Re-Fashionista

Fabric-wise it was love at first sight, a funky twill weave cotton with bias stripes of a tabby weave with a thread end fringe.

At second look it was a sad no waist band, loooong gored skirt about 5 sizes (if you can believe mfg sizing) too big. IMHO a fabulous fabric worked up in a poor design, surely I could do something about that right? So I bought it for a $1.98.

Such a simple fix.  I removed one full gore from each side, sewed the right side seam up leaving a proper armhole length open and added a side zipper on the left side.The next step was to sew on the bias tape and tack the top of the armhole at the shoulder creating a boat neck.

Done. Easy. I love it.

Felt Boxes

Recently during a Ravelry discussion regarding things to make with felted sweaters I mentioned making boxes out of the really hard felted sweaters. Here's a few pix of some of the boxes I've made.

In the first picture is a 4 inch box and a 6 inch box. On the smaller one you can see that I did a little bit of embroidery (such as it is). The little box has a thin row of plastic canvas around the upper edge, to help keep the shape of the larger box I pushed a wire through the top hem. Notice the seams on both of these are on the outside. I like it this way, it give a very angular edge to the box.



The last two pix are of the the same 6 inch box pictured above just turned inside out with the seams inside. I kinda like it this way too, it lends a softer more sculptural element to the angular cube.





The only support in either of these is the plastic canvas/wire along the top edge, there is no support in the sides nor in the bottom. Obviously the factor that determines the need for additional support is the firmness of the felt itself. I prefer to use wire, I have plenty of copper wire around here, a wire coat hanger could be used just as easily. Supports could be hand sewn into the seams as they are made here, but it's not necessary. When the construction is one piece, as opposed to the 5 pieces these were made of, the faux seams at the edges actually lend a bit of support themselves, but if need be, a wire can be pushed through those edges too.

Shirt Bag

Haven't seen a fiber that excites me much lately. Guess I caught that mojo sucking bug that's going around the "tubes".

Had no inspiration to start anything new, and absolutely no desire to finish anything that has already been started. It's a crummy place to be. So today I decided to do something even it was silly. So I made a another bag.......sigh. The only thing that is held my interest was the the fact that it started out as this:





Yep, even though the pic sucks big time, I'm sure you can tell it's a mans shirt. This dang shirt has been hanging around neglected for ever. If I remember correctly I think one of my sons got it for X-mas from his grandmother when he was in high school....um yeah, he's 28 or 24, take your pick which son it was I don't remember, point is, it should have gone to the GW a looooong time ago! It's one of those really heavy brushed denim shirts that never relaxes and feels like cardboard, thus it'd make a decent grocery bag. :-)

Here's the bag:




Again a lousy pic but that's about how I feel, all blurry, dark, and wrinkled.

Super simple, or at least it would have been super, super simple if I didn't want to leave the breast pockets. Without pockets just cut the top of the shirt off even with the underarm. With pockets that are placed higher than the underarms you have to lay the sleeve open on the inside of the shirt. Cut the sleeve lengthwise down the sleeve crease (opposite the seam) and make a dart in the sleeve at the armpit to compensate for the extra fullness of the sleeve and the dip in the fabric that forms the underarm..

The handles are made out of the remaining sleeves. I rough cut rectangles about 5 x 16 folded the edges to the center, lengthwise, fold them lengthwise again. I made 7 rows of stitching down the length of each.

Folded a hem along the top of the shirt, placed the handles, and layered on a stripe of 1 inch bias tape. Sew the edges of the tape and once down the center for extra firmness around the edge.

Button up the shirt, and run a line of stitching on each side of the button band. You could make another pocket and have it open here at the button band, but I didn't. My grocery bag doesn't need pockets and I already have two! BTW the two breast pockets that I left intact are not usable I sewed them closed under the flaps when I sewed the bias tape.

Sew the bottom of the bag straight across, trim the tails, and square off the corners. Done.

