Size 22 Dress Refashion and PAISLEY

Tigerboy and I went back to my home town for Easter. Going back there is something that I avoid at all costs - I couldn't wait to leave and didn't ever plan to return, so going back is only done under extreme duress. In this case, that duress was the stress tigerboy was putting me through over his angst regarding where to go to "get out of the city" because he seems to think it's mandatory if we've got a long weekend. In the end I was so over it I suggested going home to stay with Mum for a few days - I really didn't think he'd go for it - that seed sprouted into a Californian redwood within about 3 seconds and there was no way I could stop that speeding train short of fatal injury which although I did consider it for a bit (his of course), even I thought would be over reacting and possibly messy - I hate housework!

It pains me to admit it but we actually had a good time, not the least of which was due to me going through Mum's stash (which is approaching pitiful thanks to my pilfering campaign) and I even scored from her wardrobe.

As I was reclining on Mum's bed lamenting the fact that she hadn't had a 'thing' for silk over the years, I spied some dark paisley fabric peeking out from between her clothes. This was weird because Mum and I have very different tastes, she favours pastels (primarily mint and baby blue) whereas I like the darker colours, she likes pretty little florals, I like bold prints, solids and my holy grail is paisley. As far as I'm concerned, paisley is like garlic, there can never be too much and honestly? I'd wear paisley in any colour, just because it's paisley.

I've had this love of paisley since the 80's (probably the 70's but I was too young to realise it then) and it's something that Mum has never understood. Some time in late high school I was going through her stash (it's been a long, sustained campaign) and found two pieces of corduroy, paisley fabric, a green and an orange - I was in love. Mum was horrified that anything that ugly had ever made it into her stash and after I'd convinced her that I wasn't joking and really did like it, she said I could use it. Back then, it was really hard to get Mum to let me use any of her fabric because she was still in the (30 year) phase where she thought that at some point she would start sewing like there was no tomorrow, so her eventual capitulation really demonstrated her loathing of those pieces of fabric.

I made some slim fitting capri pants from the green paisley and I remember that they were my favourite pants for years. Of course Mum was not only stunned that I'd made something wearable from it but also slightly horrified that I wore it out in public - a lot! Whenever she saw those pants she'd try to tell me that they "had seen their day" and should be tossed - I wasn't buying it. In the end I think they got ripped and she refused to mend them for me. I wonder what happened to the orange piece? I don't remember ever making anything from it.

Back to the point of the story (yes, there is one), as soon as I spied that paisley in Mum's wardrobe, I was off the bed like a rocket to check it out.
"Why is this in here?"
"Oh, that, I don't know why I bought it."
"You bought it? It's got paisley!"
"I think I thought I'd wear it in winter but it doesn't fit right and it's really just not me."
"No, it's not - it's me!"
There was nothing to do at this point except to throw it on over what I was wearing.
"Do you think you can do something with it? You can have it if you want."
And so, I ended up with some more paisley but as you can see, it was a bit on the big side and a lot on the "why don't you check out my cleavage and bra" side (I've actually got it pinned closed in this pic).

There are a few rows of shirring just under the bodice. It's actually bigger than you can see here but I needed one hand for the camera.

I thought a quick zip up the sides with the overlocker and another quick zip to secure the front neckline would do the job but it turned out to be slightly more challenging.

I did at least realise that the shirring should be secured before I used the overlocker so that when the overlocker cut the elastic thread it didn't all shrink back and not get caught in the seam.

After some confusion, I realised that those squares on the skirt weren't centred at the back of the dress - bummer. There was also something strange going on under the arms that meant lots of finessing rather than just zipping up with the overlocker before it looked decent.You can see that the hem doesn't follow the border of the squares either - I at least fixed that in the final version

Anyway, here's the finished product which although is fine enough for day-to-day, seems to have a major static cling problem - you can see it around the hem where it's sticking to my legs. I wore it as a jumper with a black turtleneck one day but I wasn't sure about that look. Oddly, although it seems as though this was an empire line, the shirred waist is now somewhere between that and above my natural waist which feels a bit odd. I also thought it would be shorter the whole time I was making it - must have been an optical illusion when it was wider.

I took about 10 photos and had a choice between head cut off or feet cut off - something needs to be done about my photography!

