Bits and Pieces

Blog Slacker here. Forgive me readers for I have been a flake. I have not posted since... well forever!
But I"m here today and thought you would love to see what I have been up to.

First, as an upcycler of clothing I have baskets of bits and pieces from the clothes I cut apart. Collars, pockets, sleeves and cuffs for the most part. I thought you might like to see what I do with all of them.

The above picture is of two men's cuffs sewn together to make a sweet little pouch. These are great for gift cards, that secret money stash for emergencies or a jewelry pouch for traveling.


The colorful scraps were from a quilt I made for my son. I can't throw out even the smallest scrap. (I might need that someday.) I iron a fusible interfacing to the underside to help hold it down and then messy free form sew it with colorful variable thread.
My favorite is from Sulky. On the above pouch I used Sulky Blendables color...

It looks very dark here but there are so many colors! You can really see how it looks when you use it above in the pouch. I sell this in my Etsy store. Just click on the picture to see all the different colors.

Moving on..

Here is another one I did.

This on was made from two different cuffs. The flower is from a Kaffe Fasset Fabric with a die cut leaf added in. The applique thread is black for simplicity. Again, just free form with my darning foot.

My next project was with the collar. Not as easy but lots of ways to use those little snippits of leftovers.

I just folded the collar into thirds and opened it up to look like a flower. Then use a heavy needle and thread and tack the "petals" down. The strips are just leftover scraps sewn to the back with a brooch pin.
Here is another.

Great for a shabby chic look. Again, just a white collar and scraps of white fabrics and lace.

I hope this gets your creative thoughts going.
Oh, I forgot about pockets. They are easy. I just sew them onto my upcycled clothing.

Next time... some hand stitching Boro style.

Thanks for visiting!

Call Me Blog Slacker

I'm terrible at blogging. I just wanna sew! (whining voice here.)

But I thought I would at least let you know what I have been up to.

But first a quest for help!

I bought these batiks many years ago at a quilt show in California. They were sold by yardage and yes... very expensive. But I would love to find this company and purchase from them again if I can find them.
So... If anyone recognizes the companies designs.. can you let me know?

So Altered Couture contacted me again for submissions. That was very cool. Of course I sent a few things along. We well see if any of them are chosen. The issue they were asking for was the Summer issue. Fingers Crossed! I'll let you know how it goes.


So here are some of my recent projects to let you know... I'm still at it.

My son's roommate in the Marines is a major hippy type and asked me to make these for him.

They are made from numerous corduroy pants I purchased at local thrift stores and ebay. I had enough to make one more pair. You can find it on my Etsy store here at Curious Orange Cat.

I have also started an Etsy store for children's clothing too. Check out www.sweetredbird.etsy.com.

I have been making crossback aprons for little girls from upcycled fabrics mainly. But I am going to start adding aprons from new fabrics as well. As for the batiks I am searching for... this is the latest addition to my SweetRedBird shop.

You can see it in my new shop here...Batik Crossback Apron

So I have not fallen off the face of the earth. Hope to post again soon.

In the beginning there was.....

I graduated high school in 1975. Yep, that ages me a bit. But I was very aware of the fabulous 60's and the cool fashions that came out of that era. I can remember sewing crochet flowers to my very cool denim navy surplus jeans. Big bells and all. The military surplus store the next town over was the only place to purchase the utmost cool fashions. Pea-coats, sailor pants, army jackets... you name it. Unfortunately it went the wayside to the hipsters and their stock-brokerage firms and high end shopping centers.


So I have this very wonderful and interesting friend in Australia. (They call it OZ. I think that is so cool.) My friend Karen Ellis has a brilliant  blog called RudeRecord. Her and her husband are all about being frugal, recycling and reusing as much as possible to reduce waste. That is the utmost cool thing!

Karen told me about a book she wanted a look see at but it was out of print and not available in OZ. Also shipping from the US was more than she could deal with. Sooo, I checked it out.

With a measly purchase price of $5.98 including shipping, I was up to the task to help her out.

