You’ve seen it.
Gingham!
It’s all over the runways, like this great gingham number by Diane Von Furstenberg.
Isn’t it beautiful!!! I just love everything about it. So sophisticated, yet playful and ageless. Now that’s a powerhouse combo in my book. Nothing Daisy Duke about this dress. No Sirree Bob!
I do have a newfound love for gingham and our contestants this week have really stepped up to the plate and given us some really creative solutions to this challenge.
I’m sorry, but you’re gonna have a hard time voting again, believe you me!
***
Let’s start off this week with Gema from Sequins and Slippers.
“Hi All, I’m so excited, AGAIN, to see what everyone else has come up with
for this week’s challenge 🙂 I don’t own any gingham (or haven’t since I
was at primary school) so this was an interesting project for me…I think
I spent FAR too much time on the research front, before actually getting
down to business!
I found a very large pink gingham men’s shirt in a local charity shop, and
also white lace ladies top…
With some chopping here and there… (and Rod helping a paw, as usual…)
I created some bias binding from the arm of the men’s shirt…
and added it to the bodice of the ‘new’ dress…
I changed the buttons from masculine to feminine… (with a pink button to
finish off the placket a little differently…)
then added the lace from the other top…
I was nearly done! To the park for some After pics… If you’ve never been
to Marble Hill Park, it’s very near Richmond – and it’s a beautiful setting
(I’ve been many times to walk Roddie). With a waterfront to watch the
rowing boats down the Thames, and Marble Hill House, a little cafe, and
plenty of play areas (for adults and kids!), I can easily lose a day
there…
And SEW – the Before and After!
Loving all the ladies work here!
Gema x”
***
Now onto Laura from The Accidental Seamstress
“I started off with a 3X purple gingham scrubs top that I found for .99 cents. I
NEVER spend more than .99 cents on my refashions. It’s my rule and personal
challenge!
 |
Using an existing dress (another refashion of mine) as a pattern, I cut
the scrub to size and shortened the length.
I serged the new side edges…
To spice
things up a bit, I used a negligee that I bought solely for the lace and made some
sleeves ( I’m slightly obsessed with lace…).
I also wanted to break up the gingham
a bit. I did not use a pattern. I cut the cap of the sleeve free-hand (I’ve sewn
enough sleeves to be comfortable with that).
To tie the gingham and lace together, I
harvested the bias tape from the original scrub sleeve, and added it to the hem of
my new lace sleeve.
To finish everything off, I made an easy sash with the leftover
side scraps, and I used my sewing machine to finish the bottom raw edge with a
rolled hem.
It was blazing hot for the first time in Indiana all year long; go figure. Hence,
the indoor pics :)”
***
Here’s what Sylvia from Her Kitschy Majesty created this week:
“Well, this dress has been hanging in my closet since mid-highschool. But
since I was 20-30 pounds less than now, it fit me ok and managed to cover
everything, tee-hee! Now not so much! Because my thigh area seems to have
gotten bigger, it’s stretching the length hence dragging it up.
Because of my unhealthy obsession with stripes, plaid, gingham, etc. this
dress is something I just don’t want to lose as a piece of clothing. I’ve
worn it as a tunic top a couple of times but it missed that Wow that I
search in all my clothes. Soooo, Sylvia to the rescue!
I decided on a peplum top. I cut the length below the zipper and cut it
halfway once more into two strips of material in order to have more for the
peplum pleats. Once I sewed the peplum on, it still missed the Wow so I
decided to add a front lace insert from some leftover lace scraps.
May I just tell you that the girls from the office at my company asked me
which boutique I got it from. WOW!”
***
Next up, Sarah from Life is Beautiful
“For the gingham challenge, I got this men’s XXL shirt because of the
beautiful mint color. I instantly had an image pop in my head of making it
into a short crop top with a high-waisted skirt for my little girl.
BEFORE:
After:
I used the front of the shirt as the back, with the buttons on the back of
the top and the skirt. I made it very simple in the front and with the
pleated back that already came with the shirt, I think it looks adorable in
the middle front.
I pretty much used every part of the fabric, I even used the collar I cut
off as a headband! Turns out, the length of the collar fits perfectly
around my girls head and with the button and the button hole on both sides,
you close the button and there you have it! Easiest headband ever.
