Monthly Archives: January 2010

From my wardrobe into Arianna’s

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I recently had this thing to upcycle what I already have since as much as I would like to buy more fabric, space is an issue and well, so is my wallet. Hence, I raided my wardrobe and got out a couple of tshirts and blouses which I knew I wouldn’t be wearing anytime soon or worst still, ever!

Upcycle - A line dress
Upcycled from my tshirt – I turned it into an A-line dress.

Upcycled A-line dress
Loosely based on this tute, I just winged this dress. I also used the bodice pattern of Otto’s China Grass Dress to get the shape since I didn’t have any other pattern to base it on.

I made the most of the shirt hence it is a little big but although for now it is a dress, in due time it will make a nice tshirt. So she will definitely get a lot of wear out of it.

Upcycled bareback dress
Made out of one of my clubbing spaghetti straps, this item will always bring back memories for me of my long gone clubbing days! *lol* Although this is the simplest upcycle I’ve done, to reach the end result too a LONG time and loads of thinking and unpicking!

Because I wanted minimal modifications and what I really had in mind for the end result was merely a gathered/shirred back, it wasn’t as simple as I thought! I started off by just doing 3 rows of shirring in the middle to gather it, but it was too loose at the back so I unpicked and made the shirring longer and that too didn’t work. So I decided to do shirring for the whole width of the back and it worked. :)

Then I had issues with the front! It too was loose so I added 2 rows of shirring instead of 3. I’m glad it turned out ok too! :D

Upcycle - back view
As with the tshirt, this will get even more wear out of it being stretchable and versatile as well. It can be worn, in my opinion, as a dress as well as a tunic with a 3/4 pants. I tried that yesterday and I like it!! :) Super summery outfit. Heh.

TFL…..

And then it was resurrected!

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Phew! It’s been awhile since I last upgraded my blogs so today, since I wasn’t in the mood for sewing, I might as well upgrade all my blogs which are WAY overdue for an upgrade anyway. Actually, I’ve got the upcycle bug but since I haven’t got anything from the op shop, will have to raid my own wardrobe soon. No wonder Ted thinks I’m obsessive!! *LOL* Though he can’t really complain about this since I didn’t really have to buy any fabric, just using what is lying around. A good reason to sew eh? :P

Anyway, plagued by arse luck, the auto-upgrade didn’t quite work so I had to do it manual in my Cpanel. And somehow, I frigged around too much with it and I broke it. Yes, I had actually deleted this blog’s SQL database!!! I nearly died when my host told me that but praise the Lord for I have a superb webhost who recovered the backup and fixed my boo-boo up. :)

As a fresh start and new ‘life’ and to usher in the new year, a new theme was required, hence my new ‘face’. What do you think? I think it still needs a little tinkering, so if you find anything wrong with it, pls do not hesitate to let me know : mistyzblogatgmaildotcom. Or just use my contact form.

Thanks!

Knickers all around!

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Since I’ve been sewing a number of dresses for Arianna as well as skirts, I don’t have enough knickers to match coz during winter, she was mostly in pants coz I really couldn’t be bothered with leggings and the lot. So now that its summer, it’s dresses most of the time.

Anyway, I decided to sew up a bunch of knickers from scraps of knit I had lying around. This is a good reason to clear room for MORE fabric. LOL

Knickers #34, 04-04
Knickers #34, 04-04

I was thinking of making some for me too since I have the pattern here. I don’t think DH would mind me in ducks and cherries! :P

TFL…..

Upcycling again :)

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It’s summer now and believe or not, I can’t find my short jeans!!!! So I’ve been suffering in silence and wearing my long jeans everywhere we go. So much so that DH asked me to get a pair of short jeans coz he thought I was silly to suffer in silence like that. But I had other plans. :)

Well, actually, I did go and check out the sales at Kmart and Target but even with the sales, I still thought it was not worth it. So on to Plan B – upcycle DH’s old jeans!! :D Nothing beats an already seasoned pair of jeans coz it’s oh-so-soft and comfy to wear. I used the upper part to make my jeans by just chopping off the leg to the length that I wanted and hemmed it up. Since all that was left was the chopped off bit of the legs, I decided to whip a pair up for Arianna. :D

Upcycled jeans
Very simple coz I didn’t bother with zippers and such. Just used elastic in place of the very complicated jeans zipper. In fact, this is a leggings pattern from Otto…I think it’s #16, 04/04 from memory. And I merely used up the 2 bits of legs to the maximum to reach that length. Also added a bit of trimmings to make a little more fancy. Heh.

I like it. :D TFL….

My first Mei Tai

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I have always been a fan of babywearing. Actually, my first ever babycarrier was a Baby Bjorn which we didn’t use for too long since Arianna grew out of it really fast plus we started wearing her late. She was a long baby and so is KR. So I told myself that with KR, I would start earlier. But it didnt quite happen like that. >_< But comparatively, I definitely started wearing KR earlier.

Since I had totally missed the sling wrap period which is normally from birth to about 6 mths, I decided that I'd jump straight into making myself a Mei Tai which also happens to be a free pattern! I actually had this to make for a LONG time but it’s the case of the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. lol But FINALLY I got off my bum to make it. I guess the other reason why I had been putting this off was coz it requires a fair bit of fabric and way much more than I normally purchase. I usually get just 1m or at the most 2m of fabric at any one time but this requires about 2.5m at the least.

This mei tai that I’ve made is from just normal cotton and not cotton canvas or cotton drill [bottom weight cotton to be exact] as is actually required as I wanted to see if it would suit bub and myself. And guess what? I LOVE IT!! I’m in the midst of sourcing for some nice cotton drills. Mostly I get my stuff from eBay since I find it hard to get to SL as I dont have a driving license just yet. But that is my 2010 one and ONLY resolution though. Get my license so I can go to SL anytime I want!! :D

Testing a mei tai
Keeping in mind that this is cotton so the shoulder straps do not sit nicely and as in the instructions, it does bunch up. I knew that already but still wanted to make it anyway. Plus its cheap fabric, so no worries there. *Please ignore how unimpressed KR is….* :P

And just to prove that I knew for certain that she was totally unimpressed….
Are we done yet, Mum?
“Are we done yet, Mummy?”

****Updated****

Carrying Arianna in the mei tai
This is us this morning. I’m carrying Arianna in the same mei tai but on my back. I found it comfy though I may have to pick another of tying as this twist in the front between the boobs actually hurt! Also, Instead of tying behind her bum, I think tying it behind her waist is also better. Arianna is 2y4m and if you’re wondering if there is an age/weight limit…there is none really. As long as your use the correct fabric and your back can take the weight, you can wear your baby for as long as you like. :D

TFL….