Pompoms make the ultimate no-sew ugly Christmas sweater

I can’t say that I ever participated in the Ugly Christmas sweater phenomenon growing up. Yes, I did DIY a Santa hat with lots of lights for orchestra performances in junior high, but an ugly Christmas sweater? Nope. So the past several years, I’ve seen more and more of these absurdly over-the-top creations ranging from funny to tacky to even vulgar. While I’ll pass on the last category, I’m definitely embracing the tacky and over the top with this pompom laden no-sew ugly Christmas sweater. Let me show you how I made mine and how you can make one for yourself!

Pompom no-sew ugly Christmas sweater

Find a sweater as your base

To make this sweater, you’ll need a sweater as a base to hold all the pompoms.

Any style of sweater will do! You control how many pompoms are on your final sweater, so a cardigan, vest, long-sleeved, zippered style will do. The only thing is that you want a sweater with a reasonably closely knit structure. More open-knit sweaters will be difficult to work with because the pompoms won’t have enough structure to latch onto.

I chose a short sleeved cardigan for mine. It was a little bit too large for me, so I spent time first taking in the sides a little bit and taking in the neck significantly through a series of darts. The more closely fitting your sweater can be, the better because the pompoms are going to add an unholy amount of bulk to your sweater!

Make a crazy number of pompoms. And then make more. And probably more still.

Next, you want to start making pompoms. I found this tutorial on YouTube helpful.

Get ready to go through a crazy amount of yarn. 1 reasonably sized skein yielded between 5-10 3″ diameter pompoms. Bulky yarns work really really well for this. Chunky wool and wool blends are ideal, though I liked the bulky acrylics too. My least favorite were the thinner acrylic yarns, though I used them too for the color (olive with gold flecks!!).

Consider some unconventional places like thrift stores as you’re gathering yarn. I was able to find several quality yarns (cashmere for change!) at my local thrift store and also ReCreative in Denver.

In total, I think there’s close to 100 pompoms on my sweater. I initially estimated about 60, but they really take up less space than you think. The good news is that while this sounds like a big undertaking, it’s pretty mindless work. You can wrap and tie them up in the dark while you’re watching a movie. Trim several up at a time while you’re waiting for water to heat up for your tea.

All this yarn reminds me of my favorite sweater refashion of all time!

Get the pompoms ready

This is a no-sew project, but you’re still going to need a needle with a large eye. An upholstery or darning needle will do the trick. It’s not for sewing, it’s for helping thread the pompoms through the sweater base so you can tie them.

If you made your pompoms the right way, there should be some long tails that survived through all the trimming process. If you cut them off or forgot to put them on, let me show you how to fix it.

First thread your needle with about 12″ of yarn. You want to use a yarn that’s of the same weight or heavier than the pompom itself. This way it’ll support the pompom no problem. Put the needle point through the center of the pompom and pull it through so the yarn is centered in the pompom.

Make a nice square knot (right over left, then left over right). You want to have 2 of these strands through the middle for a total of 4 long threads in each pompom.

Now we tie!

Thread one of the tails through the needle, then poke the needle end through the sweater. Repeat with another tail, making sure that the second tail is at least 1″ away from the first. This will give the pompom a wide base of support. On the wrong side of the sweater, tie a very secure square knot. Repeat with the second set of tails.

Trim the tails on the inside, leaving about 1″ away from the knot. If you want, you can tie some of the tails to other tails from other pompoms for more security.

Add the next pompom right next to the last, covering up all the surface of the sweater. Keep tying on more pompoms until you’re thoroughly satisfied.

Tips for pompom tying

Use a dress form or a really patient model: It’s pretty difficult to know how the pompoms are going to sit. What’s covered on a person might have big holes when you’re working on the floor. Tying is going to take a couple of hours, so a dress form will really help you see where pompoms are going to sit when you’re wearing your creation.
Square knot: At some point you’ll have to tie square knots upside down. Some parts of the sweater will just be awkward like that. Be sure you’re still tying proper square knots. I lost a couple pompoms and had to redo them when I accidentally tied the similar but totally unsecure granny knot instead.

Make it your own

The variations on this kind of pompom ugly Christmas sweater are endless. Make it in several shades of the same color or vary several different colors for a colorblocked effect. Or place pompoms at random as I’ve done.

This is not a serious garment! Be as crazy as you want!

The over-the-topness of it all is a bit like this totally 80s refashioned sweater!

Styling tips for your pompom ugly Christmas sweater

Keep it simple and fitted: your pompom ugly Christmas sweater has a crazy amount of volume. Balance it out with a simple t-shirt and slim fitting jeans or leggings. I’ve paired mine with some olive motorcycle leggings, a cream t-shirt, and black boots. There’s a long necklace in there too somewhere!
Be ready for reactions: Fair warning–people will want to hug you or poke you/otherwise get in your space when you don a sweater like this. Have a good sense of humor about it and defend your space if it’s weirding you out!

Go big or go home

So while this look is a little bonkers, sometimes it’s okay to go way over the top.

So by now, you’ve got a good idea of how to make your own pompom ugly Christmas sweater. We’ve talked about what sweaters work well for this project, you’ve seen how to tie all the pompoms on your sweater, and now you have some ideas ideas about how to wear it. Whatever you do, own this look, and most of all, have fun with it!

