2007
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!
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6 Responses to this post
October 27th, 2007 at 11:13 am
October 27th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Shirts into dresses! Another great idea! Thanks, Andrea!
October 27th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Hey, 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 7:11 pm
Andrea, 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!
I 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.
October 27th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
The sweaters look great!
My grandmother did darn our socks, but they always felt weird afterward.
Thanks for the great ideas!
October 28th, 2007 at 8:07 am
renae - 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:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=68661927%40N00&q=sewing&m=text
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