A quick update on the leather coat project.

Aaarrrrrgggghhhhh.........

The baseball cap has been kicking my butt. I made the crown a couple days ago, I was OK with it not thrilled but ok. Worked on the brim yesterday and again today, then finally said the hell with it and sewed the brim to the crown. Yep I sure did, and sewed that sucker on upside down!!! Oh you bet I did. I'm no longer loving the baseball cap, but hate it so much right now, I HAVE to finish it. Does that make sense to anyone out there, or am I all alone on this one??? It will be another couple days until the cap is out of the time-out corner, in the mean time, maybe I'll get some mojo going. We can only hope, if the best I can do today is turn a shirt into a bag its time to give up. Sheesh!

Binder Boxes

Space and more storage was my goal today. I have GOT to get a wee bit more organized. I promised myself that today there would be no needles or fiber of any kind in my hands, except for the purpose of putting it away. I thought this was a fairly doable promise.......Um yeah, about that......

I started out pretty good, cleaning the main floor, then I made the fatal mistake of going upstairs. Ooops. Looking around my main workroom, the huge gaping hole where a cabinet use to be, (its now in the kitchen, a casualty of the last furniture shuffle.) was screaming at me. It was undeniable, I needed more storage, a lot of what was in the cabinet is just sitting on the floor.....sigh. But where and what kind of storage was a problem. I don't have that many cabinets or bookcases. OK, that's a lie, yes I do, but they are all in use at the moment. So my brain got going with the, 'if I put this here' and 'that over there' and 'use this to do that' kind of thinking. I decided the solution to today's problem would be a few storage cubes. Now with a solution figured out, the next problem was that I didn't have any storage cubes. Oh well, not really a problem, I'll make some!

From going to school and teaching school I've ended up with TONS of 3-ring binders. Over the years I've been clearing them out, getting rid of the contents, or properly filing it away, and eventually getting rid of most of the binders. I've hung on to a few but today decided that a couple drawers full (that's "a few" right?) of empty 3-ring binders was a total waste of space, and yet I had this nagging voice in my brain that said I could use them for something. (Is it just me or does everyone hear voices?)

(5) 3-ring binders equals 2 storage cubes, aka binder boxes, and one nearly empty drawer!:



How to make them:
With scissors cut a notch out of the spine up to and as wide as the rivet. The notch I cut in this pic is a too narrow. Cut the notch the same width as the rivet.


Pull out the notch. A pair of needle nose pliers really helps.


Pry up the 3-ring part to disengage rivet. I used my scissors, but a screwdriver would probably work better, or one of those nifty mini pry bars. I was just too lazy to get up and get the proper tool. Be careful how you pry this 3-ring part up, you don't want to damage either front or the back. Notice the tip of my pry-bar-scissors are on the spine of the binder under the 3-ring part.



When the rivet comes loose, cut up the center of the spine as close to the other rivet as possible.



Grab the 3-ring part and pull it out.




Cut the spine remnants off. Make your cut close to the spine edge of the fused hinge.

Then again, you could skip all the above steps and just cut the spine away with out removing the 3-ring metal part. :-) Note the cutting line is on the spine side of the fused hinge. Doing it this way leaves the vinyl covering over the cardboard intact....no "raw" edges.




Repeat the above steps for all binders. Stack all the individual pieces and tape them together in a bundle. Make sure they are all facing the same way. (I considered turning one so one of the inner clear pockets would face outward when I put the cube together, but decided not to in the end, my storage cube doesn't need a label)) I used masking tape, one strip around all four sides held them well enough. Measure and mark where you want your lacing holes to be. (I measured one horizontal side and one vertical side and then marked the remaining sides with corresponding dots) All holes are approximately 1/2 " from the edge and 1 inch apart. (personally I just eyeballed it, I mean really, it's just a box made out of 3-ring binder pieces and lashed together with string!) I used a drill with a 7/64 bit to drill the holes. (I'm pretty sure it was 7/64ths, it was in the 7/64ths slot in the bit box, but who knows for sure if was put in the right slot!) Sorry no drill photo but drilling with one hand and taking a pic with the other doesn't work very well.



