ReMake Nine: Some Challenge Thing Results

Last year, Green Violet did this

I remake stuff all the time, so it was a fair idea.

This is what I was going to do

Make a pullover bra from underpants

Remodel / resize t shirts

Transform a skirt into a hat

Reweave some sweaters

Make socks into mittens

Refashion one thing into another

Make two tshirts into one

Mend something into usefulness from the bottom of the pile

I have no bingo, even with a wild card in the middle.

Unders: I have photos, for my reference only. It does not quite work, but not for the reasons I thought. 

Simply: I like a wider bra band than an pair of underpants can provide. That waist elastic is too skinny for me. BUT THIS DOES WORK. You do need to put fold over elastic for the neck straps, and extend them past where the crotch fabric goes, but for a light day bra, yeah.

T Shirts: oh yes

 Slice em off and hem em up. Rinse and repeat. Although this one was a mistake, as when Spouse raised his arms to swing golf club, previously too long shirt raised to show off navel.
Note to self: do not alter too-large golf wear.

The best one this year was the Poe sweater from Archie's: it was too big by half, but not anymore.

I took it apart into pieces and moved the whole body up three inches (or lowered the neckline: pick one, same thing).

Cut carefully. Plan your piece cuts carefully. Make pattern pieces just to be safe.

It's a pattern for the neckline, so I can replicate it three inches lower.

Save any yarn you can to resew the neck back on 

(so it will stretch)

The redone shoulder and top armhole seam, interior.

Transformed: Skirt into hat: Not yet.

Years ago (2014), I cut a wool miniskirt into chunks to make a hat. The parts resurfaced when I made this grid. And then it disappeared again. No, I can't find the pieces. I could have sworn I still had photos on this blog. Apparently not.

Reweaving: oh yesss, Very overexposed to show the stitches.

This is the fun one.
Apparently I did not blog this one?

Now I have.

Feet into hands: Socks into mittens: did not work. It could, but I lacked patience. 

 Made mittens instead, cause needed mittens.

Refashion: kind of a  meh

Turned tote bag into dog rain coat. It would have worked better with dog for measurements. I got it back all chopped up to better dimensions

This is the before photo.

After's note: "We bought a good one so no thanks"

That's my second son.

Just like his ma.

The sweater was a success

Two into one:  not yet. I need to toile one

She is my inspiration for the better version that I will make, vs the 'eh' one I was thinking of.

From the bottom of the pile: oh yasssssss

The neck on this Tilton V8813 just cut into my neck, so for a quick win after a couple fails, I put in a back neck facing

Made a paper pattern first! Yay me!

Mostly just stitching to seam allowances, although I did open up the back neck seam to slot this in.

I could enjoy this dress now. It's a light weight shirt fabric, so I'm not wearing it now, but I've got a tablecloth to make this my Pao Tribute Dress.

God I hated sewing this dress.....so maybe not yet.

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My sewing plan for 2020 is I'm making a Chanel style, Western decorated jacket, I'm making a toile or two first, and I'm going to take way too long to make it. 

so this blog will get really boring.

Well, we will still have mending...

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We'll see exactly how long this lasts.

8813 My Sad French Tilton Tablecloth Maid Dress. I read the directions. All but one.

In plaid. 

Because I have seven yards of beautiful cotton woven plaid shirting fabric from District Fabric's brick and mortar store, at their closing. THE ONLINE STORE IS OPEN.
 Ashley moved, she didn't go out of business.

http://districtfabric.com/espresso-plaid-shirting/

This pattern has been on the top of the pile for a long time. And Pao's creations have made me hungry to try it out.
She has links to them all in this post
http://projectminima.blogspot.com/2018/05/wearing-that-french-housedress.html

But I have issues. So many issues.

Yes, I understand that gathering the central panel before you sew it to its adjoining pieces is the way to go. But the finished neckline looks so wonky in so many versions of this dress, even assembled on it's own. The neckline seam is on a faint curve, folded on itself as it's own binding, and then folded over at the back neckline, as it's own facing.
One of these actions is successful, but not both. The back neck seam is a lot of folded fabric and thread mounted on a single layer of fabric,and SPOILERS: it cuts into the back of my neck. The front V neck is often warped and wobbly.

I raised the opening an inch and change, per reviews that it was too low. I did measure the entire neck opening, because Big Head.

Yes, I unpicked that horizontal gathering seam; it's off grain. 

It looked worse when I gathered it. 

Redone, regathered, and reinforced with fusible bias tape on the wrong side. Thank you Professional Sewing Services, for selling this at SewExpo.

And I sewed bias tape over the front side, because it was still an ugly seam on the right side.

Hrmmm.

This is one place where rick rack would be a good choice. It needs a distraction, because it's at this point where this project becomes a race to scrape it from the recycle bin.

However, I cut it out and did a great job matching plaids across and around the piece. So in for a penny.....

I started assembling the pieces and realized I had mis-altered the pattern and plaids weren't going to line up the way I had thought.

It was going to be perfect. 

The pocket goes in very nicely. Just make sure you notch the seam notches and use them.

The seam to match the sides to the pocket panel got folded in. I'm unclear how this happened, but I resized and made mistakes with seam allowances.

Nevertheless, she unpicked

And I just topstitched them in place. At this point, I just want to finish this.

Those front pockets are lethally large.

Without the center panel, you can see the depth of the droop of the pocket on the right. The pocket lining is almost level with the floor. Gravity will suck things out. 
Bad Pocket.

This is WITH the pockets taken in 7" at their top edge. EACH.

My results:
I made a schmatta here.

There are things I like about this dress. the cut on sleeves and the vertical style lines the front panel creates. Even as a hot mess, it does look like the pattern illustration. It's got some serious decorative handwork possibilities on that inset/gathered section.
I have taken all my alteration issues and gathered them into a second post, because this one is really long and doesn't end with a happy ending of me frolicking in the dress. 
Eventually, I will either pull the central panel out and replace it with NOT PLAID, or I will just scrap this entirely. There are too many points where I didn't get the effect I wanted and what I got is distracting. 
The best way to get the illustration is to make this in a thin and droopy knit. That's the direction I did not follow. You need the knit for the drape, not for the stretch. You'll use a straight stitch and it will be great.

I honestly thought I had a photo of me in the dress, but I don't and the idea of going to get dressed in it and taking a photo makes me sad and I want to get this done. I want to stop writing about it and move on. 
I will put a photo up, just not right now.
Consider this a place holder.

That's me and baby seam ripper. Art on right by Ken Taya @enfu