Saturday, May 10, 2008

Hurry, Summer

As I was folding the laundry the other day, a little stack of three t-shirts caught my eye: orange, green, and fuschia. It looked so cheerful and summery, and I found myself wishing I could wear all three of them at once! That would be a little tricky, but it reminded me of a piece of fabric I had in my stash--a very VERY bright piece of fabric that I always liked but would never wear as an article of clothing.

Next, I'm poking through my basket o' clothes I'm dissatisfied with, and I come across a plain, khaki skirt. I threw it in there thinking I might put an applique on there someday. I don't wear a whole lot of plain skirts, and this one was not only plain, but also just about the same color as my legs. Too weird.

Right away I thought AHA! I can trim the skirt with that fabric! Out came my trusty bias tape maker, and here are the results:
















If you've never made your own bias tape, TRY IT! It's not hard to do, and the results are pretty slick! And look how great my nicely-colored but stodgy-patterned fabric looks once it's been bias-ized.















And here's the stack of tees that started it all! I think the trim is just enough to set it off and make a basic skirt and tee look more polished.

P.S. If you don't want to buy a bias tape maker, check out this blog for another way to get the same results.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a great idea- & so easy! I'll have to try it, thanks.

Anonymous said...

Thanks! I thought it spiffed that leg-colored skirt right up!

Copper said...

Oh my, that is amazing. And you do book reviews wonderfully. I am jealous of the skirt. I wish I were that creative. trying to turn a tube/bag of black nylon skirt from the thrift store into a shorter a-line skirt for a trip I'm going on to a hot hot hot place.

Ohh such a fashionable bit of a skirt. You thrilled my day with it. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

OOoooh, Copper, thank you for mentioning the book reviews! I was beginning to wonder if anyone even looked at them! And thanks for the nice compliment about my skirt. It isn't a big WOW kind of refashion, but it was just enough to make me want to wear that skirt again. Now I wanna know: where are you going that's hot hot hot?

Copper said...

Petunia,

I'm slow on figuring out I can't reply to your "email" but need to post here. (laughs at self)

Taiwan is where the SO has a business trip and I am going on airline miles. I am hoping I can get work like him writing while I am there so it's a hope for business as well as getting to see Taipei. The importance of casual business clothes for me that are cool enough I don't pass out .. well that is the skirt I am working on.

Keep us inspired!

Thanks,

mud

Anonymous said...

Lucky you, getting to go somewhere exciting! I would love to go somewhere really different (even if it is hot).

I'm working on some more refashions, but I decided I need to cull some of my --ahem-- magazine collection, so I'm taking a day off.