Pattern hacking April 30, 2018

Distressed Sweatshirt Refashion

It seems that distressed fabrics are having their thing. I’m always slow to jump on things fashion trends, but once in a while, it’s kind of fun to just experiment and see if you might possibly like something. Refashions are one of my favorite ways to experiment with fashion. Your investment in the project is low, so if it’s a total flop, no love is lost. And if you really like the end result, you may just gain some fuel in your creative tank for future projects. With that in mind, I set out to make this distressed sweatshirt refashion.

Distressed Sweatshirt Refashion

My questionable morning style sense

In the mornings, I am always cold. I don’t like wearing kimonos (not warm enough, giant sleeves that get caught in my breakfast), and a jacket is not necessarily how I want to start the day. For years, I’ve always grabbed a white very oversized sweatshirt hoodie. It went through all of my pregnancies from week 0-40 and back again and all that postpartum time too. By the end it was really gross. In its stained and shredded state, I donated it and started wearing my husband’s hoodies.

At some point, my husband started complaining about his hoodies being left all over the house. To remedy this, I recently went thrifting to find some kind of sweatshirting to make a version of Ottobre’s “Hideaway Hoodie” (Ottobre 2-2017-8)

Oatmeal and salmon

No I don’t eat salmon in my oatmeal. That strikes me as odd, and not something I’d want to eat in my morning hoodie wearing session. But thrifting did yield me a pair of oatmeal colored heavy french terry sweatpants as well as a salmony pink xxl french terry sweatshirt. I instantly loved the salmon, but the oatmeal was too boring for me despite it being nice fabric.

To remedy the situation, I dyed the sweatpants with Rit DyeMore Kentucky sky. Because I wanted a little more depth, I added 1/2 capful Rit DyeMore in Daffodil yellow to the dye pot in a couple of places. I did not agitate the yellow once I added it; instead I let it spread out in the pot naturally. What I ended up with was a fabric that was sky blue in places and a bright springy green in others.

Distressing

So what does all this have to do with distressed fabric? Well, while I liked both of the colors after I dyed the sweatpants, it wasn’t obvious how they would go together. They’re nearly on opposite sides of the color wheel and I had no middle tone that could pull them together. I thought and thought until someone in Sew Much Talent popped up with a simple t-shirt made in distressed jersey.

The wheels started spinning in my head, and I thought I could connect them together if I slashed both colors and backed them with the opposite color. The brand Generation Love has several distressed sweatshirts that are worth checking out.

Crazy piecing

This sweatshirt pattern is very long–it’s nearly knee length on me. Unlike some of the sweatshirt dresses that are out there (Victory Patterns’ Lola comes to mind), it’s not super boxy and has some good shaping with princess seams in the front that end in deep, cozy inseam pockets.

Because of the length, I had to do a lot of creative piecing with the pattern. One of the things that I love about refashioning is how it forces you to use every scrap available. So it was with this refashion. There’s seams in weird places that would never be there on a garment made from yardage. It’s a look that’s either crazy cool or just crazy. In the end, I had about a 6″x6″ square left from both fabrics.

Colorblocking

For most of my colorblocked projects, I will sketch out possibilities before I start cutting into fabric. It’s kind of amazing how many different looks you can get by just moving colors around a bit. For this one, I just kind of made decisions as I went along based on the limited yardage I had available. I really like how some parts of it turned out. The bi-color hood is a favorite, and I used the right and the wrong sides of the both french terry colors for a subtle difference in places.

Underlining and slashing

To achieve my distressed look, all of the sleeve pieces and the front pieces are underlined. The green/blue is underlined with a salmon colored stretch lace (refashioned from a top). For the salmon french terry, I used a seafoam quilted ponte leftover from another project I’ve not yet blogged.

Before I underlined everything, I used my rotary cutter to make horizontal slashes at random on the pieces. I pulled at them *gently* to open them up a bit. French terry has very little recovery, so it distresses really easily.

Construction

For this one, I didn’t use my serger. Of late, I’ve been using my regular sewing machine to sew seams on heavier knits like this, and then using my coverstitch to topstitch. The coverstitch adds to the casual look and it does a nice job of flattening down these heavy seams in a nice professional looking way.

Welcome Colorado Spring!

Our weather has been, and is very fickle in Spring. One day it’s 70, the next, there’s snow. This has been a perfect sweatshirt for this time of year. The day I took these pictures, it was about 45 and brazenly sunny.

Taking risks in sewing

I won’t be slashing up my fabrics anytime soon, but it was good to do something out of the ordinary for this project. Sometimes I think it’s too easy to get stuck doing the same thing, making the same kind of garments the same way. There’s nothing wrong with that, especially when you’re tired or your sewjo is gone, but there’s days that it’s good to push yourself to try something new. If for no other reason, try something new so that you can have an opinion about it.

What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken in your sewing?

Pattern hacking February 13, 2018

Toaster Sweater hack: lace backs and zippers!

Do you have those moments when you see something in a catalog and you think, I could make that? So it was with this Toaster Sweater hack. For an unknown odd reason, the Athleta catalog gets mailed to me. 99.9% of the time, I finish thumbing through in the time it takes to walk inside from my mailbox, but this time I totally got stuck on this picture of their Roamer Sweatshirt:

Could I make this? You bet.

