Patch Me Through

Since I hadn't done any true, pure refashions lately, I decided it was time to go back to the basket and see what I could dig up. I pulled out four old garments that seemed related. Three were old a-line skirts that had become too snug (obviously they shrunk in the dryer), and one was a pair of capri pants that seemed like a good idea in the store, but I never felt comfortable wearing.

Isabella came along to see what was going on. She really liked all the pink, and thought I should use all the fabric together. Hmm...well, I have been thinking about doing patchwork. Never one to disappoint my cat, I decided to give it a try.

I cut myself a 4 by 4 inch template and sat down to cut squares. Isabella made sure my fabric didn't shift around.

Once I had a big pile of squares, I started making the patchwork. I didn't place them in a pattern or anything. As long as like squares weren't adjacent, I was happy. I also wasn't too concerned about the corners matching up. Quilters will be appalled, but I was going for overall effect, not perfection! I wish I'd taken some pictures of this process, but I was like a woman possessed!

Somewhere along the line here I started thinking that it would be a shame to waste all this work on a bag. I wanted something I could wear. I wanted...a skirt. Anyone surprised?

So I kept piecing, cutting squares, piecing, etc. Finally I had two big sections of patchwork. Time to decide where to go with this. I was tempted to sew up a quick a-line, just because it would have been so much easier, but I convinced myself to make a wrap skirt. That way, if THIS skirt shrinks in the wash --ahem--, I can still fit into it.

New Look 6637 served me well last time, so I dug that out again. The pattern has three pieces: the front, the back, and the ties. I fit the front onto one piece of patchwork and the back onto the other and cut. Started sewing. Hmm, how come it doesn't seem like this is going to fit? It's almost as if...oh. I was supposed to cut TWO front pieces.

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At this juncture, I took a nice, long break and ate potato chips.

Once I cooled off, I realized I had no choice but to keep cutting squares and make one more piece of patchwork. Which would have been fine, except I was running out of fabric. All I can say is thank goodness I keep scraps, because I had a leftover piece of the dark pink fabric which I used to make up the length under the flap.

See what else I did? I lined this baby! Much as I would have liked to skip it, I knew it would never do to have all those raw edges exposed, so I sewed up a second skirt in plain white to use as a lining. (Starting to think a bag might have been a good idea after all!)

I used bias tape to finish the edges and for the ties. After all this grief, I was in no mood to hem, make ties, make bias tape, or do any other fiddley stuff. Bim bam boom, I'm done!

Here's what's left:

And here's how it looks!

Produce Prototypes

My husband and I have been using reusable bags for close to twelve years, so we aren't new to this "green" thing, but a few months ago we started to consider ways of cutting back on the plastic bags we were still using.

Plastic produce bags were still making their way into our home. I'd done some looking around online for alternatives and found mostly nylon bags and bags made from tulle. I didn't like the nylon, because you couldn't see into them, and the tulle bags...well, it seemed like stuffing a potato into a tutu. Then, on a discussion board I read, someone linked to these net bags. Aha! Now that's more like it! Even better, someone compared them to lingerie bags, and mentioned finding them at the dollar store. Bingo! Great idea! But the dollar store. --whine whine-- I hate the dollar store.

I hit a lot of thrift shops on last week's trip to my brother's house, and one thing I found was a big piece of mesh fabric for fifty cents! Fifty cents! I took it over to my husband and asked him if he'd feel weird using mesh bags for produce. Nope, he said he'd like to try it.

I made two bags yesterday, just as prototypes. I originally had two cords through the top of each one, so you could pull in opposite directions to close them. I liked that, but I took it down to one cord each just to keep them lighter and to use less twill tape. So what I want to do now is use these for a while and get an idea of what works and what doesn't. We don't have a single vegetable or piece of fruit in the house with a label on it, so I can't tell yet if you can read the numbers through the mesh. I figure if you can't, we can just put them on the belt open, and pull them shut once they're rung up.

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The mesh was easy to work with. At first I was worried that I might have to encase the seams in bias tape or something, but I tried it without, and they seem to be okay. We'll see how they hold up to use and washing. The other thing I will probably change is the size. I made them about the same size as a plastic produce bag, but they seem really big. Oh well, I have plenty of fabric left to make adjustments!

Blues and Greens

Between the rewiring chaos and this other little project I've taken on, I haven't sewn anything new in days, and it's killing me! What little project? Oh, just organizing this pig pen we call the computerlaundryandsewing room. I'm not done yet, but here's a peek!

