Saturday 2 August 2014

August Break Day 2 : Pattern

Hello, and welcome to Day 2 of my participation in Susannah Conway's project, The August Break.
Today's theme is Pattern.


My plans for today were to sew and to crochet. Bliss.
What actually happened was laundry, food shopping, lunch, filing and last, but most dramatically, glass splinter extraction from Little Tomboy's foot!! The little darling had smashed a picture frame and the glass in it in her bedroom a few weeks ago, by kicking a football at it. It was on the wall at about 6 feet high at the time, she is not called Little Tomboy for nothing. Despite my vacuuming her room several times since, she obviously managed to find a splinter I had missed.

Once foot surgery was completed, I did manage one fairly significant task today, and that was the cleaning and oiling of my sewing machine. Look, I was brave and opened it up ....


The tension had been playing up, but it seems to be rather better now, I'm feeling very pleased with myself :)


Once the machine was all back together and feeling better, and I had had a celebratory cappuccino, I had time for a very quick project. Little Miss is very slim, and has an assortment of dresses that still fit but are far too short. Upcycling them into simple skirts has been on my to-do list for some time. Er, I forgot any "before" pictures, so just use your imagination, okay ?


The first one I tackled used to be a little strappy sundress with a ruched bodice. I cut off the straps, and some of the ruching, but leaving some along the top to become the waist. I hemmed it, stretching it out as I went (it was ruched remember), and used regular thread. The resulting waistband was a little loose so it's just threaded with elastic to pull it in slightly. Easy peasy!


Next for the chop was one of my favourites of Little Miss' dresses. It was a royal blue jersey sleeveless bodice, and then this pretty cerise, white and blue floral skirt. The skirt and bodice were joined together at a sort of empire line level, with a wide band of cerise elastic.


This project didn't even require any sewing - I detached the bodice from the elastic waist/empire-line band using my trusty seam ripper. The band then became the waistband - and ta-daaaaaa ...


I  ♥-LOVE-♥  how it turned out, The skirt is lined too, so it's lovely and swingy and full. And I totally adore the fabric, I've often thought that it would make a wonderful adult's dress for a wedding or a summer party.


There they are together ........ aaaaah lovely  :)

Now, just in case you think it's all hearts and flowers round here, tomorrow's upcycling project will be for someone else. Can you guess who ? Here are a few clues ...


Yes, it's for Little Tomboy of course! Queen of camouflage (don't tell her I called her the queen).
Did you guess right ? I'm going to make her some (more) army camouflage shorts out of some of her too-short trousers :)


10 comments:

  1. Good for you to make do and mend and make something new out of something old. I finished one of my buntings.. will blog about it tomorrow. I'll be gone for a week and a half.. so I won't be commenting.. we'll be off the grid. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. They look amazing, the fabrics are beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  3. So sorry to hear about the splinter but glad that's dealt with! Loving what you did with the dresses and they do make very pretty skirts - also admiring your resourcefulness: well done Mum! xoJoy

    ReplyDelete
  4. oh I used to do this with miss K's dresses, it wouldn't be allowed now she's 15.... still doing it with the trousers to shorts for the boy though, although I confess to never bothering with hems, it's just scissors and then he wears them...........

    thanks for your visit to my blog and your truly lovely comment x

    ReplyDelete
  5. Like what you did with the dresses,, well done.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You've been busy! It's very satisfying to make things out of what you already have isn't it. I'm thinking of doing Susannah Conway's August Break photos too, I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with. CJ xx

    ReplyDelete
  7. You are very creative Jill! And well done for servicing your sewing machine! X

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your poor daughter, I hope she's okay. That happened to me once when I was in school. I stupidly tried to hang a picture on the wall in my room using a thumb-tack, I think it was, and it wouldn't hold and fell off and you know the rest. Your sewing is very clever and makes great re-use of those items.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I hope that you don't have any more splinter related injuries to deal with, not nice at all. Your upcycling for your daughter is a wonderful idea, especially as they are such lovely fabrics and great colours! xx

    ReplyDelete
  10. Aaaaaahhh thank you all for your lovely comments :) They all made me smile, each and every one :)

    ReplyDelete

Thankyou so much for visiting, and for taking the time to leave me a comment :) I really really love getting little messages, I read and value every single one, so thankyou again, and have a great day :)
Jillxxxxx