The Sporadic Packrat

I signed up for Wardrobe Refashion again. So here’s my pledge:

I, Edie, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of “new” manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 6 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, renovated, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings!
Signed___EMB_______________.

I find abstaining from buying new clothes wonderfully easy, unlike some of the fashionistas out there, because I hate clothing stores (borrring!!). Shopping for thrift store finds is more fun than buying new, but I find that I do most of my shopping at the transfer station. That’s getting harder and harder to do, as more people discover the treasure trove, and I have less time to check out the recycle area. But, lucky me, over the last year or so I’ve collected plenty of pre-loved items. And yes, I’ll be hitting some thrift stores in Ireland, and will be coming home with a (hopefully) small selection of awesome Irishness!

See my previous projects.

And some inspiration: Unique clothes and retail store ideas.

Okay, they’re not new jeans, but they’re refurbished. I took a needlefelting class in December at A Weaver’s Yarn, and this was my class project. I was surprised at how easy it was! And at the wide range of fibers that can be needlefelted - basically anything. I used colored roving and several different yarns on the jeans. The big flower with the yellow center covers up a hole in my knee (I was running, tripped - you know the rest!), and a flower has to have a stem and leaves, doesn’t it? I used a piece of iron-on knit interfacing on the back to hold the fibers onto the jeans; I could have wet felted them too, but the sparkly yarn is (obviously!) not wool, so I thought the interfacing would be more secure.

I’m looking forward to making some needlefelted embellishments now, using the yarn I’ve been stacking up for crazy quilting embellishing. And nuno felting might be in my future too; I can see a hat…

Some Wardrobe Refashion inspiration from Urban Outfitters (first two images), and Free People Clothing.

All I need is more space and some free time, and I too could have some cute new blouses like these!
The enlarged images (in case the catalog pics go away!): one - two - three

Find more inspiration at BurdaStyle and Wardrobe Refashion!

My fashion guru’s comments:

Left: Many people think that having a straight line along the edge of their shirts is less unflattering to their contours than having a shape built in. NO. If you go with number one, curve it in along your NATURAL WAIST. Remember natural waist? That is more flattering. I don’t think ruffles or ruffly lace look good on adult women. It makes me think of women as children or like the Stepford wives. That said, in this particular case the ruffle is an interesting touch. And no animal fabrics - at least in my opinion; more plaid, patterns in complimentary colors but contrasting patterns!

Center: If you make this one, make sure the skirt fabric won’t stick to your pants, so preferably a weighty no cotton choice. The T-shirt underneath should be soemwhat fitted or it will detract from the ensemble.

Right: Great choice too. Great embelishment opportunity. I like using an upholstery fabric for the textured area shown across the back. Woven fabric will fall away from your body better than thin cotton, choose wisely.

She also suggested this shirt - I’ll have to try one on first though, as in the past this style made me look preggers.

The photos are from the Japanese craft book found on eBay, buy-it-now price is $27.00. “19 Full-Scaled Patterns of Unique & Cute Clothes“.

Okay, I want it; looks like there’ll be some great ideas for wardrobe refashioning, as well as new clothes with a unique twist, between the covers of this book. Maybe there’ll still be some available after I get back from Ireland.

So I slept through December… eh, it’s Alaska! What else am I supposed to do?? Start taking iron pills and get up some steam, that’s what! So I worked on my new sewing basket and I am thrilled with it. So much handier than my old hussif.

I purchased it at our local Value Village (second hand store) for a big $2.99. It was actually in very good shape, but I didn’t like the color or the fabric. So I ripped that all off, took off the handles, removed the lid.

Pretty ugly… but not battered or broken. So between me, the glue gun, and my store of fabric, I transformed it into this:

I used a pile of fat quarters intended for a new hat to transform the top lid into a sampler of flowers, embroidery, beads, and buttons. Using one of Laurel Burch’s books for inspiration, I utilized both yoyos and simple round shapes, and made a variety of flowers. The butterfly is a purchased iron-on applique, from (you guessed it!) Value Village. The top lid is two layers: a piece of stiff tagboard, covered in fabric; topped with two pieces of quilt batting cut about an inch smaller than the lid and covered in black fabric. The fabric is turned underneath the batting, and the lace is underneath that; all of which is sewn down to the black flowered fabric.

The outside of the basket is covered in a black background/bright flowered Mary Englebreit fabric; it was purchased secondhand at a sale by a group of local scrapbookers. The handles are covered in ribbon from Value Village, and secured with more of the ribbon hotglued to the basket (more hot glue than I’ve ever used in my life!) and dee rings. The inside lid (another piece of tagboard covered in the black flowered Engelbreit fabric) has a triangular square of fabric to hold my glasses, a scissors holder, and a needlekeep. The needlekeep is going away; I want a needlebook instead, that I can take out of the basket. I’m also going to add a pincushion; I keep sticking pins in the eyeglass holder, so I might as well add a pincushion. The two lids were sewn together around the edge with a simple whip stitch, and the hinges are hot glued between the lids. There are two pieces of vintage twill tape hot glued to the lid and basket to keep it from flopping back too far.

Inside, I used more of the black Mary Englebreit fabric and some cheery cherry fabric with a white background to make pockets for scissors, needles, seam ripper, pens, thread, needles, and all the other sewing accessories I use. The white background makes it very easy to see the inside!

And I love it! I can put a project and the embroidery thread in the basket, carry it with me, open the lid and get to work. With my old hussif, I had to have a flat place to set my hussif to make it easier to get things out. This basket can set right next to me, and I don’t need a table any more!

Here is a tutorial for making a patchwork sewing basket, from Magda of Little Thing If my recycled basket hadn’t worked out, I would have made one of these.

