I had bought a pack of red vintage plastic buttons for the back fastening but when I opened the pack one of them was a different design to the others, and there wasn't enough of the predominant style. That would annoy me so I opted for a complete set of metallic silver ones from my stash instead. 

The reason I have taken longer than everyone else involved in the testing to get my version out there is that I had to remake my sleeves, and packing up and moving flats last week put sewing to the back burner for a while (don't you hate it when that happens?!). A combo of a printer scaling error on my part and the initial pattern being a little short in the sleeve length for the non-petite meant my initial sleeves finished at a slightly annoying point around my elbow. Finding these things out was of course the point of having testers in the first place! Having finally got my new sewing room set up into some sort of useable state last weekend I was able to return to this blouse and I'm dead pleased with the fit of the final sleeve version. 

Even thought the sleeves are very voluminous, I was able to wear my reversible bolero shrug over this blouse today with no trouble or discomfort at all. So, aside from it being too damn cold for light-weight blouses at the moment, I declare this a 'wearable garment' that I predict will definitely see wardrobe rotation, therefore I count this as the third in my sewlution of twelve wearable garments made by me this year! BOOM!!!!

An Ode to Mustard-Yellow and Old Gold

Source: jenloveskev.com via Zoe on Pinterest

I'm writing this post to distract myself from the fact that it's frikkin' snowing outside. This Winter is really starting to take the piss. So let's dream of days when clothing decisions can be based on stylistic whims rather than purely the practical consideration of 'how many layers can I get on my body and still squeeze my coat on over the top?'.

Source: orlakiely.com via Zoe on Pinterest

As with my previous 'Ode to Emerald and Jade' post, I'd like to show some love to another group of awesome tones. Mustard-yellow, old gold or whatever else you wish to call these colour, has been a firm favourite of mine for a while, and IMO it rocks hard with navy, black and white. As well as Breton stripes, as previously discovered!

Source: abeautifulmess.typepad.com via Zoe on Pinterest

Currently, I only have a few things in my wardrobe belonging to this colour bracket. There's my me-made sunshine jacket (pictured below) and a second-hand cardigan and heels (both seen in this post). But I've got plans to shoe-horn in some more, oh how I have plans....

So here's some mustard-yellow/old gold inspiration direct from the depths of my beloved Pinterest boards. Is this a colour that appeals to you? What ways have you successfully incorporated it into your outfits? Do you think it looks better as certain garments rather than others (e.g, does it look better on the lower half of the body away from the face)?

Source: fashionvictimblog.com via Zoe on Pinterest

Source: janenorman.co.uk via Zoe on Pinterest

Source: modcloth.com via Zoe on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Zoe on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Zoe on Pinterest

Source: urbanweedsblog.com via Zoe on Pinterest

Source: ourdreamlives.wordpress.com via Zoe on Pinterest

My Fabric Stash: The Whole Truth

Oh my goodness. I barely know where to start. Ok, no I do know where to start: by explaining what is happening in these pictures. This week Patty and I moved into a lovely bigger flat that has, wait for it..., a small sewing room! If I were the type to 'squee', I would be 'squee-ing' now. But because the new flat is also more expensive, I have sadly had to leave my lovely desk space at Super+Super HQ. Fear not, I'm still firmly up in their business, they can't shake me that easily. 

But what these things have led to, is the regrouping of all my sewing and pattern cutting equipment, including sewing patterns, notions and fabric all in one place for the first time since, umm, 2007 or something. Jeez there's a lot of it. AND I had a big clear out recently. Anyways. Whilst the rest of the room isn't quite sorted yet or ready for photos, my fabric stash has been collated and organised. Fancy a look? Firstly, for some reference, I must explain that this set of shelves is the same height as me. 

Starting from the bottom shelf (pictured above), on the left there we have all the double-knit, most of which is synthetic. The majority of it consists of solid shade pieces: navy, black, red and maroon. There's also some navy/white and black/white striped pieces. On the right there is a pile of garments which are lined up either for refashioning or for the fabric to be harvested. 

Second from the bottom (pictured above) is the jersey shelf! Oh my there's a lot there isn't there?! LOTS of lovely prints (including anchors, birds, floral and leopard), lots of stripes and a few bits of solid shades. There's quite a mixture of qualities too, from weighty pieces with heavy elastane content, to lighter more drapey pieces probably destined for batwing tops.

Next up is the most over-populated shelf (pictured above): wovens. There are a few pieces of trouser-weigth pieces on here, but most of it is lighter top and blouse weight pieces. Very few of them are big enough to get a dress out of, unfortunately, and as you can see there are SO. MANY. PRINTS. This shelf kind of gives me a headache to look at!

Last but not least is the 'top shelf material'! Hahahaha! I'm so funny. The above picture is my vintage fabric stash. This section has been curated pretty carefully, it's all thriller no filler. There are a few curtains plus some nice bits of cotton big enough for blouses, but also lots of smaller pieces that are perhaps destined to be bags or cushion covers. The lace on the right isn't vintage, but I ran out of space on the other shelves. 

'Very nice, Zoe', you may be thinking, 'Looks pretty neat and tidy, if a bit excessive'. But wait, I did promise the whole truth: 

This is what currently lurks round the corner behind the door! The bit of the lovely workroom that never gets on Pinterest! Yep, these bags contain more garments for refashioning, old knitwear for making into mittens, scraps of jersey only big enough for making pants, scraps of pretty woven stuff too small for garment projects, interfacing and Craftaganza supplies. AGH! Tell me everyone has a corner like this? Tell me this is the reality of craft!

