Mother Son T-Shirt Refashions

I've had a couple of souvenir T-Shirts from my honeymoon sitting in the refashion pile for quite some time. Although they're 12 years old, they haven't been used, so they were still in great condition.

My son has been asking for a new sleeveless sports top for a while, and when I came across these again, I thought it was a perfect match. I took an existing top of his, and traced it out to make the pattern. Before cutting it out, I graded the pattern up a few sizes for him, hoping that it will last for a while.

Stashbusting Sewalong: November Theme "Containment - Japanese Knot Bag"

The theme for the Stashbusting Sewalong for November is all about containment. I had high hopes of making both my children new bags for swimming, maybe some more fabric boxes to store things in my studio, and of course, a Japanese Knot Bag, for which Sue from Fadanista is hosting a sewalong this month for the Stashbusting Sewalong.

I was determined to at least make one bag this month, and had a neglected cotton top in mind to use as well.

Stashbusting Sewalong: June Theme "Stretch fabrics" - Moto Jacket

Sometimes I don't have a fully fledged plan in mind before I start on a project. Over the past couple of months I've seen a few Moto Jackets popping up around the blogosphere, and the gears in my brain started turning, plotting how I could make my own. With this germ of an idea, I paired an old pair of jeans that I identified during Me-Made-May as ripe for refashioning, and grabbed some rib knit fabric that I thought would do really well for the sleeves. All that was left was to buy myself a zipper, and start on a pattern.

I'm participating in Me Made May 2015!

For the first time, this year I thought I would participate in Me Made May.

I'm going to keep it pretty low key, I hope to try and take a photo of my outfits every day, but am already expecting that they will all be blurry, so I'll save them all up to show you at the end of May.

My pledge is as follows:

I, Andrea of www.obsessivecreativeness.blogspot.com.au, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '15. I endeavour to wear at least two me-made garments each day for the duration of May 2015.

I have hesitated to participate in previous year, mainly because the weather in Sydney is so changeable during May. I have a stack more me-made clothes in my summer wardrobe than I do for winter, and it is usually getting quite chilly in May Last year, however, our summer weather decided to extend right up to the end of May, making me wonder why I hadn't signed up for Me-Made May.

So this year I decided to take the plunge. I have a few more winter clothes ready to go, and of course, I know I have a sufficient supply of bras to wear every day. I'm in! Who else is joining me?

Underwear experiments

Have you tried making your own underwear yet? I must admit that initially I had no interest in sewing my own, but the style of my regular undies got me thinking that maybe I should give it a go. It's not the best look when your undies come up a good 5cm above all the skirts and pants that you make. And just maybe, I might have a go at a matching bra and undies set.

Refashion: Beach Cover-up

I have a few sarongs that I have collected from various overseas holidays. They invariably then sit in the cupboard, never to be used again. I got the brilliant idea of using one of these sarongs to make a cover -up for my daughter to use after swimming.

I settled on this bright yellow sarong with turtles on it that I bought on my honeymoon in Hawaii. I wanted to use something with a fringe that I could put at the hem and sleeves, and my only other option in sarongs with a fringe, had the pattern running in the wrong direction.

Jeans Refashion: My "New" Jeans

After seeing Yoshimi's recycled jeans, I had refashioning on the brain. After choosing the jeans I wanted to use from the five pairs I had available, I was torn with how to actually put them together. I searched and searched on the internet for more inspiration, made a pinterest board, changed my mind half a dozen times, and wished I had ten times as many jeans to cut up and make some skirts and stuff!

Jeans Refashion. To Cut or Not to Cut

Carolyn always manages to inspire me with her beautiful creations. She recently posted about a skirt that she made from a few pairs of old jeans. One of the inspirations that she quoted was a jeans remake by her friend Yoshimi. How awesome are they? I love the side view where you can see an old button down fly that comes up from the ankle.

When I first saw Carolyn's skirt I thought that maybe I would cut into a pile of old jeans that don't fit me anymore and make a skirt from them, but when I read Yoshimi's post on her jeans, I changed my mind and decided I wanted to make myself some "new" jeans instead.

"Matrix Jacket" Refashion

Sometimes I get some very interesting requests via my website. For a few of these recently I have asked my clients if I can write a blog post about these somewhat more interesting projects. I recently received one such enquiry from Sheila, asking if I could turn her leather jacket into a skirt. I got quite excited by the prospect of being able to cut someone elses leather jacket into smaller pieces.