Toaster Sweater Hack: lace + zippers =fun

Fabric

To start this hack, I pulled out a white French terry from my stash. I’ve never known what to do with this fabric. It has a great stable hand, but it’s so white! While I generally believe that plain fabric is a blank canvas, I restrained myself and opted to pair the French terry with lace I reclaimed from a thrifted sweater. I’m a sucker for cream lace, and this one was way nicer than a thrifted sweater has the right to be!

Toaster + length -hem band

The original Toaster Sweater #1 is cropped and has a hem band. For this hack, you need to eliminate the hem band. To do so, simply measure the hem band and add the length to both the front and back pieces. But also, you need to add additional length to take out that cropped style. How much length you add will depend on your particular torso length. For me, that is

Zipper back

The first part of this hack involves creating the zipper in the back piece. I stabilized the area with fusible interfacing and did an exposed zipper treatment right at CB. You must hem the back piece before adding the lace piece. This is because the two layers will be sewn as one, so there’s no opportunity for hemming later on without ugly unpicking.

The zipper itself is a really fine coil metal look zipper I picked up at the FIDM Scholarship store. It’s a separating zipper, but I used it anyhow. I’ll never zip it all the way to the top, so I’m not concerned about it actually separating.

Lace underlayer

For the next part of the hack, you cut a layer of lace with an additional curved hem. To get the additional curved part, I simply added on 5″ at CB that curves back to the side seam. I used a French curve to make a nice clean curve. The lace layer is then basted to the back. From there you treat it as one.

Since I was reclaiming yardage from a sweater, I actually had to piece the back. I ran a line of Steam a Seam to fuse a the curved hem addition to the back. A row of stitching on my coverstitch makes for an almost imperceptible flat seam. I love piecing knits like this because there is no bulk.

Front piece

The front is a bit of a fake-out. Instead of a full double layer with the lace, there’s only the curved hem piece of lace on the front. Make a similar curved piece addition, this time just 4″ at CF curving back to the side seams using the French curve.

Overlap the French terry and the lace by 1/4″ (again, Steam a Seam is a great tool here) and stitch in place. I used my coverstitch again here, though a standard zigzag would work just fine too.

Finishing touches

From there, you construct the sweater as the instructions would have you do. I used the ribbing on the sweater as a neck binding instead of the binding piece, so mine is narrower. The hem ribbing from the sweater is a hem facing for the lace.

Fussy cuffs

This is not part of the Athleta look, but I wanted to add some fancy cuffs that highlighted the beauty of the lace. For my cuffs, I made a little tulip shape by extending the sides so that they curve upwards on 1 side. For each cuff, I cut a piece of French terry and the lace without its lining that was in the sweater body.

To sew them, I put right sides together and stitched the curved ends. Then you overlap the ends so to fit the circumference of the sleeve and baste together the layers. To finish them, you stitch the cuffs to the sleeves in the round. I added non-functional buttons because they’re pretty.

Last applique

I hate seeing good lace go to waste, so I cut out a large motif from the scraps of the leftover lace. It is simply stitched over one of the shoulders with a narrow zigzag.

Sporty girly

I think the Athleta top has that kind of urban cool, I just came from the gym and am going out for sushi in my track shoes kind of look that I will never achieve/be interested in. Dude, my hair doesn’t do that perfect voluminous ponytail. Instead, I had a great time reinterpreting this style into the more sporty ultra look that’s part of my everyday Mom look.

How do you reinterpret fashion looks to fit your lifestyle?

Blockprinting January 23, 2018

Shirt dress from shirts: Coffee dress refashion inspiration

I never got around to posting this dress. I suppose I didn’t want to spoil it since it appeared in the Winter 2018 edition of Altered Couture, but in truth, I simply forgot about it. A mish mash of patterns and colors, this shirt dress from shirts was a fun project to play with color. While this isn’t my coffee dress for The Day and Night Dress Challenge, I wanted to share it today. It’s a good example of a style choice for your casual coffee dress for the challenge.

Refashion it December 26, 2017

DIY Quilted coat from ombre curtain

As the year draws to a close, I’ve been thinking about my general work habits a lot. It seems my projects are either things that can be done at breakneck speed or slow, methodical affairs that take planning, precision, and ample time. I wonder what projects in the middle of the road would look like! This DIY quilted coat is the second type of project. It took research, careful thought and then just a lot of hustle to complete it, and I regret no minute extra I spent on it.

Refashion it November 27, 2017

Faux fur lined hoodie

Happy Cyber Monday! This is the faux fur lined hoodie that I wanted to make way back in January of this year! When the contests for Patternreview were announced in January, I had intended to make this hoodie for the Upcycle Contest. I thought this faux fur lined hoodie would be a great full circle project. The first lined jacket that I made was a refashion of a pillow sham for my son when he was a toddler! My plans changed once that contest came into being, and I instead made the rain jacket from that questionable caftan. Still, I had this jacket stewing in the back of my mind.

Refashion it September 26, 2017

SEWN Denver Fall 2017 Collection

I’ve been a speedster all up in my sewing room of late. I’m attempting to get through a cosplay of Rose Tyler’s purple jacket from Journey’s End and hopefully a 10th Doctor suit for my husband by the end of Patternreview’s Costume Contest. The jacket is 86% done, but the suit is going to be a big tall mountain. This last week, I finished up a batch of dresses for SEWN, the local boutique that I sew for. My latest video goes over the details of the 8 dresses and includes some backyard catwalk fun courtesy of my friends. But I’m sharing here some more pictures including some of our outtakes of my SEWN Denver Fall 2017 Collection.

