project restyle - bow tie tee

woot! another upcycled tee for project restyle! :)



so, a friend of mine, *coughnuprinzcough*, asked me to upcycle a XXL tee she has. wasn't sure what to do but after a little research found this adorable upcycled tee from MADE. clearly, i'll have to make one of these for paloma.

well, i didn't want to go cutting my friend's tee w/o mocking something up and getting her thumbs up first... so.... to the batcave (donation store) i went...

and found these two tees... one was an adult XL and the other a kids M:



for the most part, i followed MADE's instructions...

and voici!




i think the only thing i'd do differently is beef up the width of the yoke/bow... i really wasn't thinking at all and made it 3" wide... (duh) instead of 5" or 6" wide... and i'd shorten the length (of the bow) as well... but, i really like how this one turned out... hopefully, i'll get the green light to make that dress.

ennyhoo... thanks for coming by and reading... hope you had a productive monday! :)

project restyle : denim

as i mentioned earlier, i threw my hat into the project restyle challenge that was introduced by the bloggers at a beautiful mess:



the challenge is so appealing to me because although i buy (and LOVE) vintage or thrift store items, i also find it very difficult to restyle them - even if the fit is all kinds of wrong... i sometimes feel as if i'm defacing a piece of history... BUT. i have ended up with a lot of vintage and thrift scores that i never wear.... i'm hopeful that this challenge will encourage me to move beyond my paradigm and into some really cute outfits - while exercising my creative process! :)

my journey starts with two restyled denim skirts that i had made with two old pairs of ill fitting jeans... (see!?) i really enjoyed making the skirts but when i tried them on they looked too (for lack of a better word) matronly. i may be a mom and not quite 40, but i wouldn't call myself "may-tron-lee"...



like most sewing enthusiasts, i have a gazillion scraps and random varied gimp lying around. i bought this really cool peter max / biba / lautrec mashup inspired fabric from the needle shop a few years ago:



then, i just started to cut... and cut.... and cut... and pieced everything back together... with all the cotton lace scraps i had and a piece of that fabric scrap above...



i still had some denim left over and found this really cute house slipper pattern from craftzine. one of my other personal hurdles is NOT finishing seams... you might not think so considering the skirt above, but it's REALLY difficult for me NOT to finish a seam. i was taught to make a garment as smooth on the inside as it is on the outside... so, after making the skirt it was nice to make the house slippers with finished edges... i needed a little balance. :) the pattern still works - it just required a little rethinking of the sewing directions... the denim scraps i had are only big enough for the size S (5/6) so they're going to an old HS friend of mine who has always had teeny tiny feet. :)



as always thanks for stopping by and reading! :)