Wardrobe refashion frenzy - converting skirts to tops.

When I was having my wardrobe moan recently (still not done that clear out I was going to do last week - must bump it up my to-do list), one of the things that prompted the whinge was the fact that I seem to have an inordinate number of skirts I don't wear taking up valuable wardrobe hanging space for all the other things I don't wear.


Most of them have come the car boot / charity shop route courtesy of my mum, but I am just not a skirty type of person.


So I pulled a couple out of the wardrobe the other day and decided that there was just too much source material there to waste and I simply had to use the fabric for something ultimately more wearable.


Converting skirts into tops - Part 1


Elasticated skirt to halter neck top.


(forgot the before photo AGAIN - must get that stamped in indelible ink on my hand)

LOL - what do think of my drawing - pretty good eh?

Anyway, remove the elastic waistband, and cut the arm hole shapes onthe front of the dress, I just used the skirts existing side hems as the starting point, then cut straight across the back. Hem the armholes.

To size the armholes I just held the skirt waistband to the base of my neck and in the mirror, marked with chalk where my arm holes needed to come down to on the side seams, then measured the distance and adjusted them so that they were identical depths down the seams both sides.

I hemmed the back to create a fold large enough to take a stretch of elastic.

Top tip:
- the easiest way to get a good idea of the amount of elastic you need is to consider it stretches to more than double its size, so run the elastic without stretching it across the area where you want it - here my back, then cut half the amount you have measured, the elastic will then stretch to the area you want to use it.

For the front halterneck, again I created a deep hem to take the ribbon that I had chosed to be the tie, threaded it through, and secured it with a couple of stitches to the middle of the front piece.

New bags and embellishments

It has not just been busy here the last couple of days it has been absolutely manic.

I think every one of our neighbours has been round with something that needs fixing, we have some friends over from the UK on holiday too and are trying to spend some time with them, as well as trying to get as much done as we can in the garden and house in between showers.

On the basis that we all have to draw a breath every now and again and take some zen time, I managed to find a couple of hours yesterday in my studio to draw up a new bag design and get the first prototype sewn up.  It took a bit longer than expected because of having to think everything through before committing my scissors to the cloth - what's that old adage, measure twice, cut once.

If I thought yesterday was busy today was relentless.  The current fix-it list for Brendan is: Polo, Clio, John Deere, seized tractor water pump, a dead VW 4x4, leaky tap, a broken rotavator,  and a non-running Renault tractor - this is all because he is off to the UK for a few days himself next week so of course everyone wants things done before he goes!  Oh well, looks like painting the bathroom will be a project for me then.

Earlier, while he sat cruising on the internet for a cheap car stereo for another one of our neighbours I ran away to my studio so I could get the trimmings onto the finished bags, one denim bag done, two cotton bags with embroidery and crochet flowers done, one cotton bag with felt flowers finished, now I just need Thea to model them so I can get them listed on Etsy.

Photos to follow when I can get the computer tower to work - I guess my Dutch is still not up to scratch on Microsoft gobbledegook!

Edited: Wednesday - as you can see I managed to get a couple of photos up.