Exit Interview: Pam - Threading My Way

I HATE saying good-bye to any of the contestants, but Pam from Threading My Way is such an amazing talent that she truly will be missed. 

1. Can you tell us a little bit about you and your fabulous blog?

I spend most of my time sewing and blogging about sewing. When not sewing, I can be found in my garden. My blog, Threading My Way, is a record of my sewing journey in recent months.

2. What is your favorite item to recycle.

I don't have a favorite item to recycle. For me, clothing has the greatest potential to be recycled. The possibilities are endless, as they can be upcycled into different clothes, bags or home decor.

3. You have $5.00 to go into a thrift store, what crafting goodness do you buy and why?

I would look for fabric, sheets or tablecloths as they give me a blank canvass to work with.


4. Where do you get your recycling inspirations?

Just by looking at a garment and seeing the possibilities.


5. Anything else you want to share?

The recycling projects I am most proud of are: - turning a wedding dress into a smart day dress and then into a top

Wedding Dress to Day Dress

Wedding Dress too Top

Turning a baby doll t-shirt dress into a bag:

Dress to Bag

Turning a t-shirt into a cushion, writing the tutorial and having it published by CRAFT Magazine:

T-Shirt into Cushion

Please click on over to Threading My Way and check out more of here wonderful upcycled creations.

Bottoms Up Winner - Erica of Recycled Fashion

Petticoat from a thrifted slip and cushion cover by Erica of Recycled Fashion

Petticoats give volume and interest to otherwise ordinary skirts. I've made my own petticoat, using a slip and a frilly cushion cover purchased from the op shop. Slip $2, the cushion cover was sitting in a bag out the back of the op shop, deemed as unsellable. I gave the op shop 50c for it!

First up, I cut the slip to an appropriate skirt shape, there are two pieces of fabric here..
 
I cut the cushion cover into strips, leaving the frilly bit for the bottom hem. I serged (overlocked) the edges of all strips to prevent fray.
 
I did not have enough strips to completely fill the skirt, but that's Ok because only the bottom 1/4 is seen.


Included elastic band casing at the top, and serged (overlocked) each side of the skirt together..

Petticoat worn under skirt, notice how it goes volume?
 

And if gallivanting around!

Here's what you see..
 

Project Recycled Finale

Can you believe it? We are at the finals and we have two fabulous finalists, Emily from Domestic Deadline and Erica from Recycled Fashion. Please click on the links to check out some of their amazing crafting goodness. 

 

Emily from Domestic Deadline Presents:

April Showers bring Easter Dresses?!?!? 

I am so excited (and surprised) to have made it to the final round!  For this project I started with a fabric shower curtain that I picked up for $5 at the thrift store.  Aside from it being a large amount of nice fabric, I loved the top panel with embroidered flowers.

Every time I laid the curtain out to take a picture, a little boy tried to roll up in it, so this was the best I got...

I talked with my girls about what they wanted their dresses to look like, we sketched them out and then I cut... first, I cut out the front of one dress, using a similar style dress as a guide.  The back panel is the same shape, but 4 inches wider and only the solid color.

Since I'm too lazy to deal with zippers, I used elastic thread to shir the back panel.  I used white thread to contrast since I didn't have the perfect color on hand, and I didn't want to take 3 kids out in the cold to go buy more.

Originally designed as a skirt, the second dress came about when I was fitting my daughter for the skirt length.  I jokingly told her it was long enough to be a dress... She took the idea and ran with it giving me a new sketch.

The lining of the flowered fabric was the green, we used this to make the ties for the first dress.  When I tried it on my daughter to hem, she thought the serged edge was embroidered to match the white flowers... so it stayed.  If it bothers me enough, I'll hem it later.  A few straps and the girls' Easter dresses are ready to go!

Two dresses for only $5, works for me!

I still have about 1/3 of the solid coral fabric left over.  I'm hoping to make a vest and bow tie for my little man, but he says he doesn't like the color and I don't want to waste the fabric if he won't wear it!  Plus, he's requested a fedora to wear for Easter... at least I have a few weeks to figure that out!!!

Erica - Recycled Fashion Presents:

Curtain Dress 

I am thrilled to be in the finals of Project Recycled, thank you to Robin for hosting, and thank you to everyone that has been voting!

I picked up a piece of fabric (batik?) from Bentleigh market, the seller tells me it used to be her curtain!