Now THERE is a sight I haven't seen in quite a while! Fabric on shelves! Folded! Oh my!

Hurry!

We're having electrical work done, so I'll see if I can squeeze this in before they turn the power off!

Kids' and Young Adult Books (* denotes Reading Olympics book):

*All Alone in the Universe by Lynne Rae Perkins: Booooooring! Changing friendships of thirteen year olds. Just nothing new.
Ottoline and the Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell: Sort of the second coming of Eloise, with a precocious kid and absent parents. Kind of strange, but the illustrations make up for it.
Paddington Here and Now by Michael Bond: I read all the Paddington books when I was little, so I couldn't pass up a new Paddington book. He's still up to his old bumbling ways!
*Life in the Fat Lane by Cherie Bennett: A high school beauty queen suddenly starts getting fatter and fatter, no matter how much she exercises or how little she eats. Uninspired young adult melodrama.

Adult Books:

Evan Help Us by Rhys Bowen: Another from the Evan Evans mystery series. Still enjoying them!
Made in the USA by Billie Letts: The star of our show! Fifteen year old Lutie and her younger brother find themselves all alone, so they set off to Vegas in search of their father.

I'm In Tiers

I messed up. My "before" and "during" pictures of this refashion? Deleted. I was a little quick with the "erase all frames" button on my camera. Ah, well, these things happen. Just imagine this all in one piece!



So, the skirt started out at that awful mid-calf length. My first thought was to remove the bottom tier entirely and have the skirt end at the black band. Well, that looked dumb. (I had a picture of that too!) I realized it needed to have a repeat of the lighter print, so I decided to make a ruffle. I used a strip cut from the bottom of the skirt, so I would get maximum gathers AND...the best part...it was already be hemmed!




I had a picture of the strip being gathered too. It was a wonderful picture. Probably better than any gathering picture you've ever seen. Alas, it too is gone. hehe

Maybe a matching accessory made from the bottom tier now?

Weekend Wrap Up

I have had this fabric for ages. Back when I didn't know how to sew, I was always asking my mom to sew things for me. She was happy to make anything I asked, but things piled up, and there were a few she never got around to. Once I showed an interest in sewing for myself? All those unfinished projects came back to haunt me, and this skirt was one of them.

The pattern I used for this is New Look 6637. (I was sure this was going to be out of print, because the pictures on the envelope are pretty dated.) It's always fun to make a wrap skirt and get a break from zippers, isn't it? Prior to this, all the wrap skirts I'd made were either refashions or made using the method outlined in Sew What Skirts (which is such a good book, it should probably be canonized).

I have to admit, it was kind of nice to have a pattern to follow for a change, instead of forging blindly ahead, spending all sorts of time trying to imagine the next step...and then following up with the seam ripper and regrets. I like the pattern a lot, although I do think both options for length are awful. The mini is too short, and the long version is too long. Easy enough to fix though! Finally, what's a Petunia post without an interior shot!

I Ran Away

Gerry and I ran away yesterday, to a lovely spot in Lancaster County. We call it the bed and breakfast, but it's really my brother's house. Well THAT isn't my brother's house, it's a cave he built in his backyard.

One of my favorite things to do when we visit my brother is run around to all the thrift shops. I was hoping to stock up on bias tape and zippers, but I didn't run into any good deals. I dragged home some other fun stuff, though! Anyone else remember those sewing kits from home ec class? Everything you need to make a pillow is in there, except the stuffing. I made a monkey pillow back in 1981. And the fabric...six whole yards for $6! Patterns for ten cents each! I balked a little at spending $2.97 for a thrift shop craft kit, but I couldn't pass up the mama cat with kittens that attach with velcro. Aww. And pink velvet ribbon! And a kit to make an embroidered mushroom picture! Oh happy day!

So, did anyone miss me? :-)

Pay It Forward-Part Two

One of the fabric stores I go to will occasionally have a bin of samples for sale. These swatches were originally stapled into groups of four, one of each color, and each bundle was a mere twenty-five cents! I had visions of making a tropical patchwork and sewing it into a tote bag.

I guess that could still happen, minus a few squares. Once I finished the first clutch , I was anxious to start another, and my gaze landed on this green. It isn't a shy handbag, but hopefully its recipient will have fun with it!

One thing I didn't plan on was the fabric having some stretch. It made lining up the openings a little tricky for me, and it took me a few tries to get it right. A better sewer would probably have no trouble at all, but I panic whenever stretch is involved!