And then I procrastinated..... for a long time. Cuz that's how I roll some days. But she gave me a gentle reminder the other day and I knew I needed to get this done!

So to start... here is the cover.

It was written in 1976 by Diana Funaro.


Multitudes of great information is covered. So much that there is no way I can cover it all. But knowing my friend, I figured anything that dealt with up-cycling or re-purposing something might help.

So back to the 60's. First came the jean skirt. Then of course the inserts into those wonderful big bell bottom pants. The book covers how to do both. I scanned a picture of the jean skirt for you.

Most of the book looks like this as far as illistrations. Not many actual photos. I didn't think they did a good job of representing the garments. So I passed on those. (Sorry Karen.)

The classic jean skirt with the insert. A staple for the 60's gal.

 Of course there was another style of jean skirt too.
The cut off skirt with a different fabric at the bottom.

Shameless plug for two of my jean skirt creations. This is my modern take on the last picture.

Yep, I'm kind of a messy scrappy kind of girl. By the way, I used all kinds of jean scraps to make these.

Any whoooo, back to the book.
(I just realized I got stuck on skirts here.)

So here a couple more pages from the book.

They are about making wrap skirts from tablecloths and such. I love wrap skirts. They are great for dealing with size issues. One size can fit quite a few different sizes.

Here is one more popular skirt. The handkerchief skirt.

This is a very simple one! Just sew four square hankies together, fold and cut a circle for the waistband. Attach a waistband and you are set!

Here is one that would have helped me the other day with a sweater upcycle. (I really need to read more of this book!)

This is taking out a turtleneck collar and changing it to a crew neck collar. Needless to say, I botched mine terribly and it is very "free form" right now. Sigh... now I know what to do for next time.

So these were some of the easy projects I found. There is so much more! It goes into all kinds of alterations and instructions on different embellishments as well. Beading, applique, embroidery and more.
Again, every thing is pretty much line drawings but if you are good at following written instructions (I am not! Surprised?) you should do great.

So hopefully I was able to give Karen in OZ (soooo coool!!!) a good idea about this book.
Now, I need to go and fix that damn sweater collar!

If you just have to have this wonderful vintage book. You can get it on Amazon here...
It is offered at many different prices. Don't let the $0.04 fool you. I think it will cost a bit more. ...


Until next time!
Oh, and my skirts are on my Etsy website along with some pretty cool patched jeans. Curiousorangecat.etsy.com


Thanks for visiting!

A Work In Progress...

Trying to get my MoJo back after a bout of just not feeling it. It comes and goes of course. But I'm back to it with gusto!

The weather (hopfully!!!) will be cooling down soon. So time to get those sweaters out that need an overhaul.

I forgot to take a picture of the before on this... sorry about that.

It was just a plain grey turtle neck sweater with long sleeves.

Out came the scissors and I hacked up the front sideways and through the collar.

I had this pair of button panels buttoned together waiting patiently for me to figure out where they belong.  They begged and pleaded to play with this sweater.
I added a triangle of a very heavy green flannel from a shirt I have been cutting off of for a while now. The little black dot on the right is a horse. I might applique something over it because I think it looks funny.

So this is what I have so far. Oh, and I cut off the sleeves.

I know, it is a nice picture with my pretty background. Usually I do it in my messy sewing room. But I was in there anyway....

Here is a closeup of the inserts down the middle.

I sewed one side (the button panel side) with a serger and did a small zig zag stitch on the side with the dark green.

I"m in a pickle as to what to do about sleeves. I cut them off and tried these wonderful heavy black and white checked sleeves but they were too small for the armhole. This may end up as a vest.

Any whoo, back to work! So many ideas!!!

I'm Celebrating!

I’m about to be featured on a wonderful upcycling  blog from down under! The post goes up in the next day or so. The blog is called Rude Record and they are masters at the upcycling and reusing game. So be sure to check them out and my blog post. There are even pictures of my messy sewing “studio”. So in celebration, I thought I would post a tutorial of one of my favorite dresses to make. 

So without further adieu, here is my tutorial for the shirt-sleeve dress.