Okay, they’re those fingerless glove things. But I use them to protect the heel of my hand from the icy cold metal edge of the keyboard tray where my mouse lives. I’m mouse-bi-dextrous, and I do use both mittens. I cut down an old pair of mittens when the palms wore out, and replaced a very ratty old mitten that I’d used previously. The star and heart were on the original mittens, on the upper side of the finger area, so they’re showing their age a little. I needed a way to tell left from right tho, without putting a big L/R on them. And yes, they look like Christmas ornaments, because that’s what they were originally intended for.

I thought for Blog Action Day, I should show off my recycled shirt(s?). I combined a knit pullover with a snap-front shirt. First I cut the sleeves off the knit pullover, and the cuffs off the snap-front shirt, and sewed the knit cuffs to the snap-front shirt. I put both blouses on Dolly (you can see her fancy stand underneath the refurbished blouse), removed the collar and some of the front of the snap-front shirt (on top of the knit pullover), then pinned the neckline from the knit shirt to the snap-front shirt. Then I turned the whole thing inside out and trimmed away the parts of the knit pullover I didn’t want to use.

After I had the basic foundation the way I wanted it, I took some wire organza ribbon and attached it to the raw edge of the bodice. The organza didn’t really cover the raw edge, so I laid down a piece of satin ribbon and attached it with a herringbone stitch using green cotton embroidery floss. I made a tiny yoyo out of a scrap of the printed cotton and covered up the join at the vee of the bodice, sewing down the yoyo with an invisible hem stitch and white cotton sewing thread. The last thing I did was to sew the plackets together and turn the shirt into a pullover.

I have all the scraps from both shirts, and I’m planning on making a baseball cap to go with the shirt. I’ll have to add some fabric, or maybe I can utilize the rest of the organza ribbon, to finish the cap. The only mistake I made was to ignore how the original snap-front shirt fit me; it was too large and I should have cut it down a little. But that would’ve made a lot more work, and I got the shirt done over a weekend rather than taking two or three weeks. And I like it! A little large is okay

In this day and age of cheapcheap throwaway clothes and stuffed-to-the-gills landfills, we’ve got to think about the consequences of throwing out those cheapcheap clothes. There is also the inputs to make new clothes to replace what we threw away-dyes, agricultural chemicals for growing more cotton, waste fabric from cutting out garment pieces, the impact on the employees that make the cheapcheap clothes, and on and on. I don’t buy much in the way of clothing, and tend to find things at the second-hand store or the transfer station (well, socks and undies I buy new!) rather than buy new. But I still think I make less impact, ecologically speaking, and have a lot more fun, re-fashioning old clothes rather than buying something.

At last! I’ve finally gotten started on some of my refashioning projects! This was so simple - new buttons and some embroidery thread. It sure did perk up this well-loved plaid shirt though. Select each image for a close-up view.

I started by ironing the inside plackets on the shirt, handsewing them down to lay flat so I don’t have to iron it any more. I whipstitched the front closed too, up to the second button from the top. I’m so lazy! I don’t like buttoning up a shirt, and I usually leave it buttoned and pull it on over my head. Then the old buttons came off, and the new ones went on. Depending on the length of the button shank, I either sewed the buttonhole closed or sewed the button through the button hole.

Next I embroidered the vine and flowers down the front of the shirt, with a simple feather stitch and single chain stitch. I chose a simple design with bright colors because I knew getting to the middle of the front might be difficult. It ended up being easier than I thought, so I may add some beads to the vine.

The shirt still wasn’t lively enough, so I added embroidery on the collar edge, as well as some very tiny buttons. I think another set of stitches to secure the bottom herringbone stitches is in the works; maybe even a bead or two.

Lastly, I embellished the pocket with the same design and buttons as the collar. A new easier-care shirt that’s soft and comfy!

Although I did all the work by hand, you can certainly get the same effect faster with the sewing machine. I happen to enjoy the rhythmic Zen-ness of handwork and like the chance to work slowly and quietly. I worked on this shirt outside sitting next to a campfire, and yes, chased a few mosquitos off at the same time!

Oops, I signed up for six months (in FEBRUARY!!) and totally spaced putting the pledge on my blog! So, slightly red-faced, here it is:

The Pledge

• I, Edie, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of “new” manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 6 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___EMB_______________.

Lots of awesome refashioning going on at Wardrobe Refashion!

The cold weather (see the latest postcard) inspired me to make a new hat and mitten set. Okay, I wasn’t inspired, I needed a warmer pair of mittens! And I couldn’t make new mittens without making a new hat to match. I had a no-knit scarf that was too scratchy to wear and planned on making a hat with it instead, so there I was, needing mittens and wanting a new hat. What else could I do but get out the polar fleece and start cutting!

The polar fleece came from a cat bed project (which the cats DO use, much to my surprise); the blue (silk, I think) is a remnant from Britex (a friend was in San Francisco and had a great time going through the remnant bin for me); the mitten cuffs are tiedyed socks that had holes in the heel; and the flowered print was fabric I purchased eons ago. I had to buy more yarn to make the tassel, but that’s the only thing I purchased for this project. And the flower is to keep the hat from looking like a helmet with flaps! I used the same Cooperative Extension patterns as I did for my previous hat and mitten set.

The mittens are actually two pairs. I made them seperately because my hands usually start out cold, and warm up as I walk with Gizmo. Now I can take the inside lining pair out, put them in my pocket, and wear just the outer layer.

A toasty warm set of winter gear! I tried them out this morning, and I love the new mittens. The hat is warmer than I expected, so if it gets down to 35 below (yes, below zero) again, I’m prepared!