Lace three of them together, using a cross stitch.......yeah I know, a needle and fiber...promise broken.......I used plain old kitchen cotton. Nylon cord, yarn, ribbon, just about anything would work. The cotton did fuzz a little bit with all that lacing. I used the cotton doubled.

To determine how long a length of string I needed, I roughly measured out 5 times the length to be laced, and then doubled it. (4 times the length will probably be long enough, but I'd rather have longer ends to tie off and then snip them, than fighting with short ends inside the box.)

If you don't hold the pieces at right angles and just stitch them like this, make sure you make your stitches loose enough so the pieces will open to a 90 degree angle. (oops, I learned this the hard way) The easiest way to hold the pieces at a right angle to stitch them was stand an undefiled binder upright right and rest one cut piece on top of it holding the other perpendicular to it for stitching.








The fourth piece is oriented differently. You laced the first three together spine edge to spine edge, or long side to long side. This fourth (and the fifth) piece will be laced to the short sides of the first three pieces using two long sides and one short side of the fourth piece. You will end up with about 1.5 inches that can't be lace because there are no corresponding holes. See the right edge below. No problem, just begin lacing in the second hole of that piece. The lip that is formed will give you a nice slot for your fingers if you put this cube on a shelf.



Lace the fifth piece just like the fourth and Ta Da! You have a binder box. See the two lips formed by the fourth and fifth pieces...not a problem.




Notes and other thoughts regarding the binder boxes:

• A simple whip stitch once across each edge would prob'ly hold these just as well as the cross stitching.
• I bet several other stitches would work as well also.
• No reason why you couldn't stitch a nifty string art motif on one of the sides.
• Obviously the stitching along the top edges of these boxes has no purpose other than decorative cuz the holes were already there.
• I suppose, when drilling the holes, you could think about it some more and not drill those holes, but I didn't want to think that hard!
• You could also lace the first three together on their short sides and have a shorter, more cube like box, but then the lip would be about 4 inches high.
  
• Kittens aren't a very helpful.

Now what should I do with these???????

Recycled Summer Cardi

The summer cardi is done. After it sat a few days in the bucket then I decided that I was NOT going to rip out the completed sleeve and just forged ahead.

I found a zipper from my stash (another thrifted thing) I'm pretty sure the zipper was another of the fabulous finds from the The Mouse. The Mouse sells zippers for five cents each. Every time I find a separating zip or a nifty colored one I grab it. At some point I'm going to have to make one of those bags made entirely out of zippers. Oh and I have the coolest zip that is 96 inches long I savaged from a vintage slip cover I can't wait until I finalize THAT design....but I digress.....So without further ado here is a pic of the sweater:




Info for inquiring minds:

Materials used: Recycled ramie from Thrift Store sweater (dark olive) used throughout entire sweater. Egyptian cotton (light sage) bought in UK for 50p (a little less than $1 at the time) used in bodice and one sleeve. One thrifted separating zip.

Construction: Bodice made with 2 strands of sage and 1 strand of olive. One sleeve made with 2 strands of olive and 1 strand sage, other sleeve made with 3 strands of olive. I had to make the bodice longer so the zip would fit so I added some length to sleeves in the olive as well. Neck and fronts are edged in olive also. I have approximately 15 yards of the olive, and absolutely no sage left. (last three stitches on the olive/olive/sage sleeve are olive/olive/olive.) Um, about that.....I'm calling it a diligent use of ones materials. :-)

I started out using a Drops Garnstudio pattern but it never really dictated much about this sweater other than gauge and bodice shaping (which is completely lost now that I added length to the bodice) The sleeves were from another DG pattern that never really followed that pattern as well. And the zipper? well that wasn't called for in either pattern! LOL

Love the sweater in all it's cottony goodness. No sunshine today, 60 degrees, and 12 mph wind....I've been wearing it all day.....ahhhhhh

Furniture Refashion

Yesterday Joe and tackled another project that has been on the back burner for quite a while.

