Thursday, April 7, 2011

A thrifty refashion.


I am super excited about this blog post! Do you remember this pillow case I thrifted a few months ago?(If you look closely at the pile of clothes photo you'll see it poking out). I thought the pattern was simply beautiful, and for only 50c, I thought it a steal. I admit at the time I had no idea what I would actually do with the fabric, I mean, it was only a single pillow case right?

The lovely bundle has been sitting on a shelf in my sewing room for a while now, probably thinking it had been forgotten. Not a chance! Inspiration struck me today, and with a little courage I took to it with scissors and thread, and within an hour I had whipped up a cute autumn skirt.
The first thing I did was stitch the hem down. First reason being I hate hemming and figured why not get it over and done with first. The second reason was I wanted a straight hem line so I could line the fabric up with the selvedge of some neutral calico I wanted to line it with (I wanted to keep the selvedge on the calico and make it a feature, by letting it fall a few centimeters lower than the hem of the floral fabric



I then cut out two rectangles of neutral calico the same width as the floral fabric, with the hem of the floral panel sitting slightly higher than the calico selvedge. I then secured the two fabrics together using a large gathering stitch. I stitched the skirt together down one side.

I cut a long thin rectangle from both fabrics and sewed it together to form a thin waistband. I then sewed the waistband onto the skirt.

I then sewed in a side zipper and finished the side seam, and voila! My less-than-one-hour-50-cent-creation was complete!



~ That's calico popping out underneath ~





~ The calico lining ~

Drum roll please! As I was home alone and couldn't find my tripod, please prepare for a photo with a quality so bad it's really not worthy of being on a blog, but here goes anyway...


~ If you squint you can see the skirt on me ~

I am super impressed with how this skirt turned out. It was super quick and easy to make, and best of all, I don't think it looks like a pillow case anymore.

Sam xox

psst! Just wanted to wish my lovely Jamie a happy 12 year anniversary (of when we began 'dating'... not marriage. We didn't get married when we were 14) :-)

15 comments:

  1. What a brilliant idea and the end result is very nice and looks lovely !

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  2. This is lovely! I actually have a pillowcase that I bought aaages ago in the hope of making it into a skirt but have been too scared to cut into! Maybe I should bite the bullet!

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  3. Thanks both of you!

    Sorbet - you definitely should! I know what you mean though, sometimes I build up fabric so much in my head that I then need to psych myself up to cut into it, just like this pillow case (although knowing it had only cost me 50c did make moving the scissors a little easier). Sam xox

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  4. It looks mighty cute! Much better than the pillowcase skirt I used to make :)

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  5. Sam, I know we met on a quilting blog but it has been so fun seeing you grow into a designer. I don't sew clothing but have actually been inspired by a couple of your projects (not enough to buy a pattern-lol) keep showing off your good work, others are being motivated and inspired by your posts- thanks cw

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  6. That turned out great! I love using linens for sewing!

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  7. That turned out great! I love using linens for sewing!

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  8. Thanks so much everyone! Sam xox

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  9. great use of the pillowcase...the skirt is very pretty.

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  10. That is such an awesome print. I love it!

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  11. Your pillowcase skirt turned out beautiful! I love it!

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  12. Fantastic! You did a wonderful job, it looks beautiful.

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  13. Lovely skirt, and what a bargain! I love old pillowcases, but I never seem to find any cool ones.

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