Vogue Tank Top

I have completed another piece of my 'Teal' collection.

This was from Vogue pattern #2864 . I was originally planning on making the dress view of this tank. It basically is just the same top pattern just with extensions to make it into a dress. I am glad that I rethought the idea of the dress and just did the top. That particular style of dress is not all that flattering on my body type (pear shape) I really much more prefer a wrap type dress on my body.

Anyway... I still like the top and felt I could use another piece to make the collection more versatile, The pattern actually called for cotton or linen type fabric. However, I decided to use my knit with the front outer piece in the chiffon fabric that I used for the lining of the jacket.

As usual, with Vogue, the 'easy' pattern was easy but not necessarily quick. It did require quite a bit of hand sewing. The top part is fully lined. SO I had to hand slip stitch the shoulders as well as hand stitch the entire lining to the under bust seam. I don't mind hand sewing and actually enjoyed the time sewing by hand. It was great practice to see how neat and accurate I could get my stitches. (I know, I know, something wrong with me sometimes).

The fit is nice, and it looks very good beneath the jacket as well as by itself with a pair of jeans. The upper back piece originally called for a zipper. However, since I decided to use a knit I eliminated the zipper and just cut the pattern on the fold. This made the back interesting with the seam lines but as you can see on the very upper back neck line there is a slight bit of gaping.

All in all, I am quite pleased with it.

My attempt at a self portrait in the mirror... Not the best picture, but captures the nice drapey, flatttery effect of the top. And shows nice fit in the bust/underarm area.

On the mannequin and with better light. This shows the color much better!

Closeup of the armhole area, showing the lining and nice 'invisible' hand stitching.

Back view

Saddle pad repair

This is the saddle pad that I fixed last week. The top quilted layer that you can see is made of a top quality cotton twill, with built in pockets to put memory foam shims in to make the saddle fit better to my horses back.
The bottom layer that you can see rolled up along the edges is sheepskin. This is machine washable as long as you use special leather wash to keep the sheepskin from becoming brittle. The sheepskin goes against the horses back and molds to his shape and helps to regulate hot spots and rubbing against his skin.

At the front of the pad there are 2 pockets for the shims and these pockets are held closed by velcro. Over the past 4 plus years the velcro has started to wear out and was no longer holding.

So this project was to replace the velcro pieces. Both from the quilted side and the sheepskin side. I was a little nervous when sewing on the sheepskin side because I was worried about the fluff being sewed down and looking funny. All I needed to do after I sewed the velcro on was to take a pin and pull the fibers gently out from under the sewn threads and you can not even tell that it was sewn.

A 30 minute project and just about 4$ worth of materials and I saved myself about 200$ for a new saddle pad. Yeah!

Saddle pad with open front pockets.

Close up of the pocket closure, the darker area is the actual sheepskin.

Pocket closed with velcro, giving it a proper look when under the saddle.

What have I been working on...

Well, it has been a busy couple of weeks for me on all fronts!! So not too much!

However, I have still managed to eek in some time for some projects.

The first one was a door curtain for Melissa. The apartment she is in is a bit on the small side and the door to her bedroom is a pocket door that I don't think works all that great. So I made her a door curtain to hang for some privacy. She recently got a new bed set and it had some valences included in it. I used 2 of the valances up top and sewed them to a long piece of Blue heavy weight twill. (Help keep out the light)
I cheated and just did a quick hem to the bottom and top. then folded the top down a couple of inches to make a pocket for the curtain bar. I left the selvages on the long side edges. Easy peasy. Now she just needs to hang it up and enjoy, and take a picture!

I also did some mending work, replace buttons and such. Nothing exciting there.

I am currently working on a new top and should have it done this weekend!

Oh... and I re-arranged my sewing room to make the space more usable for me :) Always gets my creative juices flowing when I re-arranged things and change it up.

My latest pair of skinny crop pants

Before I left on vacation I started these pair of crop pants. They were re fashioned from a pair of Lee twill pants that I had used for week several years ago before the days of my needing to wear a suit everyday. They were also quite big on me and were just not flattering at all anymore.

This was my fist attempt at drastically altering a pair of pants and I am happy with the results.

I took just under 4 inches off from the sides seams (for a total of 8 inches less from the hip down and tapered to about 5 inches less at the waist) I also then cut off about 12 inches from the bottom.

Re-hemmed them and used the extra fabric to make 3 patch pockets. 1 large normal size pocket that I added to the right rear. (only had fake welt pockets on back) and then I made 2 smaller patch pockets that I added on the left hip and right thigh at random placement. Added a nice touch of interest but kept it subtle due to the tone on tone to not draw the eye to much to my ample hips!

I am happy with the re-fashion! I now have a new pair of croppants from an old pair of too big work khakis.

new pants, cropped and pockets added.

Back patch pocket added, covering the fake welt pocket.

Super cute! :)

Wardrobe refashion Pledge

The Pledge

I __Stephanie___ pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 6 months. I pledge that i shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoted, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed____Stephanie!______________.