Refashion Sunday - the Double Edition

Ever since I made a skirt out of an old sweater, I have been meaning to make another one.  I was waiting for just the perfect sweater to come my way when my mom showed up with this extra large beauty...

 

Even though I meant to make a skirt, that is not the first thing I thought of when I first saw those beautiful stripes....  but I digress.  Let's make a skirt in a couple easy steps:

  

1 - Cut the sweater just under the arms

2 - Trim a bit off the upper part of the sides, where the sweater starts widening for sleeves.

3 - Create a waist.  I used a wide elastic, about 1 3/4" wide, and a piece of stretch jersey about 4 1/2" folded to cover the elastic.

4 - Attach the waist to the skirt using a stretch stitch  (no picture) and... Voilà!  Skirt!

 

So, what to do with the arms of the sweater?  Leg warmers? Not exactly.  the sleeves screamed "Leggings" for my favourite girl!
 
1 - I used a pair of leggings that more or less fit her (yes, they have holes and she'd still be wearing them if I had not stolen them from the laundry pile).

2 - I used the leggings as a pattern, just making them a little longer.  I am lucky the sleeve was just wide enough to accommodate the crotch where it is much wider. 

3 - I had to add a separate waist, made of the same jersey as my skirt (would have been too thick anyway), with a narrower elastic inside.  There was a lot of sewing and unpicking because I forgot to use a stretch stitch, which I think is essential in a fitted garment like this, and the frustration lead to no pictures being taken of that step.

In the end, it was all worth it:

A matching set - the first - and maybe the last - matching clothes for mom and daughter...

 

As much as I love her cute little face, I decided not to share pictures of my family in this forum, but I assure you there is a lot of cuteness going on:

 So here is the before and after transformation:

From to big sweater to matching skirt and leggings!

I am counting this refashion as a double success!

Personalized Pillow

December 6.

I grew up in Montreal and for me, this date is forever linked to the killing of 14 female engineering students at École Polytechnique.  It's been 25 years, but I remember is like it was yesterday. 

When I moved to Halifax, I learned that December 6 was also the date of the largest man-made explosion prior to the development of nuclear weapons.  It killed 2000 people and injured 9000 more.  Today marks the 97th anniversary of the Halifax Explosion.

But December 6 is also a very happy date because someone special is celebrating a birthday!  And what`s a birthday without a personalized pillow?

I was going to go with the blue-green combo I can't seem to get enough of these days, but taking a page out of Adrienne's book, I went for orange as my accent colour. 

I also quilted wavy lines, again, totally stealing from Adrienne.  Really, really like the wavy lines.  It is easy, and very forgiving, and it looks really nice!  Thanks for the double inspiration, Adrienne!

In other quilty endeavours, I made another zippered pouch.  This time, using laminated fabric for the inside.  The outside fabric was from my husband's last trip to Hawaii.  He went a little crazy with the Hawaiian prints, so expect to see them make an appearance in my projects from time to time.
 

I finished hand stitching the binding on a simple quilt made from a Snoopy vintage sheet and backed with some "what was I thinking" fabric that was languishing in my stash.

And before I leave, look what has started arriving in the mail... sewing machine blocks from my bee mates!  Yay!

It's been a good quilty week around here, but I have so much more to do before Christmas.  What about you?