Quick and dirty moneybelt

Yesterday I put tigerboy on a plane (with his Palin bag) to take him to the opposite side of the world. (It was actually a planned trip, not a banishment.) The day before that there was much searching for one of the four moneybelts that we have but rarely use. I found one with several safety pins holding it together and a strap from another one .......... fabulous.
"Do you want me to quickly make you one?"
"Do you think you can? Will it have a zip?" (At this point I'm thinking "Oh no, don't tell me this is going to turn into a Palin bag saga.)
"I'll give it a bash." (I disappeared quicker than a glass of wine after a day of work at that point - I was not sticking around for his endless list of improvements.)

I went through a bag of clothes my sister had given me years ago and pulled out a white knit top, pulled out the bag of white zippers my Mum had reclaimed from various garments and other sewn things ever since Jesus was a baby (seriously, there are some with my baby sister's name written on them along with her primary school - she's nearly 40!) and I winged it, totally, completely, winged it, zero forethought, zero measuring.

Ok, there was some forethought - I decided to use a cotton knit so that it was soft and not as sweaty as some moneybelts (like some we've owned). There was a long skinny strip of knit left from my hacking, at the last minute I decided to make it the beginning of the strap.

So, here it is. NB: This is a very quick and dirty project - one look at the stitching (not to mention that antique zipper pull) is enough to support that claim - but really, I'm not going to agonise over making a money belt look good.

• I cut the back out of the shirt to give me a big rectangle
• folded the rectangle in half, attached each end to the zipper (the hem of the shirt is actually attached to the top of the zipper)
• opened the zip a bit, turned it inside out
• inserted the straps inside
• sewed up the sides
• turned it right side out again
• then I sewed up the front of the money belt from the bottom to just under the zip so that it has two compartment - one that holds notes and one that's smaller (credit cards, notes folded in half etc.)
• I used a piece of elastic between the two knit strips
• for fastening I used those flat hooks you get in pants - I wanted something nice and flat (I also hate that most money belts leave you with a mile of extra strap hanging around)
• I put two bars in for the hook because I don't trust the cheap shoddy elastic not to stretch out - this was a quick and dirty prototype remember?

Tigerboy's take on it? "Oh, it's so comfy! I don't even know that I'm wearing it. Oh, honey, that's not good - I wouldn't realise if it fell off!"
"You can't have everything baby."

Refashion - Midi length halter wrap around to throw on day dress.

I wish I'd taken a before pic of this dress. The dress was slightly longer than mid calf but not quite long enough to be a maxi - unflattering length on me. It was a halter neck that was built for an A cup, I'm not an A cup. Due to the fact that it was slightly too large, it gave some coverage but not nearly enough when it was pulled up, up, up and tied but you know what? I don't like halter necks, not only do they feel unsafe with regards to public decency laws (you know, you're constantly thinking "I hope this thing doesn't come undone.", no matter how securely it's tied) but also, they give me a neck ache (yeah, that's probably because I've tied them too tight to try to lessen the possibility of flashing everyone. The back bodice piece was kind of baggy but didn't look as though it was meant to be - it had elastic at the top to stop the back falling down and as the dress was too large, it would have without that. The biggest problem? The wrap was approx. 10cm!! What is with these skimpy wraps? Of course, that means it had to be pinned together so that I didn't flash everyone when I breathed but then of course the dress looks weird when it's in motion because it doesn't flow .... at all (no surprise when it's pinned at various points).

So, the obvious question is why, with all of these problems did I buy it? I have no idea - I  bought it years ago, wore it once (and actually got a lot of compliments) but as I've said before, I have no patience for dresses that need fussing and constant checking and boy did it ever. It must have been the print that got me.

The refashion:

• Cut off the front and back bodice.
• Estimate the centre front of the skirt and join the two (barely) wrap pieces with a centre front seam.
• Remove the extra length.
• Take in the side seams (thereby closing the hole for the wrap tie).
• Use the extra length removed to make a new bodice - each shoulder seam is a former skirt side seam - the old hem now goes from bottom centre front to bottom centre back - sew up the centre front & back of the new bodice.
• As the dress wasn't as long as the palm maxi had been, I was left with gaps at the sides of the bodice - I cut two panels from the remaining piece of extra length to join the front & back bodices and skirt under the arm holes (using the old hem at the top of the panels).
• I hemmed the rest of the armholes (the bottom part was done, as I'd used the old hem) with the help of wonder tape (because this fabric is a nightmare for my sewing machine).
• So then I was left with the problem of hemming it. I hemmed (no pun intended) and hawed about how to overcome the machine vs nightmare fabric debacle combined with the fact that it was an A-line, so some easing would need to be done. In the end, my impatience got the better of me and I decided to give hemming web a shot. My reasoning was that even though it was an A-line (ie. curved hem), it wasn't very exaggerated, so there would be minimal easing (being such a thin fabric, I figured I'd just stick it down with the web) and that the web is so thin that I didn't necessarily need to have it at the exact bottom of the hem, so I could still have some curve. Well, lo and behold, it actually worked AND it looks good!!