As you know, I'm an Estate sale junkie. One day I brought home a piece that defied all explanation in the eyes of all who saw it. I bought a gun cabinet. No, I do NOT have any guns that would facilitate the need for a cabinet, but I bought it nonetheless. I bought it for two reasons, I liked it, and it had potential. Ok, I guess you could throw in the fact that it cost less than $10 to the reasons I bought it also, but if it hadn't had the other two reason going for it I would have passed it up....honest.

This gun cabinet intrigued me. Nothing fancy, and very obviously handmade. I wish I knew the story behind it. I bought it from an estate, was this gun cabinet the first piece of furniture some newly retired aspiring woodworker made? Was it crafted by a grandson earning his Eagle Scout? I guess I'll never know the true history, but I do know that this piece of handcrafted Americana has found a new life in my home as a bookcase.

A Tank for the Pond and a Cardi Musings

There has been some knitting I haven't been deforesting my yard all week! :-)

Wednesday I finished this tank, an UFO from last summer:




It originally was that red keyhole tank with the ribbon bow in the back, (it's in Knit1 don't remember what issue.) Now I know why I didn't finish it last summer! YUCK Gauge is perfect and I made the smallest size and it's HUGE. I'm not going to bother with "fixing" it.....soooo glad I didn't take the time to weave in the ends it's going for a swim in the pond ASAP!

Last Friday I started a cardi. I sort of used another Garnstudio pattern, but then sort of didn't. I changed the stitch from moss to plain old stockinette, and I'm using a different sleeve. So basically the only thing that resembles the original pattern is the gauge and the bodice shaping.

I'm using recycled ramie from a thrift store sweater held together with some Egyptian cotton I picked up in England two years ago. I wanted something soft and casual to throw on this summer. This will be our second summer in this house and we still have not gotten central air....we don't need it....um, we don't need it often. Last year there was a total of 4 days when AC would have been appreciated. It's not that the temps don't get high, they do, just like all other places here in the Midwest. But 90+ degrees with 90% humidity isn't uncomfortable here. I know that sounds crazy but it isn't.....here at the hermitage we have a constant breeze. Actually most of the time you classify it as a wind! Thus I wear sweat shirts all summer, and I wanted a soft cottony cardi this summer.

I spent the entire day Saturday just knitting in the sun, it was heaven. I finished the back and almost got both fronts done.....yes I spent the ENTIRE day knitting in the sun. yes, I fried, my legs. :-)

I finished the first sleeve Monday night....ooops I had been using two strands of the cotton with one strand of the ramie for the back and fronts. I realized I was running short of the cotton so I figured I could squeeze out the two sleeves using two ramie strands and one cotton strand.....nope...I couldn't have been more wrong, not enough for the second sleeve. DAMN
Wednesday I forged ahead and made the second sleeve with only the ramie and then let the thing sit. Now I have before me a sweater in pieces that has matching fronts and back and "coordinating" sleeves that don't match each other. :-o I've been thinking about ripping the sleeve that has the cotton in it, but the thought of ripping out a sleeve made with this makes me shudder:



So I steam blocked it today, I'm seaming and searching for a zipper. Oh yeah the zipper, yet another thing that doesn't follow the Garnstudio pattern LOL

Dressing a pot

Yesterday was moving day. I have approximately 4 moving days a year. No, I don't change my address, but I do change my residence. I move furniture from room to room, upstairs, downstairs, re-hang pictures and swap out tables and lamps. I change things around to such an extent that a room may end up having a totally new purpose. Living room might become the dinning room, dinning room might become a family room. Consequently, I'm usually inspired to make something new. The something new usually entails sewing and generally I paint something too. Tomorrow will be new curtains for the sitting room and a new slip cover for a chair, but today I finally took care of an ugly plastic pot that's been bugging me since I got the plant.

