"Yes, but..." Anna's garment make-over workshop

We had an excursion to WINS thrift store. Our assignment was to find a garment we liked except for something that needed to change. With Anna's coaching we each made the change to create a usable garment.

Lesley's cheery orange linen
jacket was several sizes too big.

The newly tailored
version fits just right.

The tunic Louisa found
was her colour and length.

She narrowed the shoulders
 and created cap sleeves to
make a dressy summer top.

Mary liked the fabric
and cut of a floral top.

She adjusted the fit of the
 armholes and re-cut the
peplum for a sleeker line.

Kathy found a flattering top.

With some tucks, gathers
and a bit of blue bias
binding it fits just the way she likes.

Ruth found well-fitting
trousers the right length.

She replaced the missing
button and changed the
legs from flaired to straight.

Anna found a beaded jumpsuit.

L

She removed the top
and adjusted the size
to make usable shorts. 

Spring Clean

So here is my effort! I used the fabric contributions for the letters and the handle. I cut a piece of hardboard and covered it to form a firm base. I can now keep my cleaning products nice and tidy!

 I decided to make a door stop, which is not really about cleaning but lots of doors in my new bungalow seem to swing closed by themselves all the time and this was so annoying when moving things around and trying to get cleaning done.

It is a very simple shape and made of 6 panels and a base, using each of the six pieces of fabric.
I also backed each panel with curtain interlining (bump) to give it a softer but firmer structure.
I was advised to fill it with sand but felt, that however careful I was there was sure to be a tiny gap between stitches somewhere which would enable sand to leak out on the floor.  So I went organic and used lentils!

 Here is the finished article

And here it is in action.


It has been so useful already and was fairly quick and easy to make, not sure why I've never had one before!

Louisa's Spring Cleaning project

For me a large part of spring cleaning is tidying up and organizing "stuff".
My challenge project is a handy box to put things in.  I found a simple tutorial online that suggested a sensible construction method.  Then I set to and constructed the pieces of the box, rather making it up as I went along.  The result is a bit of a hodge-podge, I'm afraid!

I have had my lovely new sewing machine for a little over a year now and this seemed an excellent opportunity to put it through its paces and see how many of its many features I could make use of.

Each side of the box is about six inches square.  I used a piece of firm stabilizer and a square of cotton wadding underneath the fabrics for each piece.  The whole box is lined with a light green fabric from my stash.

For this side I stitched out a 6 inch square of Tumbling Blocks design using the embroidery module of the machine.  (This is part of a set of designs I purchased).   The lovely hand made doily that Kathy sent is shown off nicely against the gorgeous Liberty fabric. 

This side was a practice stitch out of an embroidery.  The blue chambray is from a shirt. It is included here because the colours  and theme seemed perfect with the collection of fabrics.  (And it was six inches square -- it was meant to be!) 

The bee is embroidered on a scrap of the blue chambray.  Then I built the rest of the square around it crazy-piecing style.  I took time last year to make a reference book of all the fancy stitches on the machine (hundreds of them!).  I used the book to select a simple one that reminds me of a two-sided blanket stitch to go over all the seams.  

Loved this fabric and the idea that it had been used for so many things before it got here.  I liked the idea of  this fabric framing the faces of children as shepherds in the Nativity Play.  With the machine I appliqued some more faces, pansies this time,  onto it using the other fabrics.  

Nothing fancy on the bottom of the box.  I used this as a chance to try out another stitching design. 

And here is my finished box.  It was put to use right away to hold some lovely new fabrics that arrived as a gift from sons at Christmas.