Materials:

• A knit or button down the top shirt that fits you well.
• Two to four men’s cotton long sleeve shirts.
• Rotary cutter, mat and ruler.
• A manikin is helpful but not mandatory.
• Sewing supplies (pins and such).
• Sharp large scissors.
• Matching thread.

Start out with a top. It can be a favorite t-shirt, knit top or button down the front top.

Measure down from the armpit seam about 6 to 7 inches. If you are big busted, you will want to go with 7 inches.

I use a ruler and rotary cutter, but you can just as easily use scissors. Just try to cut a straight line.

Put it on the manikin if you have one. You can still manage without one. It is just a bit easier with one.

Cut the sleeves off of the men’s shirts as close to the shoulder seam as possible. You will need four sleeves.

Cut off the cuff. (you can use this to make a sweet little pouch like this later.)

Cut along the sleeve seam to open up the sleeve flat. I usually iron it at this point.

Button up the little slit where the cuff use to be. Sometimes I sew a little line to hold it shut.  If it doesn’t have a button, you want to sew it closed.

Pin the first sleeve on underneath the top at the narrow end of the sleeve. I pin about an inch under the raw edge of the top.

Continue pinning and overlap each sleeve a bit. Pin the long edge of the sleeves together for sewing later. Usually four sleeves are enough to go around up to an Xlarge top. Over lap as much as needed to make the four sleeves fit.

Unpin the sleeve skirting from the top and sew up the side seams sewing all the sleeves together.

 Lay the skirt on the cutting mat and fold it up until only one sleeve is showing. 

Measure down fourteen (14”) Inches from the top and using your ruler and rotary cutter, cut across the sleeve skirting through all the layers.

Pin the top part of the skirting back onto the top and sew with a zig zag stitch. 

Arrange the part you cut off back onto the skirting, only offset the fabrics so seams and fabrics don’t match. You might need a few tucks here and there. That’s OK. Just do what you need to make it fit. Sew it to the top skirting with a zig zag stitch.

The bottom should look something like this.  

I have decided to add side ties to this one. But just haven’t sewn them on yet.

You can cut the top skirting even shorter if you want and instead of adding the bottom back on, you can add bits of lace, linen strips… anything else you might find that fits.
 Here is an example.

 I actually cut a strip from the bottom part of the removed skirting and added the ruffle of other scraps for color. This is a wonderful dress to experiment with and use up all kinds of bits and bobs.

Oh dear! I just realized how messy my sewing room must look. It does get a bit out of hand at times. (How embarrassing!) I was just too excited about the post for the RudeRecord!

But there you have it. My favorite shirt sleeve dress. If you pop over to the RudeRecord blog you can see a few others I have created.

Have fun!

Cheers.

A Beautiful Mess

I got an email from Cynthia at Altered Couture Magazine the other day. She was asking for submissions for next year. I always panic a bit thinking there is no way I can produce anything good enough. But then I always give it a go and try anyway.
I love scrappy fairy skirts but honestly hate the process. I over think things to the point where I have so many unfinished projects laying around. But I finally found a formula for making them in a reasonable amount of time without my OCD ADD Bipolar personality kicking in. ( oh yah, I'm a mess but only if you can hear the voices in my head. Muwahhahahaha)

Ok, down to earth again. Sigh... maintain soldier!

I started with this....

Scraps of linens, lace, hankies, doilies... what ever I just couldn't throw away. I"m such a pack rat.
I cut a big square of printed muslin and cut a really long spiral out of it. Then I started sewing the scraps along the strip of muslin until I had a really long strip of all these scraps.

I had a lined skirt I had cut the outer layer almost all off. It still had maybe 8 inches left along with the complete top of the skirt.
I started at the bottom of the lining and pinned the strip in a spiral pattern until I got to the top just under the skirt. I turned under the skirt and sewed through all the layers. It turned out very nice If I say so myself.

Here is the beautiful mess in the sewing machine...

And the finished product.

I hope Altered Couture likes it! It will eventually be in my Etsy store. Oh, and it is a size 12.