*What you’ll need*:
-An oversized button-up shirt
-1 1/2″ width elastic
-matching thread
-needle or sewing machine
-scissors
*Estimated time*: 2 hours
*Budget*: $18
*Skill level*: A confident beginner to an intermediate
Head on over to my blog to see the tutorial on how I made the XXL men’s
shirt into a girls crop top + skirt set!
http://www.ourlifeisbeautiful.com/2015/07/diy-xxl-mens-shirt-into-crop-top-skirt.html
***
Now let’s hear from Marisa from The Refash Stash
“I started with this adorable prom dress (I really hated to take this apart, but
sacrifices needed to be made) and a pair of gingham pajama pants.
And one more piece…this ruffly white strapless top!
My 1st plan of action was to take apart the gingham pajama pants and sew it into a
skirt.
2nd I removed the ruffle from my strapless top. Then I added some homemade gingham
bias tape and fabric to the front of the top. Of course I changed the buttons too!
(Secretly I am a button addict). Once that was done I attached my new skirt bottom
and top together.
3rd I removed the bottom tulle layer from the prom dress to give my new dress some
pouf!”
Marisa- The Refash Stash
***
Next, Kathy from Household How To
“This little dress started life as a duvet. When I found it at Goodwill I HAD to
have it (never mind that I didn’t know what I would do with it).
This twin size duvet was enough fabric to make TWO dresses! If I had used a pattern
(instead of winging it) I would have wasted less material, but I got 2 size 16
dresses, so it all worked out!
Because I was more or less winging it, I cut the back WAY too small. Short on
fabric I improvised and made a shirred panel in the back so that the dress would
fit.
Shirred back panel – Thank you elastic thread!
You can see the step by step
tutorial, PLUS a tutorial on shirring
here.
<http://householdhowto.blogspot.com/2015/07/refashion-from-duvet-into-2-dresses.html>
This dress was SO MUCH fun to make and is even more fun to wear. She’s moved past
her days as a boring bedspread and now she’s fully out in the world!”
***
Last but certainly not least, is Kara from While Camden Sleeps
“It was so fun to see everyone’s incredible work last week, I kept checking
over and over again until the post was up. I get so excited to see the
creativity. This is such a great competition!
I went to 4 thrift stores until I finally found this gingham t-shirt
dress. I was relieved to finally find something that was gingham and
workable–way harder than I thought it would be.
My vision was to create a cute button up. Since the buttons didn’t go all
the way down, I was limited on how far I could take the side seams in. I
decided to use shirring for the first time. It was so much easier than
expected and made the top look fitted, while still allowing me to pull it
over my head. I also removed the sleeves so I could take up the underarm,
as well as the sleeves. This helped to tailor the top to my body.
I wanted to do something a little more creative, so I used the excess fabric to make three bow ties, a standard tie-on for my husband, a clip-on for my oldest, and a sewn-on for my baby. This was a lot harder than I expected, but I loved how it turned out!
I also made this short video to show the before and after in 3D just for
kicks.”
***
Now it’s YOUR turn.
Vote for your favorite gingham creation below. After you click on the button next to your favorite, be sure to go all the way to the bottom of the poll and click vote.Otherwise your vote won’t be counted.
Have fun!
The Renegade Seamstress 
I love this! Formerly a seamstress who made all of her clothes, I quilt now but still enjoy thrifting and imagining how I could remake things. Mostly I make shirts into quilts!
Another great use of fabric, Carol!
Whoa! That was hard. They were all so wonderful.
Thanks for voting, Barb! And thanks for the wonderful get together the other morning. I wish I could’ve stayed all day with everyone. I had a great time! You are creating quite a paradise out there! LOVE IT!
Loved this week’s challenge!! so much I even commented on one of the lady’s original post – I love this time of year! 🙂 Voted!
Thanks for voting again, Kelli! It’s nice people like you that make this so much fun!
Made my first gingham project, a button up red and white shirt with *puffed* sleeves and a shirt collar, in 9th grade, under the watchful eye of my home ec teacher. I’m afraid it would need a refashion today . . . such a talented bunch of ladies, and wonderful summery looks. Congrats to all!
Your kind words mean so much to these hard working women. Thank-you for following along and I hope you had a chance to vote!
