Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Another recycling project

Recently I made Simplicity 2936 from one of the oldest fabrics in my stash. I really love this pattern - it seems like this may solve my age-old dilemma of loving blouses and having a huge stash of buttons, but not really looking very good in buttoned shirts. This is a pretty flattering look on me, and with some searching through the pattern collection I'm sure I can find a few other sleeves that will work on it, and at some point I may alter the scoop neck to something a bit higher (just for a change of scene).

Ouch, that was lame.

This version was made from a skirt that had fallen out of favor in my wardrobe a few years ago. It's probably 15 years old, and back then I was a lot more willing to traipse around in skirts to my ankles all summer long. Sorry, but the legs are one of the last things to go and I'm not covering them up this summer! So the skirt has been stashed in a bag under my sewing table until last Sunday afternoon, when it emerged, got pressed, and slowly but surely became a short-sleeved version of Simplicity 2936.

I even overcame my fear of embellishment and added a strip of trim around the neck. Okay, so it's not an impressive bit of embellishment, but I tried.

The buttons are greenish mother-of-pearl, purchased at a flea market in Paris. These were the buttons originally intended for my green linen jacket that just didn't work. Now I know why; they were waiting for this project.

The hardest part was manipulating the pattern pieces so that I could get a relative match on the tie dye on each side. The grain doesn't exactly run straight up and down anymore, but this fabric is so soft and fluid that it doesn't object to being off-grain.

This will work so well with my green linen suit - I can't believe I made myself a whole spring outfit already! Since yesterday was still pretty spring-like, I gave the suit a test drive. Other than the fact that linen-with-lycra behaves pretty much like linen-without-lycra and wrinkles like crazy, I'm really happy with it.


And at some point soon (NYC on March 24th!) the jacket will finally accumulate some buttons.

5 comments:

gwensews said...

That's a great save, which entitles you to buy several yards of fabric, don't you think?

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

I love, love, love how you recycle projects! This is a very cute makeover...and a TNT pattern used too! Awesome!

Becky said...

Looks great! And I like the trim, I think that bit of solid adds a lot to the tie-dye.

Little Hunting Creek said...

What a pretty blouse! You are now entitled to add to stash for your recycling virtue!

Tany said...

You did an outstanding job recycling that fabric into a fabulous looking top!