Here is the before shot. Yeah I know, I have to water that poor tree, but it gets so dang heavy when it's been watered and I knew a moving day was looming, I could feel it.



And now it looks like this:




It was a quickie refashion of the this blouse.



I picked up this '80's blouse at the GW eons ago. The colors in the this photo are almost right, but they are deeper and richer. I tried to get the details of its construction but as you can see they don't show too well. The major points of interest are the hidden button closure up the front, it is collarless, and has an elastic waistband. Perfect, the elastic band snugs nicely around the bottom of the pot, I buttoned it up the back, pulled the sleeves inside, stuffed it with plastic bags and made some gigantic running stitches around the top to cinch it in. Stuffing it took the most time. LOL So aside from the huge running stitches, I didn't do anything else to this blouse so I will in the future still be able use it as a lining for a bag which is why I bought it in the first place. Ooops, yes I did, I removed the ginormous shoulder pads. :-)

Leather Coat Project Top and Bag part 7

Finally got this top done after it hung on Vivian for days and days. Remember my fear of the eyelets? I just couldn't bring myself to do them. Even contemplated taking the top to a shoe repair guy and have him do the eyelets. In the end I opted not to do that and made the loops that are now on the back.

I like the top...not a fav top, and well, it just isn't me (at least not "appropriately" me..it's so hard when you feel 28 and in reality are dang near 48!) so Silly if you're reading and like this top, give me a call it's yours! (Silly is my baby that is soon to be 20...egads)

After the book, wallet, top, and some pieces set aside for another top in progress this is what I have left to work with.

So I made this bag.

I'm really pleased with this bag. I lined it with some fabric I got at the Mouse for 25 cents (that's 2 yards for 25 cents! Love the Mouse) There is an interior pocket and I like the versatility of the strap. The strap btw is rattail, a few row of crochet (slip stitch) then roll back on to itself. I personally hate drawstring bags generally, but I modified this. You can sort of see in the first pic how the back side along the opening is straight and not gathered. I put a piece of wood dowel in there. Now I can easily get into the bag for a quick grab and don't have to hassle with the whole drawstring thing. When and if I do need to open the bag wide like in the 2nd pic, then that dowel in there is a nice place to hold on to when manipulating the drawstring. (no digging you fingers into the tiny hole) :-) I also think it gives the bag a bit more shape than just a drawstring bag.

I've got another bag done too but the batteries on my camera died before I could get a picture.....sigh

Project Leather Coat Still Draping part 6

Yep, I'm still draping and still changing my mind. At least that's what I've been doing most of today. I think at last count I was 1, 726 times I've changed my mine....add another 1200.....sigh.


Here's a small taste of what I was thinking today.









BUT.......





This is what I have decided on.





There's no going back. No more changing my mind, this baby is nearly done!!! All that's left is to set the straps and pound the eyelets for the lacing in the back. And those two things are the reason it's not done now.....sigh.

I want to set the straps on me, not on Vivian. She's been a awfully good sport, and not bitching at all when I would drape a piece around her for the bazillionth time. But as close as she is to my size she's just a wee bit big through the rib cage. I need another pair of hands so I guess I have to wait until Joe gets home in the morning.

Pounding the eyelets is a whole other story. I have to get up enough nerve to do that. For what ever reason eyelets and I just don't get along. Sometimes I can pound them all day and not have a lick of trouble, other days, well I'd rather run my tongue through the sewing machine. I even considered putting a zipper in the back! That's how much I'm dreading these eyelets. But eyelets it is and eyelets it will have to be, this leather is just too fluid and stretchy for anything as permanent as a zipper. Although, I could always put the zipper in now and when the day comes the top is just too stretched out then I can do the eyelets!! Oy! Everything is done including the top stitching and I'm still thinking of ways to change it!!! Shoot me now.