These are all amazing refashions!! Great work ladies!! http://sewsincity.com
Thanks so much for your nice comments to these ladies! They are all so creative!
The first thing I ever sewed was a green and white gingham peasant blouse. I love gingham and have lots in my stash. These ladies display such creativity! Wonderful refashions all.
I hope this inspires you to make something for our sew along this week, Rozy. 🙂
I can’t decide on a winner as they all look amazing.
I agree!
I’m so impressed! And encouraged too. As a plus size woman it’s almost always a necessity to fit/re-fit clothing for me. I’ve always been afraid to try much but seeing the results of everyones efforts make me want to get on the band wagon!
Oh, I hope you do, Robin. It’s so much fun!
Once again I find myself voting for Marisa from Refash Stash….I like the way she sews and now I am following her blog. Thanks Beth for the inspiration! 🙂
My pleasure!
Thank you so much for your vote!!! I am so happy you enjoy my blog!! 🙂
Wish we could vote for top two instead of one. Both last week and this week it was a tough decision. I’ve tended to vote for clothing that I would wear whereas the one contestant is submitting such exquisite children’s wear. I don’t have age appropriate kids or grandkids so as a result she doesn’t get my vote but her work is awesome. But that’s now twice where I would have liked to give recognition. Kind regards Kathy
Sent from my iPad
>
Thanks for voting, Kathy!
Nice outfit for your little girl
🙂
What a brilliant challenge! I love how different the refashions were (although there’s a funny running theme of lace…. I’m also obsessed with lace at the mo!). I love Gema’s transformation but those family bow-ties are pretty adorable too!
Hannah x
http://crafternooncabaretclub.com/blog
Thanks for your nice comments, Hannah!
That was really hard. Everyone is SO stinkin creative. Good luck to All of the them.
Thanks for voting!
Really hard to choose this week! There were several that I thought were deserving. It’s going to be hard to select a winner.
I had a hard time choosing, too, Judy. Thanks for voting!
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Sarah, you did a fantastic job reinterpreting your shirt into the ensemble for your daughter. I love the retro lines of it and it suits her well! Well done!
Thanks for your feedback, Elizabeth. It’s always nice to get those positive comments!
Thank you so so much! Your encouragement and sweet comment means so much to me!
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I’m loving what the contestants came up with – hard to choose! I’m also getting ideas for myself about combining items, shirring, using an existing item as a template, etc. I want to see more of their creativity so will head to their blogs. Thank you for hosting this again.
I agree, hard to decide. They are all wonderful. But, the bow ties had me. Great job Kara.
Love it must try 👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿
This was a difficult decision because all of these entries were so creative and well done. Since I had to pick one, I chose the one I would most like to wear, which was Kara’s shirt. I thought she had the best fabric choice, I loved her design for the shirt, and it was so fun that she used the remnants to create a “tie-in” for the rest of her family! All the other designs were great too. Good work everyone!
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I’m no expert, but miss Ensenat has an uncanny talent with a pair of scissors, needle and thread, and imagination.
I needed to vote for two as well. They are all great, and I admire all of them for their talent. I picked the one who I thought had the biggest challenge and also stuck to the re-fashion the closest. I won’t be disappointed no matter who wins!
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I’ve done a few versions of men’s shirt re-dos! I love this:)
Love all the gingham projects!
Kara was my favorite and the best. I also loved Sarah’s, but in the end, I thought I needed to vote for Kara:) This is awesome!
How many times are we allowed to vote for in the Runway Challenge?
Hi Nora,
Thanks for asking this question. The voting is set up so you can vote once on each challenge. You can vote again tomorrow on the next challenge.
Have fun!
Beth
Love love love ❤
This has been fun to follow along and see the creations! Last week and this week, I had a tough time! Good job everyone. Cannot wait to find out the winner nor see the next refashion!
It was so hard to vote on one refashion. I chose this one because it turned out to be such a sweet outfit for an adorable model.
This was a hard one to pick a favorite. I liked all of them‼️👍 Ya’ll are so talented. đź‘Źđź‘Źđź‘Źđź‘Ź
Love the cute little girl dress that Sara made!
So cute.
They all did a lovely job!! Thanks for sharing this contest and the ideas with us!!!
All are great refashions. It was hard to choose. Congrats to all of them!
These are all such fantastic refashions!
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