Refashion Co-op

Have you heard about the Refashion Co-op yet? If not, here is the scoop: The Refashion Co-op is a collaborative blog around the love of refashioning. Much like Sew Retro is dedicated to vintage lovers, the Refashion Co-op is for the refashionistas among us. The blog is only a couple of weeks old but has already attracted a lot of readers and contributors. Today I've joined the Refashion Co-op as a contributor myself and have written my first introduction to the blog. I plan to contribute to the Refashion Co-op on a regular basis, which will hopefully inspire me to blog more in general and of course, to refashion more. I'm ever so excited about some new refashion ideas I have had and hope I get arond to sewing them all up soon!

Denim Slacks

In my second attempt to draft my own trousers I used a sort of very light-weight denim fabric to make a pair of jeans-trousers.

 
This is the original sketch I made for them but they turned out to look quite different. I might make another attempt at sewing trousers that look a little more like my drawing some day but for now these trousers will do.

I used the same pattern as for my Marlene trousers and modified it so they would be more closely fitted and not as wide in the leg. I also made some minor fitting changes, having noticed that my previous pair needed some improvement. The fit worked out wonderfully and I'm really happy with them. I drafted a separate waistband which closes with three buttons in the front and added two slant pockets.

Unintentionally I also added a tiny pleat at the front because the top front turned out too big to fit into the wiastband. Although I originally wanted to make some sort of back pockets, I chickened out in the end, thinking I would only ruin my pants and just left the back as it was.

I hardly ever use back pockets anyways and with the lowered waistband there is enough going on at the back.

 

But next time I will certainly add some pockets. Promise.

The Secret Life of Trousers

A while ago I posted about my first pair of self-drafted trousers. I thought I’d show you not only the outside but also the inside life of these trousers, as these were the first pair of trousers I made focusing on the details that go into constructing a proper pair of trousers. For this purpose I bought David Page Coffin's book Making Trousers. I wanted to challenge myself to different and possibly more sophisticated ways of constructing a pair of trousers.

The first thing I leanred is a new way of construcing a waistband. Coffin suggests lining your waistband in lining fabric or using petersham ribbon instead of just doubling up on fashion fabric (which I always used to do and most patterns tell you to do).  So I cut one waistband out of fashion fabric and one out of lining fabric and added some cloth allowance to the outer waistband so that when turning the waistband over you have the lining neatly tucked away and it doesn't show on the outside. At the front extension where the lining could be seen even on the inside I used a piece of fashion fabric.

I really liked this method because this way the more comfortable lining material lies against your skin. Most importantly, however, to Coffin is that this method reduces bulk. And reducing bulk is all Coffin is about. He believes that in order to create a well-constructed garment the “transitions from thick to thin” should be “as imperceptible as possible”,  even if that means that the inside of your garment does not look as nice as the outside. In fact, this is his whole philosophy:

"The main goals for inner construction are, simply, to keep the outside looking great and the overall thickness as minimal and supple as possible-- even, if necessary, at the expense of what the garment looks like on the inside."(13) 

Now that's a crazy idea, eh? I always believed that a well-constructed garment should look as nice from the inside as it does from the outside. And here Coffin suggests that it does not matter what the garment looks like from the inside as long as the garment looks its best from the outside. Now what do you think about that?

The same philosophy is followed thorugh in Coffin’s construction of pockets. I followed his video on the accompanying DVD on how to construct slant pockets.

Outside

Inside

I like the way the pocket turned out and have already used some of these techniques in another project I made. However, I have also modified his method to suit me better because as so many of his methods in the book this method too seems overly complicated and finicky. Watching his videos is like watching an artist at work. He treats fabric with so much precision and love you can really see how he enjoys sewing.

I, on the other hand, am all about stream-lining my techniques. The best techniques I think are those that are fast and efficient and still leave you with beautiful results. I don’t like toying around with a pocket until it is absolutely perfect if that means that it is also way too complicated to do. I believe there are methods out there that simplify while still not losing sight of good quality construction and these are the kind of techniques I’m looking for.

a belt loop

Making Trousers is definitely a good companion if you are planning on exploring different ways of constructing classic trousers. However, it is a highly eccentric and idiosyncratic book, as Coffin himself is aware of, in that he only presents the methods useful to him and the projects he is interested in. Looking to make yourself some jeans, fitted trousers, stretchy trousers, trousers with funky waistband designs? This book will not help you make them. Nevertheless I find some of the chapters in this book very fascinating and useful, and Coffin’s enthusiasm for the intricacies of construction techniques is unmatched.

So, overall, I learnt quite a bit from making these trousers and am more confident to go on to doing more trouser projects. Also I’m still baffled by Coffin’s bulk-reducing philosophy. What do you think? Should a garment look as beautiful from the inside as it does from the outside or is it more important to make your garment look the very best from the outside even at the cost of a nice inside finish? And what type of techniques do you like most? The efficient, stream-lined ones? Or are you more of a David Page Coffin type? Please share!

