90s Patterns & Old Skirts

This is what happens when you take a hand-me-down skirt and a pattern from the 90s.

This project began with this copy of Essentials magazine from 1993.

My Mum has a box of dress patterns and I came across this magazine when looking for a pattern for a shirt.

Instead I found patterns for a summer wardrobe!

I decided I wanted to make this 'sun top' but make it part of a dress.

I used a skirt my sister had given me but I'd never worn and made the sun top to attach to it.

I made a few adjustments to the pattern like I made it back opening instead of front opening so it would line up with the zip in the back of the skirt.

I bought some buttons to match the fabric and my Mum stitched the buttons holes for me. She was a big help with this project as I haven't worked with a paper pattern before and the instructions in the magazine were a bit confusing.

I hemmed the skirt and made straps from the material I cut off.

I'm still not sure about the pleats in the skirt - which is why I never wore it in the first place - but other than that I really like this summer dress.

Except I'm going to have to pair it with tights and a cardigan if I want to wear it any time soon.

Up-cycled Dress

This dress was another up-cycled project.

I love it!

 The dress started life like this.

It was actually my Mum's dress that she bought from a fashion show my school had.

My lower school. That's how old this dress is.

This photo also shows how long I've been meaning to do this project as it was taken in September 2011 right before I got my Mum to shorten it.

Then it stayed in my wardrobe for two years. Every so often I would think about it but never come to any conclusions on what to do with it.

Until last week.

 

I started by cutting the straps off the dress so it would sit lower.

I also added elastic round the middle so it would be more fitted.

I did this by sewing bias tape to the inside of the dress and threading the elastic through.

I found a t-shirt I never wear and altered the neckline to be more flattering, and then sewed the dress to it, re-shaping the dress where the straps had been.

Then I gathered the fabric at the front and sewed part of one of the dress straps over it.

I love how this dress turned out. I think it's so cute.

Upcycled T-shirt Collar

Like my new shirt?

It's upcycled.

It started off as a plain white t-shirt and some unwanted material from my Mum's culottes.

In fact the t-shirt was once my Mum's as well. 

The strips of fabric were meant to be tied around the waist of the culottes, and were already the right size to be a collar so I just had to sew it round the neckline of my shirt.

To make the fabric go nicely around my shoulders I had it go down the back instead of straight across the neck.

I cut a new neckline for the back of the shirt and sewed the fabric on in a 'v' shape.

So now it looks just as interesting from the back as from the front.

I really like how this simple, and completely free, addition has made the shirt look much more fancy.

It looks great with this new skirt I bought on sale at New Look.

They sell this thing as a school skirt! I would not have got away with that in my day. It's tight y'all!

But that might be because I bought it size age 10-11...

My G-ma's Bling

When my Grandma died in 2008 (aged 101 - good going!) I got some of her brooches.

They're some serious bling!

I love this little shiny-fest, but the pin on the back is broken, so I thought of an easy way to still wear it.

I pulled off the broken back with a pair of pliers.

Then using my trusty E6000 glue I stuck a ring blank to the back of the brooch.

And there we go. The fanciest ring in town.

Have any of you been doing any up-cycling recently?