5th and 6th March, and Pocket Love

T designed his own Thank You cards post birthday on paintshop.

6th March - possibly the most comfortable outfit so far this month. Me made t shirt (Built by Wendy Sew U Home Stretch book), Me Made Trousers (Sew U book) charity shop cardigan with altered buttons.

Saturdays are not my best day of the week and I didn't get to take any photos. I wore a Me made top blogged here. The day was filled with buying trainers for T, taking T to his swimming lesson, going to a talk about new national swimming lesson structure, washing and ironing school clothes, blah, blah. Good news of the day was that after almost a year on the waiting list Little I finally has a place at local authority swimming lessons. She has already laid out her costume in anticipation. (only 2 weeks in advance) Yesterday I made a rapid dash into the charity shop opposite the shoe shop and scored this size 10 lambswool M& S cardigan (with pockets, yippee) and two tennis balls. I have been cold a lot in March so far and this is warm and toasty. I will blog soon about the button alteration. I don't think button altering counts as refashioning, does it?

I also have to blog about the trainers, we let T choose from a selection of four pairs, he finds decision making hard. But he managed, and he chose some with flashing traffic lights on. They are growing on me. Mr Minnado and I both liked the tasteful brown trainers but then we are not eight years old, so obviously what would we know?

Frequent pocket occupiers, those essentials are car keys, lego man and lip/skin balm.

Hurray, hurray I made pockets for the sack dress. I used this fabric scrap to make two pocket bags, unpicked the side seams for the pocket length and sewed them in. I love this fabric, it came out of haul I bought back from Devon. Sadly there was only a small scrap. A larger piece would make a fabulous dress.

Finished pocket on Sack Dress

4th March

4th March - I refashioned this shirt from the XL polo shirt pictured above. I found the shirt on tuesday when I took a bagful of donations to the charity shop. I liked the colour of the shirt, it's a deep red.

I cut the shirt using the Sew U Home Stretch T shirt front and back pattern pieces as a size guide. I cut out the sleeves and ran a gathering stitch along the top before putting them back in as slightly puffed sleeves.

I added lace, changed the buttons and sewed the front neck piece back in as a yoke. It still needs a bit of tweaking as the front neck comes a bit too high for my liking.

The skirt is one I made in December, using the Sew U skirt pattern, I sewed the facing onto the outside and added bias binding and two tabs with buttons. I had originally hemmed it very badly and lumpily so last weekend I re-hemmed it using some grosgrain ribbon, with a much smoother result.

At the time of making, I didn't put in any pockets as I thought it would spoil the line of the skirt. I wish now I had and am considering unpicking the side seam o fthis skirt and the sack dress to put in pockets. I love pockets!

3rd March

Me-made top from Simplicity 3835, originally blogged here.

A strange top in a way as it has such strong horizontal lines in the pattern and these can make me look quite wide.

I struggled to get dressed today and the first me-made shirt I put on had a huge grease stain right in the centre front.

I had a fringe cut before Christmas and think I need to go and get it re cut with more fringe. The hairdresser made it a bit too wispy and half hearted and I keep adding to it with nail scissors...probably not a good idea. It is currently kind of half a fringe. I need more fringe to hide the wrinkles.

Me made march day 2 and a birthday

There's lots of chocolate cake left over. Sorry I cannot offer it via Internet.

Jellies...you cannot have a birthday without jellies

The boots - missed out of the main photo. My every day boots, love 'em.

Ahhh, that first cup of coffee....

I am not sure how long I will manage to keep up daily postings - not long I expect. This is my black sack, sorry shift, dress from the Built By Wendy Dresses book. I have come to like this dress as an everyday dress. Today I decided to try it with a belt as it is quite roomy and can give me that "Is she, isn't she?" pregnant look. (No I am not!) I have a few charity shop belts and need a bit of a kick to wear them. Could March also be Accessories month?

