My first Re-fashion!

I'm really excited to tell you that I have completed my first re-fashion! This is something that I have never delved in to, I'm really not sure why as it's a brilliant way of recycling, so this is the first of many.

This all started when I put my name down for the 'Name Tag Swap' that Rachel from House of Pinheiro is organising on her blog. Basically you have to create a name tag for your new buddy and they have to make one for you. Name tags must be received by 9th May and Rachel has very kindly pinned some for inspiration here.

My buddy is the amazing Andrea from Little did you know. I've had an extremely thorough stalk read through her blog to get some ideas for the name tag. Andrea's main interest is in re-fashioning clothes, something that I had never really considered trying. So I thought what better way to get to know someone than to walk a mile in their shoes?!!

I don't currently have any clothes that I could re-fashion. Mainly because I often donate them to charity. Now, in my little town, there are only 3 charity shops to choose from. I spent a Saturday afternoon looking in them and not one thing jumped out at me as something that I'd like to re-fashion. How the heck does Andrea find all of these gems?? 

I gave up. I went to Tesco's for some tights and I came out with this as well:

Slightly hideous, it was a size 18 shapeless 3/4 sleeve t-shirt. I think I saw the sale rack and out of desperation grabbed it because it was only a fiver. Looking at this picture it really is even more hideous than I remember! 

As soon as I got it home I knew exactly what it would become. I bet you can't guess!! :-P

I did cheat a little. OK a lot. First of all I un-picked the side seams and removed the sleeves. I then took out my traced pattern pieces from my favourite Peplum (yep I'm soooo predictable) pattern, Vogue 8815, and placed them over the t-shirt like so: 

 

I wanted to keep the neckline as I liked the pink piping and it sat fine on my neck. So I folded the t-shirt and placed the paper pattern to match with the fold and shoulder seams.

Yep, I thought I was pretty darn clever for doing that!

Unfortunately, the peplum pattern pieces were a little too big and I didn't quite have enough fabric left to make them. So, what I did was make them a little bit shorter. The T-shirt also came with a folded piece of fabric as the hem, I detached it carefully and used it to add length to the peplum.

Folded fabric hem

All in all I think it took me about 4 hours to make. Most of the time was spent un-picking the seams of the original t-shirt. I could have cut them off, but then I wouldn't have quite had enough fabric, which you can see on the picture at the top of the page showing where the front bodice pattern piece ends.

Unfortunately I did not pattern match the fabric. There wasn't enough, if there had been enough though I would not have been able to keep the neckline, because like a lot of RTW clothes the manufacturer hadn't matched the pattern between the front and back either!

What a silly pose to show off my lack of pattern matching!!

I love my new top, it fits so much nicer than any RTW top I could buy and for a fiver it was an absolute bargain. I also have a new appreciation of re-fashioning. It's a very painstaking process and I have absolutely no idea how Andrea has the patience to do it so often. But regardless, it's very rewarding and I will definitely be trying it again soon, once I have actually made Andrea's Name tag that is!