The Running Thimble: The Re-Fashion (Upcycle) Edition

My First Re-Fashion

Edited: this is more of an Upcycle than a re-fashion... But i am counting this as a refashion.

A couple months ago while getting sidetracked in blogland, I stumbled upon a fabulous blog called Refashionista. Refashion? Take unwanted, unloved items (sometimes hideous), and turn them into something you actually want to wear? I had no idea it was a thing... And then I discovered there is actually a whole refashion blogging community... (why did that strike me as a surprise? Of course there is!).

Making garments from scratch is time consuming, so I don't have much interest for it right now. But refashion? Half the work is already done, and it is really inexpensive (if you mess up, it is a learning experience). Gillian, the Refashionista blogger makes it look so easy... Ah, the possibilities! I have visions in my head of walking out of my local goodwill store with seriously unloved clothes and turning them into beauties to wear the next day.

But I am getting ahead of myself.... Right now, these are only ideas in my head. My time is limited and, well, I kinda want to keep quilting too! For my first re-fashion project, I started small: My daughter needed an art smock for school and it wanted to make her one. I headed to the Salvation Army and came home with this colourful number:

Not bad for $2

I started by chopping off the collar and the sleeves:

The first cut is the ~~deepest~~ scariest

I measured against an old store-bought art smock and chopped the bottom too.

It helps to have a model

I used a piece of pink stretchy jersey from my non-quilting bin for the collar and cuffs:

Not perfect but close enough

Before finishing off the cuffs, I needed to take in the sides and the sleeves.

This is way too big for her right now...

...but that is an easy fix!

I sewed on the cuffs and hemmed the bottom, then proudly showed my creation to my husband and presented him the following dilemma: how to machine embroider my daughter's initials on the front pocket without rendering the pocket unusable?

You can't see it, but there is a pocket

In his wisdom, he said: Do the initials have to be on the front pocket? Why don't you just embroider her name somewhere else? Duh! Of course! The idea with refashion is not to have a set idea of how you are going to do things, but to work with what you have. I embroidered her name on the back using free motion quilting (no picture). I first stabilized my fabric with freezer paper in the back, which I just tore it afterwards, like you would do for paper pieced block.

My daughter tried it, and it was still too big. So I took it in a bit more, and then, just for fun, I added a bright orange pocket in front.

So I present to you my first official refashion: