neglect, mostly, but also inspiration
Ahhh…the neglected sewing blog. Reflection of the neglected sewing machine, which is in turn a reflection of the neglected…everything!
Since the boys are back in town I have been kept hopping on pre-school-related issues and have had no time to spare for crafting of the material sort. And, frankly no inspiration, either.
That is, until I saw this fantastic tutorial from Nissa at Simple Gifts.
Here is a pic of my very-much simplified project. Not too terribly impressive, but lets just say turning some old stretched out adult-sized thrift store sweaters into these for JBug:
was a GREAT learning process for me. They are not very lovely (though I like the little butterfly I added to the orange one), but they fit, they are 100% lambswool, they will keep my Bug snug this winter, and she loves them!All for 6 bucks! Yay!
Why did it never occur to me before that I could do this? That I could retrofit sweaters? I guess I just thought that to violate the integrity of a knitted garment by actually cutting it up (!!!!!!) meant certain ruin. I never knew that you could just sew them back up again however you like!What a revelation!Talk about “news you can use!” LOL! Thanks, Nissa!
I did this a lot when my big kids were little. Long women’s shrits can be made into little girl’s dresses too.
October 27th, 2007 at 11:13 amShirts into dresses! Another great idea! Thanks, Andrea!
October 27th, 2007 at 3:30 pmHey, no problem. My grandparents went through “the War” and were quite through in teaching me the use-it-up-and-wear-it-out philosophy.
I made jeans into a child’s jacket, cut down a work jacket into a smaller jacket for my son (still have it), sewn faceclothes from towels, make sheets with a rip in the middle into a new sheet with a seam, saved buttons before they hit the rag bin, and of course pieced quilt tops from old clothes - not new expensive fabrics
.
Not bragging, just bringing some old skills & mindsets back into the light. (never did get the hang of darning anything)
October 27th, 2007 at 5:20 pmAndrea, I think you make great points, especially about the quilting. My grandma always made them out of old clothes and I never thought they were made any other way until recently (see how very naive I am re sewing?). I kinda thought that was the point of a quilt, anyway. Silly me!
October 27th, 2007 at 7:11 pmI have always WANTED to be more frugal about repairing clothes but never had the skills to actually do it. I am very glad to be learning now.
The sweaters look great!
My grandmother did darn our socks, but they always felt weird afterward.
Thanks for the great ideas!
October 27th, 2007 at 8:29 pmrenae - my MIL considered darning socks a waste of time - she just unravled them and knitted a new foot. We would get some wonderfully colorful socks that way.
lapaz - back in the early internet days, I joined a quilt fabric swap. Imagine my surprise when I went up against people complaining the stuff I sent wasn’t new or expensive enough! :O We worked it out though.
Also, I’ve got tons of craty pics on my flickr:
October 28th, 2007 at 8:07 amhttp://www.flickr.com/search/?w=68661927%40N00&q=sewing&m=text