SEWN Denver Fall 2017 Collection

Tie neck dresses

The first 4 dresses are all knit dresses with nice flare skirts. I used the the same style as the velvet dress from my winter collection but I lowered the neck into a high V. The tie is a big glorified binding that’s longer than the neck edge on both sides of a little loop that’s sewn near the neck edge. The ties thread through the loop to create a tie that’s not really a tie. I like this finish because I think sometimes tie necks can be too bulky. This first geometric knit really benefited from the less bulky tie.

Embroidered circles

On the ITY versions of this dress, I added circles to the skirts from ponte and a rayon/poly/lycra knit on the blue dress. After I affixed them to the skirt with a glue stick, I stitched back and forth over the circles. I love this technique, and I use it frequently on appliques.

Overdyeing the lining

The blue dress is a refashion from a size 20 Coldwater Creek dress. There was a lot of fabric on the original dress–so much so that I was able to cut the whole thing minus the sleeves from just the skirt. The blue is a rich rich cross between royal blue and navy. It’s truly beautiful fabric and when I spotted it at the thrift store, it was clear that it had been worn about twice. Do you sometimes buy things at the thrift store as a rescue project? Sometimes I’m downright indignant that things end up there, especially when they’re this nice.

My problem is that the only knit I had available to line the bodice was a baby pink poly interlock. As lining fabric goes, this stuff is wonderful. It’s got great recovery, it sews easily and it offers the support and opacity that’s required. But, the pink was so so ugly against the blue. I thought about it for a while and decided to dye the whole dress with Rit DyeMore in royal purple. The blue did not take any of the dye, but the pink settled down to a nice lilac and the circles picked up a hint of the purple. It was such an upgrade! It might seem fussy to go through the trouble, but the whole process took about 10 minutes plus a run through the wash which I was going to do anyway.

Handkerchief hem dress

I cut this handkerchief hem dress from a curtain panel. I say curtain panel, but this was one that someone had professionally made. So this is actually a good weight cotton fabric, not a home dec fabric with some of the finishes or blends that you see in curtains that you buy at home stores. I was drawn to the stripes in the print and the beautiful fall colors of the floral.

The bodice is a vintage style cap sleeve style. I’ve used it before on the wax print dress here. The skirt is a big giant square with a hole cut out the size of the waist. I so loved the gentle flow of the corners of the squares on my chiffon skirt that I wanted to replicate the look on this floral fabric. I like how the stripes sit on the handkerchief hem. My only wish is that I had had a little more width on the fabric so that the skirt could be a little longer. As this is a fall dress, I’m okay with it being shorter. I personally wear leggings with all my cooler weather dresses. Hopefully anyone buying this will be smart enough to do the same!

Caftan-ish dresses

I’m currently taking Laura Volpintesta’s intro to patternmaking class, and on one of the videos she talks about the origins of patternmaking in traditional garments like kimonos and caftans. (Though I’m moving along at a snail’s snail’s pace since I’m in the heat of soccer season when I have zero spare time) She was so enthusiastic that you could just do a whole lot with a little elastic to add some shaping to what would otherwise be a giant rectangle, that I decided to take her up on it.

Both of these dresses are essentially rectangles, though there’s a yoke with an extended cut on sleeve with a little sleeve band. The ties are attached to elastic that goes around the back in a casing. I had doubts about this whole style and then I put on one. Boy howdy is it comfortable and way cuter than you’d think. I take back everything I’ve ever thought about how shapeless caftans are. I suppose they can be, but they need NOT be.

Eyelet dress

The eyelet version is underlined with a blue chambray in the yoke. Hot pink satin is an underlining on the lower part of the dress. I really love the hot pink against the forest green. When I was searching through my linings, I thought they looked really nice together but I was skeptical about the combination. Would it appeal to anyone? Is it current or at least not out of date? After seeing a few style bloggers sporting hot pink + forest green, I felt a little more settled about the “trendiness” of the two colors. Not that being current is what I think about when I sew per se, but I never want my stuff to have that “of an era” look. You know like this:

image found on Pinterest from Vintage Everyday

Fall wax print “caftan”

This fabric was such a find. The fall leaves plus the cool black chevrons opened up a lot of possibilities. I used the chevrons on the yoke and for the hem. While I thought about making self ties for the casing, I went for black twill tape which I think is a good contrast. I still had some of the wax print leftover, so I made a twin dress.

Pinstripe wax print dress

[email-subscribers namefield=”YES” desc=”” group=”Public”]
The navy pinstripe is from a Banana Republic dress. I think it’s a linen/cotton blend though the fiber content tag had been removed from the original dress. The skirt was what drew me to this dress. The play with the stripes and the flounce on the hem were too good to pass up. There were sleeve flounces too that I saved. When I disassembled the bodice, I had very little fabric to work with. I was able to cut one front and one back from the original dress. The wax print is for the rest. There’s another dress that I haven’t blogged yet because it’ll be in the next Altered Couture issue where I did this same kind of print blocking. I personally like the contrast.