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Hmm, what to do with the rest of the samples. I still think it would be neat to do some kind of patchwork. Maybe I could do it in strips, and use it as a border along the bottom of a skirt. What ideas do you have?

Pay It Forward, Part One

Receiving my neat coasters from Solveig of Made By Petchy reminded me to get going on my Pay It Forward Pledge. For my first gift, I decided to try another one of the Bend the Rules Sewing projects: the Artsy Clutch.

This is a half stash/half clearance fabric project. The orange is a nice cotton from Holland that my mom bought at a yard sale, and I fished the button out of one of my button jars. I did have to buy some elastic, and I'm not crazy about the black, but it was either that or white. (Anyone know if they make different colors?)

You don't need a lot of fabric, and it sews up quickly, so this is a good instant gratification project. I love playing around with different fabric combinations, though, and I probably spent as much time doing that as I did sewing! I could seriously get addicted to sewing these.

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This made me laugh: I went outside to take these pictures and thought grass would make a nice background. So there I am, wandering around the yard with my camera and bag, looking for a patch of grass that wasn't too weedy, wasn't covered with clippings, looked nice and green, etc. Anyone who saw me must have thought I was a little strange.

All Aboard!

These were supposed to be pictures of the snazzy piece of vintage Schumacher fabric I got at the thrift store. Isabella turned it into a kitty photo shoot instead.

Reading Right Along

Juvenile/Young Adult Titles (* denotes Reading Olympics):

*The Day They Came to Arrest the Book-by Nat Hentoff: A too-preachy book about censorship.
*Bud, Not Buddy-by Christopher Paul Curtis: Very good. About a runaway orphan during the Depression.


Adult Titles:

Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander-by Ann Herendeen: Has a lot of fans, but this "bisexual Regency romance" didn't do it for me.
The Way Life Should Be-by Terry Shaw: The winner of the First Chapters competition at Gather.com. I much preferred the runner up.
Keep Your Mouth Shut and Wear Beige-by Kathleen Gilles Seidel: Pretty good! How a divorced mother of the groom deals with wedding plans...and her ex-husband's new girlfriend.

My favorite of this batch? Bud, Not Buddy. By far.

Hanging Out Under a Tree In the Dappled Sunlight

In case you haven't already figured it out, I am a cheapskate when it comes to buying fabrics (and a lot of other things, to be honest). So for me, the fabric for this skirt was a departure. It wasn't on clearance. It wasn't handed down from my mom. It wasn't even from the thrift shop. Is it any surprise, however, that I used 40% off coupons to buy it?

I used Burda 8090, the same pattern I used for this refashion. This is my go-to pattern, when I want something different, but still very, very simple.

The fabrics are from Alexander Henry. The body of the skirt is called "Kalahari," and the band is "Kumasi Disc."

Of course, I did a little dance of happiness when I realized I had enough of the trim fabric to make my facings!

Whenever I use a Burda pattern, I am amazed by how well everything matches up. The $1.00 patterns are hard to resist, but I need to pay more attention to the Burdas!

Gerry's Race Car Lunch Bag

The other night, while digging around in my fabric piles, I said, "What should I make next?" I heard a small voice, "What about my lunch bag?" Eeek. Yes, I told my husband I'd make him a custom lunch bag, using a remnant of Formula One fabric. I think I told him that in April, and seeing as how it's July, and his birthday is rapidly approaching...you get the idea.

I followed the basic Bend the Rules Sewing directions for making a bag (tutorial here). One of my goals was to have the bag fit these snazzy Tupperware containers my husband bought for leftovers. (That's two times I've mentioned Tupperware on this blog now. I swear I am not trying to sell Tupperware!) Using the containers' measurements, I plotted everything out to come up with what size to cut the rectangles. I came up with 17 by 19, but I adjusted that to 16 by 19, just because of the remnant's size.

Once everything was all sewn up, I thought it could use some sort of fasteners at the top to hold it all together. I had a bunch of "ginger snap" snap fasteners from the thrift shop, and I thought Gerry would like them better than, say, buttons or velcro or ribbons. Getting them on was kind of a pain, with the little prongs and all, but Gerry helped, and we eventually put on two sets successfully.

Oh! I almost forgot! Once everything else was done, I also sewed a narrow seam at each corner, from the base to the top, just to make the edges crisper. I really like how that came out and will definitely do that again!

What a Yoke

Another thrift shop skirt calling out to be refashioned! Problems with this one included this poofy bow, iridescent sequins, and a little problem with size.