It is frustrating that a lot of my fabric (having been sourced second hand) is in smaller pieces, thus limiting it's use. But seriously, I clearly have A LOT of it, in fact I have all the damn fabric I should ever need! Now I can see it all in one place together, I am more committed than ever to my Stash Bustin' pledge. How many years do you think it would take to sew through all this? And what about YOU? How does the size of your stash compare? 

Lady-like Pussy Bow Blouse

I would like to introduce you to my second successfully wearable me-made garment of 2013: a most lady-like pussy bow blouse! Although something of a departure from my usual style, I can definitely declare this a success because I've already worn it twice, and I only finished it yesterday afternoon! 

So what am I doing spending time making garments that I don't consider to be my style? Well in a couple of weeks time I'm going to be teaching a class at Sew Over It to make this pussy bow blouse, and I needed to test the pattern and help perfect the instructions so that I would feel comfortable teaching it, in much the same vein as the 'Ultimate Trousers'. I've had this slinky synthetic fabric in my stash since last Summer, and I had no idea what to do with it, so this seemed as good a use as any. I've still got half of the fabric left, so I can use it whilst messing around with another pattern in the future. What I like the most about it is that the print features giant elaborate bows, which I thought was firmly in keeping with a pussy bow style.

I'm actually really into the result. The blouse feels really nice to wear, in a grown up kind of way. The navy and cream print fabric goes well with flashes of mustard and hopefully red, which I have in abundance in my wardrobe. I'll experiment with tucking it in to see what kind of look that gives. 

This blouse pattern is a really good blank canvas for a busy print like this, it really lets the fabric steal the show. I like how the direction of the stripes changes from vertical to horizontal on the bow itself. I'm not sure whether or not this blouse pattern will be one of the designs Sew Over It plan to release as home sewing patterns, so unfortunately the only way you can currently make your own is by joining us for the class.

In other news: say goodbye to the infamous Red Door! Yep we are moving flats this week, goodness knows what backdrop/s our new gaff will offer up. I will certainly miss this door: it works so well with most of my outfits! However, hopefully my next outfit-photographing backdrop will allow me to stop posing on the street with passersby gawping at us mid-shoot every time!

Me-Made-March: Nippon!

If you've been having trouble firing up your sewing mojo so far this year, maybe looking at heaps of images of amazing wearable handmade creations will help! Usually does for me... Therefore I'd suggest having a look at Me-Made-March: Nippon, a Japanese-speaking version of the infamous and much loved 'Me-Made/Self-Stitched' challenges.

(image source: Miho)

I am, hopefully understandably, pretty protective over the 'Me-Made/Self-Stitched' challenges. I'm particularly cautious about the things that people have tried to apply the 'Me-Made' or 'Self-Stitched' titles to, which would potentially dilute or create unwelcome associations with the challenges that many members of the online sewing community have come to really enjoy and look forward to. Oh, did I ever tell you about the time one of the 'Big Four' tried to entirely take over and absorb the Me-Made challenges?! No? I'll save that story til I'm a few cocktails deep...

(image source: Mur Mur)

Anyway, I digress. A couple of months ago, the insanely talented and very sweet Miho emailed me to ask if I would be happy for her to organise a Japanese-sewing bloggers Me-Made-March challenge using the 'Me-Made' name. I was all like 'HELL. YES', as long as you send me the link so I can be glued to the images of amazingly creative and wearable outfits as they roll in all month long. Miho is also friends with one of the most awesome of sewing bloggers Yoshimi who has taken part in the general Me-Made/Self-Stitched challenges bringing her ridiculously well made garments to the attention of envious sewers globally! So follow the Me-Made-March: Nippon challenge along the right hand side of Miho's blog, and click on the images to be taken through to the blog/site/flickr page of the individual garment creator. Happy garment-oggling!

Refashion Friday: February's Rework Your Wardrobe Session

Today I wanted to show you a couple of the awesome refashions that occurred at the Rework Your Wardrobe session I taught at Super+Super HQ in Brighton earlier this month. Five lovely ladies came down one Sunday morning, each clutching a bag full of ill-fitting, broken or just plain dull garments that all needed some attention. 

One of the garments that required some attention was the T-shirt pictured above (however we forgot to take a 'before' shot!). It's owner Emma didn't have any fit issues with it, but seeing as some of her friends have the exact same top, we concocted to make it unique by turning it into a vest top. We did this by removing the sleeves and original neckline and finishing them with picot edged elastic applied using a three-step zigzag stitch. 

Claire brought along this vintage Laura Ashley dress she scored on Ebay that she loved but just simply didn't fit in the bodice. The deficit of fabric was too great for adding side panels or such, so we salvaged the lower half to retain a beautiful summery skirt instead. 

The women in attendance all finished between one and three refashions apiece at the session, the most common alteration being hemming to make skirts, trousers and dresses the required length for their owners. I don't think I was alone in declaring it a really fun three-hour session, and with everyone walking away with things they could now wear that previously they couldn't, it was most definitely successful. 

If you or someone you know is interested and able in popping along to one of my Rework Your Wardrobe sessions at Super+Super HQ, there is currently one place left at the Sunday 24th March session, plus a new after work slot has been added for Tuesday 16th April.

Happy refashioning one and all!