Plus my friend and I had too much fun taking twin shots. I think we were flipping our hair here?

Overall, I’m really pleased with this collection, and I’m hoping that things sell well!
[smbtoolbar]

Pattern hacking September 18, 2017

Cutout t-shirt refashions: summer trio

Summer still lingers here so I’m catching up on writing up the last of my summer projects before I move on into my fall makes. Earlier in the summer, I picked up a few t-shirts at the thrift store for refashions. One of them, you already saw me re-make in my Split Flutter Sleeve hack video. The other 3 I decided to remake with some cutout features. I often use t-shirt refashions as a way to test out ideas and think creatively about knits. So here are 3 Cutout t-shirt refashions for you.

Before

Blue print before

Before I show you each one, I have to show where they started. The blue shirt is a cotton Calvin Klein tee that has a low v in the front that’s trimmed with twill tape. There’s also some smocking on the front shoulders. The blue is one of my blues in my color palette, and I really liked the print. It’s not often that I find prints that are perfectly in my palette, so when I find them, I grab them.

Peach stripe before

The varying stripes on this white/peach cotton tee were really intriguing to me. I’m a big fan of Pauline and her amazing stripe creations, so I thought I’d try my hand at doing something to utilize the stripes in a way that she might.

J Crew green tee of doom before

Spoiler alert on this green J Crew tee. It did not turn out as I wanted. It’s one of those evil cotton knits that expand when you blink at them. As such it did not do what I wanted it to do. I should have passed by it, but the green was so pretty, and it was J Crew so I figured (erroneously) that it was quality. Dear J Crew, you really should do better.

Chop, chop, chippity chop

Inspiration at the baseball game

My older two boys play baseball, and there was one night we were leaving practice and I saw another Mom with the cutest tee. It had a back low v-neck with an X made from strips of the fabric across the upper back. I liked it so much, I scrawled a rough sketch on a scrap of paper in the car. Do you do this when you see a cool detail on someone on the street?

The blue tee was easy to turn into a version of this. I cut the back from the front since it already had the v-neck detail. I also scooped out a little bit more of the neck. The bottom of the twill tape was too low for a back (and really for a front too), so I stitched it up the now center back to a better height.

I cut a couple of 3″ strips to make into turned tubes for the X back. Because the corners of the twill tape were a little floppy on the back, I attached one end of each of the X strips to the corners. The other ends I attached under the new neckline after it was bound. I pinned each of the other ends under the neckline after it was bound to the point where the X and the corners of the v-neck sat taut across the back.

The front is a simple neckline somewhere between a scoop and a crew, and I gave this one cap sleeves which have been perfect for summer.

Peach in a blender

My inspiration for this tee came from this Anthropologie tee I pinned on my t-shirt hacking board.

I didn’t really like the gathered portion of the back, and the ties seemed overly fussy. Instead, I opted for a plain yoke with the peekaboo center back beneath it. My kids really got a kick out of the peekaboo when I was in the process of making it.

Doing my best @sewuthinkucan impression with the stripes on this #refashion plus making the kids laugh with the peekaboo back. . . . #isew #sewcialists #diyfashion #patternhack #upcycledclothing #creativesewing #elizabethmadethis
A post shared by Elizabeth Made This (@elizabethmadethis) on Aug 9, 2017 at 5:57am PDT

Stripe play

I was really lucky that I had not only a lot of extra width to deal with in this tee but a lot of extra length too. I was able to cut the lower back with offset stripes. They match the front on one side and are offset on the other side seam.

The upper back I cut from one of the sleeves, though I had to cut in in 2 pieces which I overlapped and stitched down with my coverstitch. From the rest of that sleeve, I cut a bias tiny pocket for the front.

Can you believe that I could cut both of the cap sleeves from the other sleeve? It’s not too often that I can do exactly what I have in my head in a refashion, but this was one of those times.

Cutout tank (Not all your ideas are golden, Ponyboy.)

So for the green tee, I wanted to do a cutout on the shoulder a bit like this Express tee.

I knew that I wanted to make a bit of lattice work under the cutout, and that’s where things went south. This green knit could not handle the extra manipulation. It did not have the extra recovery it needed to stretch across the gap and hold well without overstretching. You can see that the back neck is bagging out too. This fabric had humble aspirations of being a plain basic tee and that’s it.

At first, my lattice ended up all stretched out and horrible.

@laststitch had a great post in which one of her hopes was that people could feel more comfortable posting about things not going 100% great, so here goes: this cutout shoulder on this #refashion tee is time no. 573 when I wish I had a #dressform. The cross pieces are too floppy at the moment to hold the design and the fabric stretched more than I wanted. It’s fixable, but a pile of blargh and definitely taking more time than I hoped. What’s your latest blarghy project? . . #isew #sewcialists #diyfashion #patternhack #upcycledclothing #creativesewing #elizabethmadethis #memadeeveryday
A post shared by Elizabeth Made This (@elizabethmadethis) on Aug 10, 2017 at 9:11am PDT

I was able to unpick it and redo the intersections so that everything sat flat. If only I had made the left front with the cutout from the beginning too instead of binding the armhole THEN cutting it out. I think that would have been a cleaner look. Still, given the recovery issues with the knit, I’m not sure I would have gotten a better result.

