Skirt Refashion

This project has been dismantled waiting to be refashioned for well over two years now, but it is finally done.

Don't you just hate it when you find a skirt you love in a charity shop, but it is several sizes too small, why are all the cute things in a size 8 or 10 (UK sizes that is)?  I love the print on this skirt, I actually bought it new in a different colour way from H&M many years ago, but there was no way a size 8 was ever going to fit me.

I think I must have originally bought this skirt with the idea of making a bag, but all that happened was I ripped the skirt apart and put it in the deep dark recesses of my fabric stash, until it finally saw the light of day last week.  As I also found some pale blue linen in my stash, I decided to make a panelled skirt.  Of course I modified New Look 6106, which has been my go to pattern this summer (this is now the fifth iteration and I still haven't made the skirt up as it is meant to be).  I worked out the largest panel I could get from the skirt as was and worked out how big I need to make the side panels.  I then redrafted the pocket opening to fit with the side panel width, the original pocket opening is quite wide and shallow, I made it narrower and deeper to fit.

The only other change I needed to make was the addition of a button and buttonhole.  The pattern calls for the zip to go to the top of the waistband, but as I wanted to utilise the existing zip in the skirt (really why make extra work for yourself) I extended the waistband at the back and added a button.

So from a skirt that was never going to fit me, to a skirt that fits very well, is a one off and will go with lots of t-shirts I already own.  But again I ask, just why did it take me so very long?

Busy Busy Sewing

So there is very little point having a self imposed "Sew Spend Stoppage" if I don't actually start using what I already have; stash busting is the main aim after all.  So I had a rummage (literally, my fabric stash is not the most organised) and found some patterns and fabric that had been waiting to be utilised for far too long.

These trousers are from an issue of Knipmode I bought when we were on holiday in the Netherlands back in 2007 - Mei 2007 Broek 10b.  So it has only taken me 5 year to make them.  The fabric is a cotton/linen mix I think, bought at the Shuttle in Shipley last year, so that hasn't actually been hanging around too long.  Apart from having an excessively large hem, these trousers came out very well and I have already cut out another pair to make.  Fortunately I didn't need to follow the instructions in order to make up these trousers, as my ability to read Dutch is very limited.

 So I've come to the Tulip skirt a little late, but now that I have a really like it.  I'm not pear shaped, so I don't have issues with extra volume at the hips, so I don't know why I didn't embrace this style sooner.  Again this is an old pattern, Burda World of Fashion September 2007, 116b.  I had some of the blue/grey cotton/linen left over after I had made the trousers, so I decided to make this skirt.  It is a really easy to wear skirt, it has pockets which I always love.  I lengthened the skirt a little as I knew I would want to wear it without tights and as I have be insanely clumsy all my life my knees are just a mass of scar tissue, I needed the skirt to be a tad longer.

Stash Busting

So I've had this pattern so long that it is not discontinued.  This is Amy Butler Lotus Tunic (not the perfect tunic because it required a zip or buttons), made up in two different but coordinating Amy Butler cottons (now discontinued I as well I think).


The fit is really good on this pattern, it didn't require any adjustments.  Once again I have found the yardage requirements on a pattern truly ridiculous  How could a simple fitted top require 2.5 metres of fabric?.  With a few minor adjustments to the layout I got this pattern from only 1 metre of fabric.


I will definitely be making this pattern again, although the sleeves are a little puffy and I may need to tweak them. 

The Pledge - The Sew Spend Stoppage

So at the end of Me Made May'12, I made a half-arsed pledge to stop buying sewing more patterns or fabric and use what I already have.  I didn't give myself any guidelines, any kind of time-scale, just a maybe I shouldn't buy more stuff.  And as a consequence I went the following days and bought Sew magazine, because I liked the Lisette pattern that was included free with it (hardly free as the magazine costs £5.99).

Now it's a nice enough magazine, like the dozens of other sewing magazines I have bought and kept and hardly ever made anything from. It was a typical sewing impulse purchase and when I got the pattern home and had a closer look I felt less and less likely that it would be a pattern I would make a great deal of use out of.  But with my new ethos fresh in my mind I have actually used this pattern and this is the result. 

I cropped the dress to make a top instead, the check fabric is a remnant from a shirt I made Fluffrick several years ago and I also used it to make my own bias binding.  The plain fabric I bought when we went to Bradford and blogged about here.  I even had the perfect colour of cotton already in my stash.


So mostly stuff I already had, but the purchase of a new pattern none the less.


So here is what I pledge.  


For the remainder of 2012 I, Katrina of RollingEyeballs, will not purchase any new patterns, fabric, notions or sewing magazines.  I will use what I already have and I will only purchase haberdashery if it is essential to the completion of a garment. 


We can just overlook the bag of 27 zips that I bought at Oxfam in Buxton for the princely sum of £2.99, how could I pass that up?