The Refashion Co-op

Have you all heard about the newest blog on the block - The Refashion Co-op? It's a fun place for people to share their refashions and get ideas for new ones. I signed up a little while ago and finally got around to putting up my first post.

Do check out the blog, so many inspirational and talented refashioners out there! If you'd like to see my post, you can do so here.

Jen's Bag

As I mentioned in this post, I have been busy bag making again. This time I made a reversible tote bag for an old friend (Jen) who reminded me recently that she was 'owed' a 'Suzie Bag'!!

She's a bit of a tomboy, so my usual glam clutch wasn't going to be her style so I thought I'd make something a bit different. I have been wanting to try making a tote out of a man's shirt for a while so I played around a bit and came up with this:

As you can see, I kept the front buttons but decided to flip them round so that they made a fun detail at the top of the bag.

As I said, I made it reversible...so here's the inside-out version:

 This side is made out of brown linen which I bought with Jen when we were travelling around Australia (for that added extra meaning!) and I made a pocket out of one of the shirt cuffs and some left over fabric. The straps are made from the same shirt and linen but you see the opposite fabric to the side you are using (if that makes sense!).

Hope she likes it! I took photos of the process so I plan to make a tutorial on how to make it...soon!

Fabulous Fabric...

...because it's Friday!

Today I want to share with you some gorgeous fabric that I bought on a work trip to Zagreb last month. I was walking to a meeting and passed a couple of fabric shops, so I made a point of heading in on the way back to the hotel to see what they had!

The shop I bought this in was really small and the owner didn't speak any English. I hung around a while and browsed and another customer came in...who spoke English! They were kind enough to translate for me. Although I was hoping to get some bargains, everything was actually quite similar prices to home. But there was a WALL of silk, in every colour you could imagine (and many you probably didn't even know existed!) and I just couldn't resist. I decided to get a couple of meters of beautiful bright read shot silk which worked out at about £13 per meter (cheaper than the shops in Belfast anyway, its about £18/m here).

But the thing that made me end up choosing red was the trim that I bought to go with it. There was a cupboard jam packed with the most incredible embroidered and embellished trims...they were just stunning! I spent ages just drooling over them. I knew I had to get one (at one point it was more than one, but I talked myself out of it!) and ended up getting a beautiful one with tiny 'dirty' gold sequins and embroidered red, green and gold flowers:

The trim is about 10cm wide and it's sewn onto a fine green organza type material with a little excess folded over on the back.

The colours really lend themselves to Christmas, so I'm hoping to make a dress for the festive season with it. But I'm having real problems finding a pattern that is quite what I'm after! I think i would like to have a deep V-neck, that is open slightly between the bust (oooer!) and then use the the trim as a band just under the bust and then have either a pencil type skirt or a full skirt (depends if I have enough fabric!). Any patterns I can find the V is just not right. Plus, because it's silk, it would be nice to have some draping going on, or pleating. So I may have a play around and see if I can come up with something from a few patterns. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to have them!

In the mean time, I'll leave you with another close-up shot of the lovely trim:

Swoon!

I'm A Winner!

As I mentioned in my last post, I was the lucky, lucky winner of a vintage pattern giveaway by the lovely Gina from Vintage Girl!!!

I was beside myself when I opened up the e-mail and discovered I had won the giveaway - it absolutely made my day! So without further ado, lets see the goods:

Three vintage beauties! Let's have a look at them individually shall we:

This lovely dress has a 'smocked' bodice, I'm really interested to see what the pattern before smocking looks like!

As Gina mentioned, I love the pleats on the skirt on the right. And the blouse looks like a perfect wardrobe staple.

And finally, how cute is this dress?! The scooped back is so elegant, and the little bow on the green one is very sweet too.

The best bit - they are all my size (um..in theory anyway!).

Gina has popped them in the post for me, but they are having to make their way across the Atlantic, so I'm trying to be patient.....(hurry up Mr Postman!)

We'll be right back after these messages...

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Apologies for the silence over the last week or so, things suddenly got rather hectic! Ironically, I have lots to post about, I just haven't had the time to do so!

So please bear with me and hopefully soon I'll have up some posts on:

- Some gorgeous fabric that I have bought recently (even if I say so myself!). I can't wait to get using it!

- I made up a vintage pattern top in a fun Ikea fabric (muslin fitting post here)

- I refashioned a mans shirt into a bag

- I'm planning on making a tutorial on the mans shirt refashion so hopefully I'll get this posted soon too

- New patterns I've been buying (I need to stop doing this! lol)

- The vintage patterns I won off the lovely Gina from Vintage Girl!!!! So excited about this!

- Archiving my patterns and fabric

See, lots to post about!!! I'm actually off to Malaga for a long weekend on Thursday (whoop!) so I'll try and schedule a few posts to happen while I'm away (fingers crossed!).

And because I don't like doing a post without a photo I thought I'd share a couple of Hello Kitty sewing machines - I want one! Hee hee

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