Ultimately, the tee is wearable, but it’s just not my best work. I’d really like to try this idea out again this time from yardage in a more appropriate knit.

What the worst knit that you’ve ever sewn? Could you salvage your project? What did you learn in the process?

[smbtoolbar]

[email-subscribers namefield=”YES” desc=”” group=”Public”]

Pattern hacking July 3, 2017

Colors of Flags Challenge: One shoulder ruffle neck dress

Colors of Flags Challenge

When Renata announced the Colors of Flags Challenge, I knew I wanted to participate. Not only do I really admire Renata and want to support her, the 4th of July is probably my favorite non-religious holiday. How can you not love a holiday that combines fireworks with BBQs and drippy ice cream sandwiches? Plus Rachel’s ‘Murica dress died recently…one of my favorites of hers. It was time to step up to the plate and be unashamedly, semi-obnoxiously American.

First draft

My first idea was to do a red, white, and blue version of YSL’s iconic Mondrian dress.

Image result for ysl mondrian dress

The problem with this idea is that I’d have made it in ponte knit. Ponte in December is a brilliant idea. July, on the other hand is not the month you trot out your ponte knit fabric. Red is not a color I wear on a regular basis, so I didn’t want to put a lot of money into something I wouldn’t wear a lot. Kismet found me at the thrift store and I walked away with a red and ivory Gap t-shirt, and some Dana Buchman navy stretch woven capris with white anchors. Immediately, I knew what had to happen.

I’m scrapping my original idea for @runningnstyle #4thofjulyprouddressproject #colorsofflagchallenge. It would’ve been cool, but a ponte dress in July is no bueno. Thanks thrift store for helping me come up with a better plan today! #isew #sewcialists #upcycle #refashion #upcycledclothing #creativesewing #elizabethmadethis #sewingisfun #handmadewardrobe #sewingmama #sewingblogger
A post shared by Elizabeth Made This (@elizabethmadethis) on Jun 10, 2017 at 11:56am PDT

One Shoulder Frankenpattern:

Colors of Flags Challenge

Burdastyle 2-2013-109 + Burdastyle 5-2010-130 + some freestyling

I’ve been wanting to try a one-shoulder style since Maria’s one-shoulder dresses she made for the Day and Night Dress Challenge. For mine, I wanted to have a knit bodice and a woven skirt. When I went looking for inspiration (specifically searching “knit top woven skirt dress”) for just that, I kid you not the first image (now the second image) that popped up was this Lilly Pulitzer Dionne Dress:

Image result for lilly pulitzer dionne dress

So that’s pretty much exactly what I wanted to make.

For my version, I started with Burdastyle 2-2013-109 (asymmetric top) which I decided to pair with Burdastyle 5-2010-130 (pencil skirt). I tried on the top and tucked it into the skirt, marking the junction with pins. On the top pattern, I added 1″ below that line for seam allowance and any oops allowance I might need. It turns out I needed the oops allowance because that 1″ with 3/8″ taken out for the seam allowance was just where I wanted the waist to be.

Colors of Flags Challenge

The hack

The asymmetric top has one shoulder that’s a regular sleeveless armhole. The other side has a piece of fabric that wraps around from the back to the front to create a sleeve that attaches to the front neckline. To get the one shoulder look, I copied the front neckline to the back. I copied the armscye of my favorite t-shirt pattern to finish the sleeveless armhole side.

Ruffles!!

Colors of Flags Challenge

To add the ruffle, I measured the circumference of the front and the back neckline and multiplied x 2. I gathered and basted the ruffle to the top of the front and back after I sewed the side seams. In my practice dress, I bound the edge with foldover elastic. On my Colors of Flags dress, I opted for clear elastic inside a casing. I prefer the feel of the foldover elastic, but the casing is ultimately less bulky at the neck edge. The FOE is really struggling in places to cover all of the gathering of the ruffle.

I should note too that the practice dress is made from scraps leftover from my Donna Karan top. The scraps made it necessary to add the random waist seam. Sometimes you just make it work…The skirt is home dec fabric from two really nice pillow shams. The fabric has a little bit of the hand of a vintage bark cloth. I originally intended the pillows for some home dec project for my sewing room, but I gave it up because I already have a dominant floral print in there. Also, home dec sewing is not the most interesting…

Strap

After constructing the bodice, I knew I wanted to add a strap. The elastic in the casing makes it nearly impossible for the dress to fall down, but it’s always my preference to wear regular bras with summer styles. On the practice version, I cut it a little longer so that it scrunches over the elastic that I put inside the strap. On the patriotic version, I cut the elastic and the strap the same length for a clean look.

Skirt

The skirt is made as is with no alterations to the pattern other than eliminating the front fly. The knit bodice is sandwiched in between the front and inside waistbands for a clean finish inside.

dutch label shop

Side zipper

The Lilly Pulitzer dress apparently does not have a zipper as , so I went forward with the practice dress without putting in a zipper in the blue/floral version. This was a mistake. The skirt fabric has no give and it’s already a pretty fitted style. Do you have those dresses you have to do weird yoga to get into? This is one of them. The patriotic dress sports a side invisible zipper which is such a better idea.

Plaid shirts for the guys

Colors of Flags Challenge

Other than that, I used that pretty combed cotton plaid in the IG picture above for button downs for my guys. All the patterns are the same Ottobre patterns I used here.

