phase 3 - the skirt

i was intimidated to do the skirt and put it off for weeks. the hood i completed over a month ago and it just sat around.

yesterday, i was determined to start it. not only did i start it, but i completed it! i sewed the pockets on today and now it's ready for embellishing with embroidery and such.

i started by cutting out strips from the sweater bodies that were left over. since the hood and sleeves were mostly made from sweater sleeves, i had a lot of bodies to work with.

after i cut the strips out, i arranged them on the floor around the sweater. i rearranged until i liked the color arrangement then cut scraps to fill in the gaps of the shorter sweater pieces.

i sewed the strips that had 2 pieces together first then sewed sections together: 5 strips on each side and then the center panel. then i sewed the 3 separate panels together.

i then measured the body with the skirt size and realized the waist of the skirt would be too wide so i adjusted by sewing a few of the top panels into triangles by pinching and serging down the center.

i then trimmed off the body of the sweater as it was too long, intentionally cutting it shorter than desired so i could sew a contrasting panel for the waist. once the constrasting panel was serged on, i centered the skirt and started at the center and sewed out to the end and repeated with the other side.

once the skirt was sewn on, i carefully removed the pockets from the part of the sweater body i had cut off so i could reuse them on the coat. then i cut that panel into 3 strips and serged the strips together. i had to serge about 3" inched into the panel so it would fit so i cut the panel in half and serged the 3" piece into the center cuz i'm all about perfection...lol.

then i simply serged the trim panel to the edge of the skirt and serged the edges all the way around the skirt.

the final step was to sew on the pockets and viola! my gypsy boho sweater coat. i LOVE it!!!

you can see phase 1 here and phase 2 here.

gypsy coat phase 2 - the hood

the hood was a bit tricky and the hardest part for me. once i got it connected though, the long part was easy.

i cut out a bunch of strips, using a combination of body part of sweater and dwindling down to various sleeve pieces until i got to the end. the final piece was a leftover strip that naturally curled so i sewed it to the point. i may put a tassle on the point but i'm not sure as i'm afraid it will drag the ground.

for the piece that framed my face, i folded over the strip and sewed it together. i left the ends hanging lose for quite awhile trying to decide how to finish the ends. i eventually cut them off and sewed them to the sweater body.

phase 1 - the sleeves can be found here. 

upcycling sweaters

reusing sweaters is such a fun thing to do! i've yet to finish my coat but when i do, i'll get a tutorial up about making it. in the mean time, here are some more ideas to get you started:

upcycled sweater house slippers:

crocheted edges
boot style
simple sewn
martha stewart style

they're back in style and even though i never wore them the first time round, i'm liking them now for use in ballet...upcycled sweater leg warmers:

button detail

and just not on legs...i love them on my arms because my sleeves always seem to be too short:

nice little fashion update and 'how to'

skirts from sweaters:

kids skirt from adult sweater

and a ton more links

fun sweater crafts

i highly recommend the sweater chop shop as well. it's got a lot of really neat ideas. check out that dress on the cover...the skirt part is made from 3 sweater panels..it looks warm and cozy, would be nice paired with some leggings and coordinating leg warmers!

refashion update

still working on my own gypsy coat and have the hood done. i don't have pictures yet, i'll get some soon and post them. in the meantime, i played with the serger and created this cute little coat for jaden:

this was made out of 2 sweaters...the tan one i showed a fews weeks ago and a stripy one i found last week at a thrift shop (i forgot to photograph the before of it but it was just a simple zip up sweater. the tans in both sweaters matches perfectly and jaden loves red so the red accent was a huge hit with her. i made leg warmers from the excess (you can sort of see them in the pictures...they are a bit big for her so i may sew them down a bit...)

to everything a purpose

i am bummed to hear that wardrobe refashion is shutting down. i had hoped to sign up for it on the next go around. oh well. it's not the end of the world. just cuz i can't join a website doesn't mean i can't refashion. and refashion i have been doing!

all are works in progress but a lot of fun. a friend is lending me her serger so i'll be in sewing heaven this week!

this is a sweater that had a turtle neck that i removed. it is also a medium adult size but must have been shrunk in the wash because it was too small for me. so, it is in process of becoming either a sweater dress with layered sleeves (like my coat) or possibly even a sweater coat. the colorful stripy sweater behind her on the chair is going to become part of the sleeves and maybe a ruffle around the bottom or a hood.

greg has liners for his boots but he is missing one and the remaining one has a hole in the foot so i chopped it apart at the seams and used it for a template to make a new pair out of old wool socks that have holes in them.

i have part of the hood pieced together but am waiting on the serger before i sew it so i won't have to sew it twice.

of course, i'm still not thinking about solstice which is only 3 weeks away....sigh. denial is a sad, sad thing.

