Friday 9 August 2013

My first proper go at recyled refashioning!

Sorry, I seem to have forgotten about blogging recently - it's been nearly three weeks since my last post!! Where has all that time gone?! I'm not sure what I've been doing, other than eating, working a a little bit of knitting (a post to follow...). Here's one of my backlogs in the meantime.


You may remember this post from last year when I tarted up my so-called sewing area (aka the window seat in the lounge). I chopped up the floor length curtains and used the offcuts to make littler curtains to hang under the window seat, mainly to hide all our junk, although my sewing machine also resides there. I have to be oh so careful not to whack it around too much for fear of damaging it - so far I've been a very good girl!

Anyway, I had about a metre/metre and a half left over which has sat in my stash for a good six months or more so I thought I'd make a skirt out of it. I've been after a brown skirt for a while. Btw, have you noticed a brown theme to pretty much everything I make? If it's not brown itself, then it will go with something that is!

Initially I thought about making another Cambie skirt, but actually, I've been hankering after a proper pencil skirt after seeing some crackers on t'web plus Helen's amazing green one IRL. Guess which pattern I used? Gertie's? The Burda Jenny used in Sunni's sewalong?

Nope, I went back to my TNT NL6483 and just modified it a bit! (Boring, some might say...)

The length of the curtain piece was about right for what I had in mind - a longer, midi finish instead of knee length and the best part was that it was already hemmed!!


I added pockets as per all my NL6843s (using instructions from Megan Nielsen's Kelly skirt) and made the skirt a little more tapered than the pattern suggested. Unfortunately I think I must have overdone it a bit as I couldn't actually walk to start off with...! So I went back and put a slit in the back using the very traditional method(!) of opening up the centre back seam and just folding it back a touch before stitching it down. It works, so don't judge me!


My only tiny little regret is that I probably should have made it half an inch bigger round the waist. And this is after letting out the two extra little darts I've been putting into every skirt I've made from this pattern! Don't get me wrong, I haven't put on weight to thicken my waist and the fit is actually perfect but it feels a little snug, even though it isn't. Does that even make sense? Maybe it's all in my head?

Well anyway, here's to another work appropriate skirt.
'Scuse the wrinkles!!

16 comments:

  1. Ooh it looks a bit velvety. What kind of fabric is it? It looks very nice and not at all too snug. Well done on the vent action you've got going on!

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  2. Hey, you totally pulled a Maria from The Sound of Music :P
    The skirt looks lovely though, and you'd never be able to tell you'd used curtains!

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  3. It doesn't look too tight on you, but I know what you mean about how half an inch extra can make you feel just that bit more comfortable. I love how the hot pink on the zipper pull stands out, it's a nice little flash of colour!

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  4. I can't believe your lovely skirt used to be curtains! I need to give this refashioning thing a try. I've used bed linen before,mostly just for muslins but not curtains. You are a proper Scarlet O'Hara.

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  5. Yay for refashioning! And great improvised kick pleat! I do want to sing Sound of Music songs to you though ;)

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  6. English Girl at Home10 August 2013 at 20:29

    Those curtains got put to good use:) Love the skirt.

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  7. Hello! I hope you don't mind, but I've nominated you for the Super Sweet Blogging Award - all the details can be found in this post: http://astudyinstitching.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/super-sweet-blogging-award.html

    :)

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  8. Um, curtain fabric...? I have no idea!! It has a bit of a sheen to it and I seem to remember it said cotton so maybe cotton sateen but I'm rubbish at figuring out what fabrics are unless it tells me!

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  9. Oh my god, I so should have used a reference to that in my post, I completely didn't think of it!

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  10. (It's mainly because I didn't get my invisible zip invisible enough but shhh, don't say anything, I'm pretending it was on purpose as a design feature...)

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  11. I'm normally rubbish at seeing the potential in stuff but I'm really glad I gave it a go - you should try it too!

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  12. Doe a deer, a female deer, ray a drop of golden sun...

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  13. Thanks, I'm glad I saved/hoarded them!

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  14. Thanks Rachel, that's really lovely of you! I've just had a look at your post and will do the necessary soon(ish)...

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  15. I would never have believed this so smart skirt used to be curtains. It looks like a perfect fit to me.

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  16. Thank Zora. It does fit ok, just not perfect...but I suppose not everything can be perfect eh?!

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