Tips Project Leather Coat part 5

I'd just like to say thanx to all of you who have left comments here, at the Wardrobe Refashion blog (http://nikkishell.typepad.com/wardroberefashion/), and sent emails. A few of you that I don't know, and have no way of contacting you, have asked some questions. I thought I'd take this post to answer a couple and start making a list of the things I'm learning as I work this leather.

As I mentioned before, I've never worked leather before. Ooops, lying again.....this one time at band camp......um, that's a stretch, I never went to band camp, but I'm pretty sure in Brownies I made one of those coin purses with the pre-punched holes laced together with cording. Doesn't everybody?

Having never actually worked leather, doesn't mean that I haven't thought about it, read stuff about it or stood fascinated watching the artisans work at various festivals and such. Granted, as all of you know, wishing, thinking, and watching hardly ever transfer into really DOING, but I'm foolish enough to always jump right in and say why not regarding most anything.

Disclaimer: "most anything" is defined as anything that I don't think is scary, and won't hurt me very much. There are LOTS of things I think are scary I'm not as devil may care as that disclaimer sounds. Leather, needle, and thread? Not a problem. Something that IS scary? Anything past the second level of the step ladder.....well duh, why do you think I married 6'5" Joe!?! :-)

To answer a few of you.....No my sewing machine is nothing special. I bought it a year or two ago at Walmart on a whim. My beloved Thrift Store iron horse circa early 60's- late 50's had finally given up the ghost a couple weeks before. I had been hunting for a replacement, but wasn't having much luck. I bought a Brother XR-65 (I think that's the model number) more bells and whistles than I'll EVER use. I'm not after much, all I want in a machine has the ability to lengthen the stitch, oh, and reverse is a nice feature but not necessary. I think I've zig-zagged maybe twice in my life!

I used the standard all purpose needle that came with the machine when I made the book. It didn't snap like I thought it would. I was impressed. I used that very heavy Perle cotton (size 10 maybe) through the needle, AND in the bobbin, and had no problems. Honestly, I was quite surprised. I have since gone to town and bought a leather needle.....I don't want to thumb my nose at the sewing gods for too long.

Beginner's Tips for Working Leather
Couldn't be anything else but beginner's tips cuz they are coming from me!

1) Never use pins. Pins are bad. Pins are no no's. Pins will put a hole in your leather that will never ever go away.
~Use hem clips, those kitschy 6 inch long strips of folded metal with the inches notated so you can make an even hem.....does anyone really use these for that purpose??
~Use office binder clips. I used the tiny ones. They aren't too tight and won't (haven't so far) make dents, which may or may not go away*. They are great for seaming knit/crochet items too.
~Use those giant clips from the beauty parlor. You know the kind, they are metal, come in a variety of Easter egg colors (pink, blue, green, golden yellow) The beautician uses one or two of them to hold all your wet hair out of the way when she's cutting it. Just make sure that the edges are smooth.

I digress: Beauty parlor? Beautician? Sorry those clips a nostalgic to me thus the outdated nomenclature. I don't even know if they still use them in the salons today but you can buy them easily enough at Walgreens and such places. I just remember them as a kid waiting in the beauty parlor, holding my grandmother's pocketbook as she got that weird blue rinse put on her hair. Funny how today some people are scorned for having not as nature intended colors in their hair, when as a kid, almost every woman over 60 had blue hair.

2)Never leave anything "clamped" for a long period of time. Ever. It will make a dent. Even if you use some of the really gentle methods of holding the pieces together that I've mentioned above. If you leave something clamped just over night, or maybe just a couple of hours, you run the risk of denting your leather. The only way you know if you've clamped something for too long is when it's too late.
~I know there is multitude of factors each playing their own part in why leather will dent. I'm not going to expound on them. Let's just do this.....pinch and pull up a fold of skin on the top of you hand. Hold for about 30 seconds to a minute.....let go....nuff said? Any of you out there that have done this and then said I don't get it, well, then, go ask your mother.

