Thanks

Thanks to all my models for modeling my upcycle outfits for the op shop to cat walk,  so proud of you all, about 6 weeks when into my collection ,  but i loved every min of it,  thanks to my husband for cooking my dinners and bring me wine while i sewed,,,, 

All the work i did on my course this year paid off, and i got  "Highest academic achievement"  2012 

looking forward to a rest, closed the door on my sewing room, while i work on getting my two art papers finished,,  now there is art stuffed all over my dinning room  and lounge lol

Zip outfit

  Zipped

This started with a few zips from the Hospice shop, First off to make a bodice,, then the project got bigger and I had to go back to hospice shop and by every zip they had, so I had enough to make the bodice and matching shorts. About 150 zips, on my first attempt, I matched up the threads, took me hours to just do the front of the bodice, remade it using nylon thread instead, much easier , once bodice was done, and cut into shape, it was on to shorts, took a bit of thinking on how I was going to do this. Took a couple of tries, to get it right.

pants suit from skirt

Summers coming

This skirt and knit tee shirt was another gem from the hospice shop.  It is so colourful, made of cotton, and it required no ironing. 

Reminds me summer is on the way, maybe a trip to Fiji, just roll it up and throw it in a suitcase.  It’s cool to wear.

There was so much fabric, it was great to work with, I cut the skirt in half and made a new skirt, added a knit band, then draped fabric to get the top how I wanted it, with a sexy back. Then I sewed up inside leg to 

 make it into shorts, putting a band on the bottom.

 

Adding the final touch with a scarf, which suits the model beautifully?

Fun, cool, colourful, outfit.

leather dress

From not so hot to hot hot hot

Wow it pays to live at the hospice shop, this leather jacket had undone at side seams, but that was ok.

I took out the lining, cut the sleeves off, undid the side seams and shoulder seam, cut off button holes and buttons, sewed up pockets, but left them there as a feature. The long opening zip from a black shirt was added to the front.

To give the dress some length, I added the bottom of the sleeve to the shoulders, leaving the buttons to add interest, then bound the edges, and glued the hem.

Out of the sleeve jacket I made a hat. Using a button off the jacket front for top.

One….. sexy black leather dress. For $2 plus thread and needles

Leather dresses are very much in for the 2012/2013 season. Leather is becoming softer and softer and in many colours.

off to lunch outfit

Out to lunch we go

This is a knit I just fell in love with when I saw it at the hospice shop.  The inside of the fabric looked great, lots of colour and just a bit different. It started life as a long straight skirt and shirt.

I undid the skirts waist band, to give more length, and made it into a fitted dress, using left over bits for the flowers.

With the top, I liked the structure, so I looked at different ways of wearing it.   I took the sleeves out, buttons off, hand sewed up the button holes, took it in, and turned it upside down as a wrap around top, with a lovely soft draped neckline.

This dress and top is easy to wear, up to date, and the top can be worn a few different ways, makes for a nice top with jeans, or black fitted dress.

I used just about every bit of fabric, using one of the sleeves as an outfit for my tiny dogs “ Johnboy”.

 

Skirt and shirt with a difference

Black and white

I started with a very outdated knit wool skirt I found at hospice shop, and I felt it could be made into a more up market piece, that would be fun to wear.  I turned it upside down and cut eight strips down to half way, ironed on fusing, and placed wire under fusing,

I also added elastic to the waist.  By sewing the strips along the bottom, painting liquid stiffener to help keep its shape, and bending the wire gave it a funky look.  The strips now stand out from the body permanently.

The shaping of the shirts took a lot of thinking about, one problem was the shape across the shoulders of each shirt, I threw out idea of adding a zip to front and instead joined them with a slight gather and shape across top. I then used adding the sleeves as ties.

Shirt dress

 Shirt dress  made from mens shirts

This dress was inspired by my love for cotton dresses, sadly I cut up a lovely mans shirt as I loved the strips, to get this outfit.

The skirt used just about every little piece of fabric. I started by undoing the shirt and then joined all the pieces together to make a long strip, made a circle that went around me,, then made the top part out of a women’s short sleeve shirt, (the long opening zip was removed and used in a leather dress)

The darts were taken out, and I cut out the top using a pattern made, an invisible zip was put in down the back.  The collar of the shirt was joined to neck edge, and the sleeves made into a belt, then the black shirt cuffs were made into loose cuffs.