Sweater Refashion Tutorial

 

I love refashioning old sweaters. I often scour my mum's wardorbe for old and unused sweaters that are still in a perfect condition but have an unflattering shape, are boring or simply too big on me. I also often find sweaters in second-hand shops. I'll pick up anything that is made out of cashmere or wool or some other fancy material and lends itself to a refashion. Often I come away with a nicer sweater than I could have afforded for only a couple of euros and a small sewing session. 

So I thought I'd put together a little tutorial for those of you who have not yet dared to cut into your old unflattering fancy cashmeres. This tutorial is based on my most recent refashion. I picked up a nice, practically unworn black wool sweater in a second-hand shop and made it into a simple scoop-neck sweater - just the thing I'd been looking for to wear with my arsenal of skirts for which I can never find a matching top:

So here we go. First off get yourself an old unflattering sweater as pictured.

  

The first thing we will do is make the sweater fit your body. Turn the sweater inside out and put it on. Stand in  front of a mirror and pinch the sweater at the side seams to see how much you will want to take off. Pinch equally at both side seams with the seam at the fold. Either remember how much you pinched in (that's the way I like to do it) or stick a pin or security pin into the sweater. Then continue pinching away fabric all along the side seam and under the arms. Big, bulky sweaters usually have huge armholes and matching wide sleeves. So pinch away on the sleeve as well. 

When you are all done take your sweater off carefully and lay it flat. Iron if necessary. The sweater should lie down perfectly flat with side and sleeve seams meeting at the fold. Then start basting your sweater at both sides along the pins.

 

Once you have basted your sweater go over to a mirror and put it on again, inside out. Does it fit? Do you have to take in more or less? Make changes until you are happy with the fit. At this stage it is still a little difficult to see how exactly it will fit as you will have big bulky wings along your side seam from the material you have basted away. But don't worry too much about getting it perfect, you can always make it tighter later. 

Once you are happy with your fit, bring the sweater over to your sewing machine and start sewing along the basting stitches. Ideally you would use a serger for this, cutting away the excess fabric as you are sewing. I don't have a serger, so I like to use the stretch mock-overlock stich on my machine. Alternatively you can use any stretch seam or a zig-zag seam, but make sure that the seam is strong enough. The sweater will be stretched in these areas so you don't want it falling apart on you. Once you have stitched both sides, cut away the excess fabric, turn your sweater to the right side and try it on to see if you like it. Happy? 

Let's move on to the next stage: fashioning a new neckline. Measure how far down you want your neckline to go while you are still wearing the sweater and stick a pin in to mark the spot. Then take your sweater off and lay it flat right side out. Measure to see if the pin is at an equal distance between the two side seams. Then stick pins in at the shoulder seam, always meauring to make sure the left side matches the right. Stick in as many pins as you need to mark out your new neckline. 

 

Then baste your new neckline, making sure only to baste through one layer of fabric. Repeat the same steps for the back neckline. Once you have basted the neckline all around try on your sweater again to see if you like the result. It helps to do your basting in a contrasting color so it is easier to see you basting stitches. 

 

Before cutting out your new neckline it is important to secure it, so it won't unravel or stretch out of shape. Bring your sweater over to the sewing machine and sew a non-stretch straight stitch line all along the basting stitches. Then sew along the basting stitches again using a zig zag stitch. This way you can be perfectly sure that your neckline will not stretch out of shape once you cut it. When you are all done stitching, cut out your neckline about a centimeter or less awaay from the stitching line.   

Now all that is left to do is finish the neckline. There are many ways of doing this. Since I wanted my sweater to be very simple I just folded over the edges, making sure to fold the stitching to the inside and used a double stretch needle to finish off the neckline. And tada! You have a new sweater! 

Of course there are many, many other ways of refashioning a sweater and the possibilites are endless. For this sweater I added cuffs and a peter-pan collar in a contrasting fabric. For another one I added bias strips to the neckline along with a bow and shortened the sleeves and finished them with matching fabric. 

Here are a couple more links with inspiration and tutorials for sweater refashioning:

• Embellish Knit Month at Grosgrain is full of inspiration for creative refashionings. 
• Sarai wrote a lovely tutorial on refashioning a cardigan (with lots of pictures) over at her blog Sweet Sassafras.
• Through burdastyle I found a video tutorial by eSewingWorkshop.com on how to alter a sweater for a better fit. The full video tutorial has to be purchased but the first part can be viewed for free. I have only watched the free video and not tried this method yet because it seems overly tedious, but maybe some very bulky sweaters would need more elaborate recutting/resewing. The video also shows how to deal with those low, hanging shoulders a lot of bulky sweaters have. I dealt with these in a different way refashiong this sweater. 

I hope you liked my little tutorial. It's my first photoshopping experiment and, wow, it is difficult to photoshop illustrations. As always if you have any questions, feel free to ask away. Happy refashioning!