3)Glues and adhesive. Oy! Never could I have conceived of world with sooo many ways to stick stuff together!!! I know NOTHING about adhesive. I stick to the old stand bys. (ooo nice pun lol) I have read about, and I have used good ol' rubber cement on leather before. Slather the stuff on, wait bit, enjoy the fumes, slap it together and weight it down. I haven't used rubber cement on this leather yet, and my only experience with it and leather so far, is fixing my son's watch band, but if the need arises I will stick with the rubber cement. The obligatory disclaimer....try it in an area that won't show first. I don't know if would discolor the leather. The watch band was black.

4)As you all know, when refashioning anything, one of the major things you have to think about is where the original seams are. With leather you can easily cut right through a seam with little worry about the seam coming undone or the edges raveling. BUT you do have to think about how they will effect (affect?) the drape. Yes, leather does have drape, and the seams from the original garment, and the new seams you make will affect? (effect?) it. (noticed how I changed that up? I'm equal opportunity dumb!) So how do you deal with the existing seams?? Try to have them placed in your new design with the same orientation of the original garment, so they behave in the manner they were intended. Don't try to reinvent the wheel if you need a yoke, or a collar, or a sleeve cap for your new design, try to use what is already there.

5)Cutting leather. Scissors are ok....very, very, very, sharp scissors, but personally I rather use a new blade**. I haven't tried a rotary cutter yet, and I won't until I get a new blade in it. You'll run into more and more trouble the thicker the leather is when using scissors. The weird edge you get from scissors as opposed to a blade is caused by some of the same reasons the leather will dent when clamped too long. (see #2 above) Also when using a blade (or a rotary cutter) the material your are cutting is stationary, it's held in place and cannot (hopefully) slip, slide, or stretch, like leather just laying on the table can, and will do.

6)Trying to get the optimal amount of yardage. Never just start cutting the garment apart (at least I don't. As you can see in the past posts I change my mind sometimes.) Remember, you have a very limited amount of available material. It's a vintage coat for crying out loud, it is one of a kind. Even if you do find an identical vintage coat, by some freaky stroke of luck showered upon you by the Thrift Store gods, it won't be the same. The hand of the fabric as well as the color will not match. How could they? They've been living all their lives under different circumstances, in different houses, on the backs of different people, and prob'ly (most assuredly) cared for differently.
~Try to incorporate original seams and garment sections in your new design (see #4)
~Use the best tool known to all recycle people, the almighty seam ripper. (bow your heads and genuflect) Don't cut it a part you never know when you'll need just a fraction of a inch more. You can always cut way excess, you can't match it, or make it grow.
~Hand sewing a seam using the holes from the original seam that was ripped out by the almighty seam ripper is a piece of cake.....Talk about even stitches while hand sewing!!!

That's it for the tips today. This post is long enough already. I have a few more and I'm learning stuff each time I pickup the pieces. BTW most of #6 aptly applies to anything you want to refashion, whether it's leather or fabric. I've disregarded those tiny little cautions way too many times before and have been very sorry for it.

Thanx for reading! Thanx for the really nice comments and emails! and Thanx for asking!


*I'm sure you could prob'ly do some light steaming or something like that to get rid or a dent, but I've never tried it and I'm not going to tell anyone to steam their leather. I just don't know if it would be a good thing or not.

**exacto knife, single edge razor etc.

Hmmmm Project Leather Coat part 4

I have the book and wallet done. I understand (relatively speaking) how to work this leather. I've got a list of possibilities, and I have this much yardage:

Ooops, there are 1 1/2 sleeves and some misc pieces that aren't pictured here.

I've gone through the list of things to make. I've got their requirements organized. Ur, what does that mean? Well, it just means I've placed them in a sort of hierarchy that takes into account, how much I want to make the item, how much yardage it needs, what size pieces it needs, and how do the seams and detailing already present in the coat work with the designs I have in mind?