The helium balloon in the photos is left over from T's 8th birthday which was on Monday (hence the jellies). I cannot believe he is eight. My Mother in Law loves these balloons and buys several every birthday. I HATE THEM. I fall over them. We already have enough crap to trip over in this house. But the kids like them. I just think they will end up in landfill, choking some small animals. They seem so pointless. Am I a killjoy? BUT surprisingly my M.I.L. has offered to have them back after a suitable time period, she will deflate them and store them as she has...wait for it...a helium cannister to refill them on birthdays. Seriously, this woman has everything.

Any thoughts on helium balloons?

Cardigan refashion and first day of M-M March

Me Made March Day 1 - Anna Tunic from Amy Butler made in grey wool mix suiting and with added patch pockets. Refashioned yellow cardie and unseen but underneath the tunic is my grey Nora t shirt.
Yellow and grey is a new favourite colour combination.

In the cardigan refashion I was inspired by this Michaeline cardigan from Kate Spade I found the UK size 18 wool cardigan in a charity shop in December and finally got around to refashioning it last week. I looked at Sigrid's refashioned t shirt project and cut up the seams. I got a bit carried away and think I cut up too many seams! I used an existing favourite cardigan to give me an idea of size and drew sewing lines with french chalk.
The Michaeline cardigan has a sweet asymmetric bow detail on the neck. I made a bow from the cardigan scraps. As I am an indecisive and changeable person I made the bow into a brooch so I wouldn't have to wear it always.

The first bow (pictured on the wicker background) I made was a bit big and looked like a comedy bow tie once I put it on the cardigan, so I made a smaller one.
The picture below shows the size difference.

I am happy with this cardigan except for the fact that it is quite see through and when I were my stripey t shirt underneath all the stripes show though!

Thrifty fabric

Barkcloth with a nautical pattern - love this.

I am back in the land of the internet-connected...phew...Devon was kind of hard work, with two kids, rain and Little I deciding to behave in that way only a three and half year old can.

Anyway, I have noticed a strange thing recently...since I stopped buying new clothes and cut back on other purchases, I have been given things...quite a lot of things. Is this some kind of karma? Or am I just becoming known as a repository for other peoples' cast-offs and rejects? By the way I am still waiting for someone to give me some new shoes, a an i-pad and a new phone (just joking). Anyway while in Devon I was given a very huge gift....or set of gifts...old fabric! Yay.

Check out these beautiful homemade dresses. The black print has cigarettes on it which shows its era. This lady was very petite and the dresses must be a UK size 6. I am in love with both dresses but don't think I can squeeze into them. Would it be sacriligous to make the dark print into a skirt?? The satin dress has lovely scalloped detailing bewlow the bust.

A quilting friend of my mum's had passed away last year and a while ago her son gave my mum about five bin bags of her fabrics. Last sunday I sorted through them...the lady used to make clothes got into patchwork and quilting so there was a huge assortment from fat quarters of quilting fabrics to tweed, and some of her old home made dresses. I sorted four bags for me to bring home...and then my mum's quilting group took a load for a charity sale.

Super cute bambi cotton flannelette

These photos are just part of what I hauled back. More to follow, there are lots of small pieces of lovely fabrics which I plan to use as pocket linings or facings. Lots of heavier weight fabric for bag making and even some liberty cotton for a dress. It all smells a bit fusty - what a shame you cannot do smellinternet)and is waiting to be washed and aired. Iam going to scrabble thorough to see if I can find any fabric to use as my lining for the U.P. dress project.

Drum roll....Refashion Co-op

A new blog about refashioning has just launched. Refashion Co op is a

co operative based blog for those interested in refashions. It came about from an idea of Eddie Duckling to have a replacement for Wardrobe Refashion.

There are seven editors of the blog which means each one takes a day a week to look after the site, answer comments and emails and do the admin. (Oh, yes, and guess what? I am one of those editors, I am usually there on a monday) This week each editor is introduced with an interview and pictures. There some amazing talented people there (...and no, I don't mean me)

Any one interested in refashions and with some creations to share is welcome to sign up as a contributor. You can check out at the blog, or email via refashion@gmail.com There is also a facebook page and twitter too.

PS: Don't forget my giveaway see the previous post for details.