Cheers!!

My Therapist Said There Would Be Days Like This.....

Woke up this morning with so many ideas in my little ADD brain. So I decided to gather the troops and let the hamster brain go.
I have 5 dress forms now. Anorexia, Skinny B, Mia (as in it fits me), Broken Blue, and Rosie. (she looks like Rosie the Robot from the Jefferson's.)

Here are three of the girls getting ready for my creative endeavors.

I have been reading a bunch of blogs and articles about how to make my blog better and how to stand out more. ( to my all of 4 readers...).One of the things that keep coming around was for your readers to see your process. (I"m sorry....it did say I had to do that.) Well, my process is a bit scattered most of the time. I have a sewing room filled to the brim with thrift store finds and donations from friends. Here is just a peek at my supplies.

The last one is a work in progress with a tall bookshelf behind packed with t-shirts. There are three baskets under the table filled with shirts and shirtsleeves. Soo much stuff!! I can't tell you how many times I have tried to organize everything.

It becomes a bit of an obsession to collect the perfect garment for upcycling. I do believe I will be purging to regroup soon though. I have more than I can ever use and it can get overwhelming at times.
So the girls help out. I chose three tops to fit the three girls and start there. It helps me focus to some point. So when I start to spazz out, I just make sure I'm working on one of the three outfits. Then I do't feel so out of control.
So that is a peek into my process. I'll post more later on.

Stay warm and safe!

Sewing for Plus Size Women

I make quite a few items for plus size women. My son said big girls like to look cool too. I was thrilled to find this plus size dress form. It is a size 18/20. It is so nice companies are finally realizing that we are all not a size 6.

It was always a bit of a bummer to put an xlarge item on a size 8 dress form for my store. It always looks baggy and ill fitting. This jacket is a size 20 and it looks so much better on my new dress form. Don't you think? It is in my store now if you just can't live without it! Black Unlined Bustle Jacket

I also just got back a dress I sent to Altered Couture. It was in their November issue. I wanted to put it in my store. (it is a size small) sorry.... While getting it ready for photographing I saw this through the camera lens and thought it looked kinda cool. I'm in my mom's living room and her chandelier just makes this look so elegant!

Of course, disregard the lights and mess on each side.

Stay warm everyone!!

How In The Hell Did I Do That?

I was sewing along the other day on  the sleeve of a sweater. The hard way of course because that's how I roll!

When all of a sudden my machine made a terrible sound and my needle did this....

I think I now have a special kind of fish hook or something!! I have been sewing for years.... and years... years.... and I have never bent a needle like this. I'm great at snapping those suckers in half. Bending.. never done it.

I really didn't want to do this again. (probably couldn't do it again if my life depended on it.) So what now. I have no idea what I hit to bend my needle anyway. But then I got a great idea. How about sewing this sweater the easy way!! Ya think?

Of course I had to drop the feed dogs and use my darning foot. The rest is freeform sewing. I love freeform sewing. It's so messy and well, freeform. No more bent needles for me.

Hopefully next time you have to sew something awkward and you aren't afraid of the darning foot... you can try this.

And here is the sweater finished... you can see it in my Etsy store too!!
One sale a day is all I need!

Cropped Blue and Grey Sweater


Enjoy!

Bunny

A Work In Progress...

My photographs for my Etsy store sucked big time! I needed to make a change. Being of little income, it was hard to come up with a solution. Etsy likes plain white backgrounds. I wanted a little more of something behind my dresses. I found this great company that sells vinyl backdrops for photography. They are AWESOME! So many choices. So I ordered this one.....

I have a cool door like this in my room but I can't get enough space in front of it to take good pictures. So this is second best. Of course I don't have the logo on mine.
So my pictures went from this...

To this....

I think it looks better and my site is looking more unified.

Check out their website SwankyPrints  Their customer service was great by the way.

Enjoy!!

Oh, if you REALLY like this jacket and can't live without it. You can purchase it here. (if it is still available!)

www.curiousorangecat.etsy.com