Using the cut off length to make a new bodice.

So now I've got an easy to wear, impossible to wrinkle throw on dress. It actually looks better in real life than in the pic but you get the idea.

Refashion - Maxi to day dress (The Palm Dress)

I love the look of maxi dresses and I own quite a few but I've found that they just aren't all that practical for me. So often they don't have much covering on the shoulders and/or back which means that unless it's hot, I'll get chilled ('cos that's where I notice it first - which would be why I am known for always carrying a pashmina with me, I have them in a billion colours, solids and prints). Of course when it's hot enough for me to be wearing something that only minimally covers the top of me, all that fabric (particularly if it's synthetic) makes my legs hot. So that means that if I'm at home, I'm walking around with my dress skirt scrunched up to let my legs breathe or worse yet, tucked up into the legs of my underwear! Thankfully I haven't inadvertently done this whilst I've been out of the house but it's probably only a matter of time before I forget myself and assault the general public with that charming image - not elegant!!  So, anyhoo, last year I decided that it was time to make my maxis more wearable, ie. a length that doesn't have me fighting to tuck it up into my underwear and possibly commit a grave faux pas. So far I've converted three of them, there's still a few to go though.

After - the hem looks droopy in the side pic but it's not in real life. Actually, those vertical seams look a bit crooked too but I think that's because I just threw it on for the pic and didn't even check the mirror. Oh, I usually wear shoes with it too - talk about lazy!

This particular dress I actually bought at a charity shop with the intention of shortening it - even if I'd wanted to, there was no way I could have worn it with a bra, just look at that bust, a strapless bra would show right through that hole in the middle and I don't do braless. I loved the print and the fabric is a very thin, very stretchy, very slinky knit - feels gorgeous but I was soon to find out that it is a nightmare to sew with my machines. I don't know what this fabric is called but I have quite a few maxis made out of it and quite a bit of it in my stash (which would be a good thing apart from the aforementioned 'nightmare to sew' bit).

Before

I started this dress about this time last year (yes, last year), I finished it in Oct/Nov. Why the delay? The hem - as I've mentioned, that's where so many of my projects sit languishing for months until I get fed up with seeing them sitting around. In the end I used a double needle to do the hem - it's not a great job, there are some skipped stitches but, meh, it's done and it's been worn quite a bit over the summer. I've had a lot of compliments on it too. 

To make it, I basically cut off the extra length all around the bottom, cut that in half and used it to make the top. I very carefully unpicked the top and skirt because I was happy with the way the dress fitted from under the bust and wanted to keep that shape. The new shoulder seams were originally the side seams of the skirt, the original hem is now the neckline (trying to minimise any sewing on this fabric that I can). I sewed the (now) CF together up for  afew inches and overlapped where the two top pieces joined the back skirt a smidge. As I'd cut so much length off, I had to cut down the new bodice pieces so that they matched the skirt but I angled the cut out to the (now) sleeves. The sleeves came a long way down my arms and looked a bit stupid but I still wanted more coverage up there, so I sewed in a stretched piece of elastic with zigzag along the new shoulder seams to gather up the shoulders. Of course it didn't gather as much as I'd wanted because elastic never shrinks back to anywhere near it's original size after I've sewn through it but it was enough. I've since read that apparently there is specific elastic to buy for sewing through in order to have it recover, I wonder if it's easily available in Australia. After all that it was just a matter of hemming the new sleeves and skirt which apparently is a 7 month project for me.

As I said, I wore this quite a bit over the summer and I've found that I really should have made the two bodice pieces a bit shorter, sometimes if I'm not sitting up nice and erect (like I should be), the shoulders start to slip off. I had thought I might just do another round on the overlocker where the bodice and skirt meet but I don't really want to go messing with the length. I plan to make  spaghetti strap out of the left over fabric and sew it across the back neckline - that should take care of that and I'll be able to slouch all that I want.