For example, I want to make a bag really bad. I also want to make a base ball cap just as badly. The bag obviously takes lots more yardage, and I really rather use pieces that are as big as possible. On the other hand, the cap, doesn't take that much yardage, the pieces are small and could conceivably be cut from scrapes. I know I can get at least one of the sections (gores?) of the cap out of the piece of collar left from the wallet. I also have a another project in mind that is going to need some long very thin pieces. I have to ask myself where can those long piece come from and not take away from the big bag pieces.

Then I throw the next thing on the list into the convoluted mess in my brain and it sounds like this:

I want this...I have this....but then this...it needs that....but then so does that....if that then what about this....if that is this then this is that....that there...this there...that and this here...looks good.

Then the I think about the next thing on the list and it sounds like this:.......never mind you get the picture, just increase it exponentially.

So I do this in my brain until all the pieces fit. No, that's a lie. I do it until all the MAJOR pieces fit. Major pieces are defined as those that I HAVE to have. I don't bother with the list of it would be cool to make pieces. They get the scrapes. Some will work some won't and will have to wait for another coat.

Usually when I take on a project like this, I just go this far and then begin. But this coat has a bit more to it than other coats. First off it's leather.....the absolute WORSE material to make a mistake with. If that seam is off, you better just live with it cuz if you rip it out and re-seam well, all you've succeeded in doing is making a lovely perforation along your true seam......honey it ain't gonna last. The other unique thing about it is the detailing it has. (There are closeups of the details in part 2, and you can see them in the pic above also.) Sooooo, now that I've started this project, and I've told the world about it (the Wardrobe Refashion family and anyone else who stumbles here) The pressure is on! No mistakes!!

So I did what any sane person would do. I made some crayon rubbing of the coat!

I made a rubbing of what I determined in my convoluted hierarchy are the main pieces. My hierarchy also told me that the bag was to be the next piece made. One side out of the center back, and the other made of the section from the the right and left fronts.

Lower center back.....didn't the crayon rubbing work great!?! The detailing, stitches, and seams are easily seen. LOL if you look close enough you can see the weave of the rug too......btw estate sale, hand woven, random pieces of women's wool suits and coats (1940's? 1950's)....love it. 12x9ish...how much was it Tim? $65?

Center back piece and right front piece to be used for bag, you can imagine the what the left front pieces looks like right?

Yeah the bag is almost done!!!!!!

Then the phone rang and I draped it around my neck.

Ooops......it could be this:

Or this:

Egads! If I do either of these will I have enough for my bag??? Yes, OK hierarchy still intact , bag design altered to first design filed in brain that does not use the detailing. Everything is cool and still on track. Looking, looking, adjusting.....I just don't like the fit of the neckline on the second style. Hmmm the upper back has a similar swirl what if.......

Yeah, I'm liking this one. Obviously I'll make it a bit longer in the front it barely covers the boobage right now, but the back is just about right. A nicely fitted scoop neck tank, with a low back and crossed points on lower edge. Easy to get in and out of, not a lot of closure/button/zipper things to think about!!

So far so good. I've only changed my mind 14,726 times BUT I haven't ripped any seams I shouldn't have.....yet.

Vivian has to wear this all day tomorrow while I work on something else.....prob'ly a new bag design!.....And that item I have in mind that needs the long thin stripes....I have to do some internet searching. I don't know how to do it. I've seen it. I've read the directions years ago, I don't remember it though. I might get around to making the pattern pieces for the ball cap, maybe not. I've got some knitting that has to get done. I need to finish a few pieces in the next couple of days so I can take them all to my sister's house and use her wash machine to felt them. I'm calling them my "NEW bags", cuz my hero inspired me to make them. And I have GOT to get some "Nuff Stuff Folds" made. Those design have been burning holes in my brain for a week now!