I wasn't actually sure how I was going to go about this, so I just started in with the seam ripper to see what I was dealing with. First to go was the bow! I thought the ribbon trim and the sequins would come off just as easily, but that wasn't the case. Some exploration revealed seams I didn't expect to find. Uh oh.

I kind of panicked at that point, and cut the yoke away from the skirt entirely, which was not the best idea I've ever had. So that left me with a complicated yoke piece and a tube of fabric that was plenty wide, but too short. Darn! I needed some kind of yoke. I dug out a few patterns with yoke pieces to see if I could cut a new yoke from the facing pieces. Nope. They all curved too much and wouldn't fit on the fabric I had available.

Okay, no problem, I'll just make a yoke out of solid black, using Simplicity 4695. That done, I turned to the skirt. I knew I had to make the skirt fit the yoke, so I used the pattern pieces as a guideline for the overall shape. If you look at the pattern, you'll see that the front and back are cut in three pieces, which I couldn't do because of that inset strip on the original skirt, so I just pinned them to my fabric, overlapping them at the seams, and placing the inset strip at what looked like a good spot. (I wish I'd taken a picture of this, but I was so rattled by this point I just wanted to get done!) OH! One bonus: I got to keep the original hem!

Now, about the sequins. Sigh. I don't mind sequins, but on this fabric, iridescent sequins seemed like overkill. There weren't too many of them, so I thought it would be easy to cut them all off. Wrong. Their numbers seemed to multiply as soon as I started, AND the threads holding them on had to be individually worked out of the fabric. It was a giant pain. On a brighter note, the inside shot. I think I'm addicted to bias tape.

And the results!

Oh no! Now that I think about it...yes...I never resewed the hem there at the side seam! Oops!

Going Green

A few weeks ago at the thrift shop, this billowy, green creation jumped out at me from a sea of staid khakis and black polyester prints. I guess it was supposed to be kind of a gypsy skirt, with a deep yoke and lots of gathers and fullness. Well, I liked the ethnic feel of the fabric, but the gypsy skirt look is not for me. Besides the fullness, the other thing I disliked about the skirt was how the border print ran straight while the skirt's hem was curved. That always bothers me!

At first, I considered using the fabric to make a shirt, but my last experience with turning a skirt into a shirt taught me that shirts take a lot more fabric than you think! I would have had to either make a sleeveless top or add another fabric to make it work. Neither of those choices sounded appealing, so I went with a skirt.

The first step was to separate the skirt from its lining. The lining was constructed just like the skirt, except not as full. I was actually able to remove it whole, zipper and all, and it could be worn as a skirt by itself. Maybe I'll try a freezer paper stencil on it or something. This is how it looked after I'd hacked it up. See how crooked the design is around the bottom?

I used my favorite skirt pattern, New Look 6843, because the hemline is not too curvy. Also, to further camouflage the straight/curvy problem, I made it so the hem would fall in the densest part of the design.

This is a shot of my zipper secret: strips of iron-on adhesive to hold it in place.

Instead of cutting a waistband from the fabric, I went the easy route and used bias tape. You can see how much shorter the finished product is in this shot of it with the lining hanging behind it.

And here I am ready for work this afternoon!

Tidying Up

I noticed a few of my labels over there on the right were looking a little neglected, so I am going to work on that, starting now! Some of them can be combined...I don't really need a "CSA" category and a "Food" category. Others just need a little more attention.

"Around the House" is one I'd like to keep. Almost everything in our house came from yard sales and thrift shops, and I have a lot of fun changing things up when I bring home a new treasure. Unfortunately, it's a gloomy day today, and the chances of me getting any good pictures are slim. So, to start, a few pictures of my sewing table. Believe it or not, I took these after I'd spent some time clearing it off!

I hoped, when I set it up, that I could use the table for cutting patterns, but it hasn't worked out that way. Stuff piled up rapidly, so I went back to cutting on the floor, which Isabella much prefers, as she can saunter up and flop down on top of the wonderful TISSUE PAPER patterns that she loves so much.

The red thing is a plastic cutlery tray I bought at the thrift shop for a dollar. I love red! Gerry won those polka dotted containers for me at a Tupperware party. Yep, my husband went to a Tupperware party.

You can juuuuuust see the beginnings of my fabric stash in the background of this picture. I am not brave enough to show pictures of that just yet!

That's Ger Bear on the right. He's what got me back into sewing. I made him for my husband for Valentine's Day, 2007. Wow, was it really only 2007?