The former curtain, has a psychedelic paisley feel, reminiscent of the 60's. I therefore thought a mod style tunic style dress would be appropriate. I did not use an entire dress pattern to make it, instead, I've cut around an existing dress to get the intended shape, and used a sleeve from a different dress pattern, as a rough idea of how to cut sleeves to fit.

(sleeves of existing dress are folded in here)

Here's how it started to take shape..

I must have stitched and unpicked about 10 times before I felt happy with its fit! I guess that's the way it goes without a dress pattern. Here's the result..



And with a belt...
  
Sleeves..

Neckline is finished with brown (thrifted) bias tape
 

If I had time, to finish off this dress, I'd go with a peter pan collar, but sadly, time is not on my side this week!




 Again, I do not envy you. You have two amazing crafters to choose from. Remember you can vote once per day and you have until Friday March 2nd at Midnight to choose the winner!

And Then There Were Two...A Casting Call

I can not believe that we will be on our last week of Project Recycled tomorrow. Seriously, the time has just flown by.

That being said congratulations to the winner of this weeks Project Recycled...

Erica of Recycled Fashion

 I guess I really need to take a more fashionable picture of myself because I just have the head shot cropped out of a party picture. (Sorry for the rambling the Oscars are on and Billie is distracting me).

And sadly we will be saying good-bye to the talented beauty over at Threading My Way - Pam. It was a close one and she will be missed.

Pam - Threading My Way

She did some amazing things so please hop on over to her blog and check her out!

With that being said I am happy to announce that there will be a Project Recycled Season #2. I don't have the date set but please email me and let me know if you are interested in participating. I already have one contestant signed up. It will again be a clothing challenge using all recycled items. There will be different challenges each week and I would really appreciate it if you would only sign up if you are able to complete the crafts for all of the weeks.

I will also be looking for some fabulous sponsors for season two. Again just email me rneorr@gmail.com if you would like any more information.

Thanks so much and I can not wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Book Review: Rules of Inheritance

Grief.

It sucks.

 It is a horrible fact of life. Something I have a hard enough time talking about it, and would never dream of writing a novel to tell the world how I dealt with it.

Claire Bidwell Smith wrote The Rules of Inheritance, which details the way she handled losing both of her parents to cancer. Both parents were diagnosed with cancer a month apart when she was only fourteen years old.

She loses her mom at the age of eighteen and her father in her twenties. She deals through drinking, an abusive relationship, and self-destructive behavior.

Through the book she goes through the five stages of grief by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. The truth about grief, and this book is that everyone deals with it differently. She goes through the stages and her life in a non-linear manner jumping from the twenties to her teens and back.

It’s a hard read, but it is an honest read and one I had a hard time putting down. One thing that struck me was the lack of religion in a book dealing with death. I was actually refreshed by this because I didn't feel like I was being preached at. I felt like a friend was simply relaying her story to me.

 I recommend Rules of Inheritance. I was given this book We will be discussing it over the next several weeks with the BlogHerBook Club. Please come join in the conversation!

*Disclosure: As always, this is a paid review by BlogHer Book Club, but all opinions stated are fully my own!

T-Shirt Dress Tutorial: Week Three Winner Project Recycled

Congratulation to Pam of Threading My Way for winning the T-Shirt Challenge.

I'm very pleased to be back again for Round Three, this week showing how I upcycled some old t-shirts into a little girl's top. I began with this pile of old t-shirts, but ended up not using the yellow t-shirt. All three garments I used had been women's t-shirts.

First up was to alter the neck line to suit a little girl.

Secondly, the t-shirt needed to be recut to a much smaller size. I used a child's t-shirt as a guide.

• Cut off the sleeves.
• Cut new armholes.
• Take width from the sides.
• Shorten the sleeves.
• Reattach the new sleeves.
• Finish the bottom of the sleeve with a band.

I used a pattern as a size guide for cutting the strips for the skirt.

• Join the eight strips to form the skirt.
• Hem.
• Gather the top of the skirt.
• Attach to the black t-shirt.

And to finish off, I used a black tie that was originally on the floral t-shirt.

• Make a fabric flower.
• Sew it to the black tie.
• Make tabs to hold the belt.

front view...

back view...

There you have it, three old t-shirts turned into a little girl's top, ready to be worn with a pair of black leggings...