If you haven’t already, go check out more about the Colors of Flags Challenge on Instagram #flagsoftheworlddressproject#colorsofflagchallenge #4thofjulyprouddressproject. There’s still time to share your outfit through your blog, IG, or YouTube(until July 7th) for a chance to win some great prizes available from Sewing and Design School, LA Finch Fabrics, and Dressy Talk Patterns.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July!

Refashion it May 29, 2017

Double collar rain jacket from a caftan

I’ve been waiting for Patternreview’s Upcycle Contest. It’s no secret that I love to work with upcycled materials, so I jumped on the idea of this challenge post haste. My original idea was a bomber jacket with hood for my oldest son, but it seems like a better project for fall. I went to the thrift store with the plan to go ahead with that jacket unless something cool caught my eye. What presented itself for my consideration? This shell print caftan which I turned into a double collar rain jacket. Here’s the before:

Double Collar Rain Jacket

Burda World of Fashion 02-2008-120

BWOF 2-2008 is the first Burda issue I ever bought, and it’s easily my favorite. The details in this issue are superb, and it’s been my personal goal to sew every one of the jackets in this issue. To that end, #120 is my 5th jacket I believe. Before this, there’s the smocked trench, striped seersucker jacket, and two versions of a classic trench: first as this refashioned pastel denim jacket, and also as a floral applique linen jacket.

Feature-wise, #120 is a parka with a zip front, large patch pockets, and a very unique double collar. Someday, I’d love to sew it in the organza used in the magazine. Although, as airy as it is, where does one wear an organza parka? Anorak snaps finish off the sleeve bands and the corners of the front patch pockets.

Caftans have a LOT of fabric

I had decided that whatever project I was making for this contest, I was GOING to make a jacket. The caftan was a perfect choice for this use. Jackets take up a lot of yardage and boy howdy did I use all of it. After making the hat and the jacket, this was all I was left with.

After cutting 2 pieces, this is pretty close to #nowaste sewing. #sewcialists #patternreview #refashion #sewingcontest
A post shared by Elizabeth Made This (@elizabethmadethis) on May 17, 2017 at 11:58am PDT

Although I needed just about every square inch of the caftan, I was able to cut every piece without piecing. That is except for the bottom collar and the waist casing. The bottom collar (labeled “undercollar” on the pattern which it isn’t) is super wide with quite the arc, so I had to piece it. It didn’t feel like much of a concession since the top collar covers up the piecing completely. The waist casing is also not obviously pieced due to the gathering with the waistband and the business of the print.

The sleeves had to be cut on the cross grain, but even then I was surprised that I could even get sleeves out of my yardage, especially with the center front slit taking up so much useable space on the original garment.

I was also glad I could cut the fronts so as to avoid shell boobs. I am no mermaid!

Pockets and snaps and bias tape oh my

Zippered welts are my favorite pockets, and these ones went it without a hitch. I really could not be more pleased with them.

The snaps on the sleeve bands and front pockets are spring snaps from Gold Star Tool. I saw that Heather from Closet Case Files recommended them, so I gave them a try. They’re nice snaps and their setter works well, plus they have 99 cent shipping. Needless to say, I will not hesitate to order from them again.

All of the seams plus the jacket hem are finished with a Hong Kong finish with some bias made from white/yellow striped shirting that I used for one of my sons’ shirts.

Napkins for contrast

I do have a lot of napkins. We have people over frequently, and I really like using proper cloth napkins, so when I see nice ones, I buy them. I had a couple sage green linen look napkins that I used for the undercollar of both the top collar and bottom collar as well as the drawstring.

I used 2 aqua abstract dot linen napkins as the lining for the hat. Speaking of which:

Bucket hat

It was my hope that I could’ve added a hood to my jacket, but it just wasn’t possible with the available yardage. I settled for adding a bucket hat as an accessory. The hat pattern is the Raindrop Hat from SEWN Hats by Carla Crim. It’s a good basic bucket hat. I sewed a medium which is a pretty good fit for me. There’s topstitching along all the seams and the brim (though I added 8 more rows of topstitching than the pattern called for as I am wont to do).

Shells in the rain

It might seem strange that a very beachy shell printed poly/cotton caftan would inspire a waterproof rain jacket, but that’s where my mind immediately went. The surface of the fabric has a little bit of texture that immediately reminded me of batik. I had the idea to make up the jacket and hat and then try my hand at some DIY waterproofing. I wrote a little tutorial below that I’ll put in a separate post someday when I get pictures, but for now, it’s here! All I can say is it worked like a charm. The day I took the pictures, we had heavy rain on and off and I stayed totally dry.

I can’t say that the jacket is waterproof. I didn’t use any waterproof sealants or seam tapes, but I will confidently say that it’s water resistant. Here’s a video of me dumping water on my hat. The water beads up on the hat well:

I will safely call this water resistant after the wax treatment. #success #diy #imakemyownclothes #upcycledclothing
A post shared by Elizabeth Made This (@elizabethmadethis) on May 27, 2017 at 2:07pm PDT

Not only did the wax make the jacket water resistant, but it added an incredible amount of structure to the collar and body to the jacket. It makes the fabric crinkly and soft and a little warmer. I love how the collar stands up on its own accord when the jacket is inside out!