phase 1 complete

 i've been working on my boho gypsy upcycled sweater coat after drooling over the amazing coats some women sell on etsy that are way over my price range (totally worth the price but still unaffordable). 3 trips to the thrift shop scored me enough sweaters to make at least 1 coat and probably enough leftover for a 2nd coat for sage. jaden and adelena's coats will be different colors of their choosing, most likely red for jaden and purple for adelena...perhaps i should have started with their coats to get the hang of it and then move on to mine but so far, so good. of course, i've only done the easy part...the sleeves!

so phase 1 is complete and now i will start on phase 2, the hood. i plan to work in phases so it is completely wearable between phases, a work in progress. once it's completed, i intend to make a liner out of something warm and soft, flannel perhaps. it most likely will be patchwork as well. i want the liner removable so i can wear the coat fall - spring, a 3 season coat of sorts.

i love that this sweater has pockets so i'll be removing them carefully and reattaching them to the coat once it is finished. i also plan to sew pockets on the inside too.

fun with bleach dying

 now, normally i don't use a lot of bleach in my house but my sink needed a bit of cleaning and i had just purchased 2 pieces of clothing from the thrift shop that were stark black. i wore black for years and now have an aversion to it and tend to shy away from it but i found a short sleeved top and a leotard for really cheap that i liked and thought to myself 'why not bleach them?!' the intent was to bleach them out and then tea dye them but i found the bleach turned them a lovely shade of brown in the leotard's case and a multi colored patchwork of browns and tans for the shirt.

the sleeves, upper back panel and tie all bleached out to a tan as did the eyelet lace. the rest of the fabric turned a dark brown. why the actual fabric dyed differently, i have no idea. i found it interesting and like the patchwork effect.

here is a close up of the different lace colors. i love the reddish brown hues they changed to!:

i'm thinking of immersing it into a tea bath to darken up the greyish-tan portions a bit but other than that, i love it!

and then...

sage is becoming a person now which is helpful with his, ummm, crazy? personality. he loves to help greg split wood (thus the safety gear). he still is quite a volatile ball of craziness but with moments of self learning. he has recently taken up cutting paper with scissors and yesterday was cutting out 'bones' to make his skeleton costume for next halloween which he is convinced will be today, everyday. he's ready to go trick or treating and score all that wonderful candy so he can eat it up in about 4 hours again. thank goodness that only happens once a year! he also built himself a shotgun out of a stick, paper and tape. it even has the part on it that you move on the gun to load the shot, greg would laugh his butt off at that description but i cannot remember the proper name for it. the funny thing is, he wrapped the paper around the stick and it actually sounds like a real gun would sound.

i have a head cold that jaden caught from a friend's house last week. the worst part is i can't even sleep it off because the sinus congestion is keeping me up...having to blow my nose every 30 seconds makes it impossible. ugh.

this too shall pass.

i've been altering skirts i've purchased at the thrift store recently to fit me. a lot of them are too big in the waist, story of my life. i tend to pick skirts based on materials (cotton, silk, wool, linen) and colors (browns, olive greens, rust oranges, mustard yellows) so usually they are too big for me. i'm getting quite good at shortening elastic waist bands or adding elastic to the waist to decrease the size.

i've also got a good pile of wool sweaters to start on my gypsy coat. now to lay them all out and decide which to make as the main body and which to start chopping. this part is extremely hard for me to do. i'm so afraid of screwing them up that a lot of times, i don't take chances on chopping up clothes to make something more spectacular. i'm using etsy sellers' creations for inspiration.

i'm also in search of kids' fiction that talks about using herbs medicinally. have you run across any? it can be as obvious as the legend of the lady slipper or more subtle like the witch's brat. i want stories that use herbs accurately.

field trips and sewing projects

egads! already almost forgot i'm supposed to do a daily post...it's going to be a long month!

today we are headed to the bird sanctuary to see the white pelicans and the trumpeter swans (the latter and just now starting to arrive). it should be a fun afternoon! we will be reviewing a bit about pelicans today and tomorrow we'll talk about the swans. i wasn't expecting them to be there so soon so i didn't prepare anything about them.

i found a sweater jacket that i fell in love with. problem is, 1. it's too big for me and 2. it's $225! ouch! so, i'm going to start collecting sweaters from the thrift shop and make my own. here is a link on etsy to it:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/59754225/autumn-retro-gypsy-elf-travellers-coat

this one is amazing too:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/56413964/reserved-for-chellemybelle-through-the

i also like the ones in this seller's shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/katwise

and the upcycled sleeves in this shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/NomadicRoots

i have been wanting some of these for awhile and even made my own out of old socks but didn't like how the ends frayed....i can use some sweater cuffs to embellish them and make them nicer! i should join the wardrobe re-fashion, lol since i have all these ambitions projects in mind. now we'll see if i can actually follow through with them!

does anyone know where i could find a pattern for these sweater coats? i have seen several sellers on etsy selling them and they all look the same...there must be a pattern out there somewhere or are they just really smart and can recreate the same thing?