New word: sweatershirt. Not a sweatshirt, per se, but a top that looks like a tarted up sweatshirt made with sweater knits. I’m rather pleased with this one because: I got the pattern, Simplicity 0315, from a pattern swap (=free!) I used up a small amount of awkwardly-shaped leftover black sweater knit (only a few tiny scraps leftover!) I used a ready-to-wear sweater for the … Continue reading Sweatershirt and Joan Trousers
Toronto weather. Barely cracking double Celcius digits. IT’S MAY. Raining, like, ALL THE TIME. My sunglasses have been sitting, neglected, in the same spot for so long that there’s a sunglass-shaped outline in the coffee-table dust. COME ON. I overheard a woman on the subway the other day saying to her friend, “Alright, winter’s over. This is just harassment!” We’re DYIN’ over here. I need … Continue reading Refashion: Shirt Dress with Bow and a Dose of Bad-Weather-and-PMS-Induced Ranting
Here’s the ‘before’ picture: just one of my husband’s tees that was no longer useful as-is because the armpits were all crusted up with deodorant after a couple of years of wearing this regularly. Otherwise the material was in ‘very good used condition’, as they say, and I like the geeky audio-theme motifs on the front. My husband is a sound designer and I’m a … Continue reading Upcycling a cast-off T-shirt
From beach sarong to T-shirt! I bought a beach sarong on a trip to Brazil a few years ago (made in Indonesia, ironically) and after a while the fine woven fabric had ripped. Ruing the loss of these great colours and print, I regretfully tossed it into my textile recycling bag, but a few weeks later I realized that this sarong would make a great lightweight … Continue reading A Scout Tee sewn from an old beach sarong…and how to fold your shirts for traveling
This is the Aurora Tank Top by Seamwork (Colette). This is the first time I tried one of their patterns and I’m quite happy with it! I bought the pattern while Colette was having a sale and loved making the first one so much that I went a bit crazy and made three. This green and purple one is made of cotton jersey that I … Continue reading Seamwork Aurora Tank Top: Betcha I can’t sew just one
Look at this swagger! Why? Cause I opened a can of serger whoop-ass on this sweater. I feel like a certified DOMIKNITRIX. When I finished knitting this sweater (Sweetheart from Domiknitrix by Jennifer Stafford), it was way too big. More details and sucky pics here. But now my Sweetheart fits much better. And this is how I feel about it: I used my serger to … Continue reading Huzzah! Me and my Sweetheart are back together!
Six months ago I finished knitting the Crowberry Cardigan (pattern design by Sarah Alderson). It was almost a win — but there were too many things wrong with it for it to be something I would actually wear. I couldn’t stand the way the bottom half of the cardigan gaped open around my belly — who needs extra attention in that area? Here’s what I … Continue reading Sweater Rescue!
The movie Gone With the Wind made a big impression on me when I was a kid. It seemed to be on TV an awful lot on Sunday afternoons, right up there with The Sound of Music, so I saw it a lot. But Carol Burnett’s spoof of GWTW might have made a bigger impression. I’ll never forget how she spoofed the scene where Scarlett, … Continue reading The Scarlett O’Hara Apron
Recently I came across a post from Charity Shop Chic detailing how she took a plain white shirt and used a dip-dye process to turn it into a fabulous pink ombre shirt. I’m a big fan of anything with a colour gradient (aka ombre), and I had an oversized plain white cotton shirt that I rarely wore. The process looked easy, so off I went … Continue reading A Bad Dye Job, but a Kick-Ass Dip-Dye Shirt
Frivolous At Last 