Overall, this is one of my favorite refashions to date. I hope you’ll consider this jacket in your voting for the upcycle contest! Thanks for reading and have a great Memorial Day!

DIY Water resistant treatment tutorial

Once upon a time I did a lot of batik. I made some pretty elaborate wall hangings from junior high through college. I’d love to explore it again when I don’t have to worry about my kids getting into my dyes. At any rate, I have lots of wax on hand. The wax I like is a 50/50 mix of parrafin and beeswax.

For batik, parrafin is a great wax. It’s pure white, so it won’t leave any colored tinge to your fabric, and it cracks when it’s dry, giving batik its characteristic crackle effect to the dye. Beeswax is quite yellow, so it could theoretically give a candlelight glow to pure white fabric, but it is incredibly flexible. The flexibility of the beeswax gives the resulting fabric a really nice hand. Both of these waxes together also do a great job of making a water resistant treatment for your fabric. So here’s how you get the wax into the fabric:

Supplies:

Electric griddle with a heating element
Wax: paraffin or beeswax or a combination are good choices
Garment to waterproof
Old iron that you use for nefarious crafting purposes (i.e. not the one you use for sewing)
Paper towels
brown craft paper and/or paper grocery bags
Freezer paper
masking tape

Method:

Melt your wax in the electric griddle. Ideally, the wax should be about 200 degrees. A crock pot, rice cooker, or candle warmer will do the trick. You won’t want to use this for food afterwards, so an old device is ideal.
Cover a workspace with freezer paper, shiny side. Tape it down with masking tape. Lay your garment on top of it. Stuff areas of your garment where multiple layers sit on top of each other with craft paper or pieces of paper grocery bags (like pockets and sleeves).
Using a foam brush, brush a thin layer of the hot wax over the entire surface of the outside of your garment.
Don’t freak out. It’s going to look like you wrecked it. Your garment will stand up entirely on its own and will be as stiff as a board. You will fix this in the next step. Take out the paper stuffing from the sleeves and pockets and replace it with a thick layer of paper towels.
Cover your ironing board with 2 layers of brown craft paper. You’re going to iron out most of the wax and you do not want wax on your ironing board!
Put a thick pad of paper towels on top of the craft paper. Place the waxed garment on top of the paper towels. Cover an area of your garment with one paper towel. Using the iron on its hottest setting, iron over the paper towel, moving the iron continuously.
When the paper towel is transparent, it has been saturated completely with wax. Get another paper towel* and continue the process of ironing over different areas of the garment. You’ll probably need to make 2 full passes over the garment with the towels. The fabric should not have wax that you can see on the surface, but you don’t want to iron out all of the wax either. When the hand of the fabric becomes more flexible and is no longer stiff with wax, you’re good to go.
Go find some big puddles and enjoy your newly waterproofed project!

*You’ll be amazed at how many paper towels you’ll need for this. It’ll seem wasteful to keep using a fresh paper towel when the wax has totally saturated the paper, but you really need to do so. If you keep using the same old waxy towel three things will happen: 1)the paper will stop absorbing wax, 2)the wax will start smoking which can be rather noxious, and 3)the wax can scorch leaving permanent scorch marks on your project. Save yourself the pain and get a new paper towel. Ask me how I know. 🙂

Refashion it

Pompom no-sew ugly Christmas sweater

Find a sweater as your base

Make a crazy number of pompoms. And then make more. And probably more still.

Get the pompoms ready

Now we tie!

Tips for pompom tying

Make it your own

Styling tips for your pompom ugly Christmas sweater

Go big or go home

Distressed Sweatshirt Refashion

My questionable morning style sense

Oatmeal and salmon

Distressing

Crazy piecing

Colorblocking

Underlining and slashing

Construction

Welcome Colorado Spring!

Taking risks in sewing

What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken in your sewing?

Toaster Sweater Hack: lace + zippers =fun

Fabric

Toaster + length -hem band

Zipper back

Lace underlayer

Front piece

Finishing touches

Fussy cuffs

Last applique

Sporty girly

How do you reinterpret fashion looks to fit your lifestyle?

SEWN Denver Fall 2017 Collection

Tie neck dresses

Embroidered circles

Overdyeing the lining

Handkerchief hem dress

Caftan-ish dresses

Eyelet dress

Fall wax print “caftan”

Pinstripe wax print dress

Before

Blue print before

Peach stripe before

J Crew green tee of doom before

Chop, chop, chippity chop

Inspiration at the baseball game

Peach in a blender

Stripe play

Cutout tank (*Not all your ideas are golden, Ponyboy.*)

What the worst knit that you’ve ever sewn? Could you salvage your project? What did you learn in the process?

First draft

One Shoulder Frankenpattern:

Burdastyle 2-2013-109 + Burdastyle 5-2010-130 + some freestyling

The hack

Ruffles!!

Strap

Skirt

Side zipper

Plaid shirts for the guys

Double Collar Rain Jacket

Burda World of Fashion 02-2008-120

Caftans have a LOT of fabric

Pockets and snaps and bias tape oh my

Napkins for contrast

Bucket hat

Shells in the rain

DIY Water resistant treatment tutorial

Supplies:

Method:

Cutout tank (Not all your ideas are golden, Ponyboy.)