The Renegade Seamstress

The Great British Sewing Bee

Posted on April 20, 2013 by The Renegade Seamstress

I got a bit distracted this afternoon.

Complete with all the charm and politeness of the English, The Great British Sewing Bee, captured my attention today. I suspect part of the appeal for me is the fact that the contestants are all “real” people who just love to sew. They are given several challenges over the course of two days and the judges give very specific feedback on their construction techniques. They even manage to sprinkle a bit of sewing history throughout each episode.

Their first challenge is to sew a simple A-line skirt in three hours. Next, they are given an hour to alter the neckline of a white seersucker blouse. For their final challenge, they must alter a pattern to fit and create a dress for their model.

I actually think this show might be a new favorite of mine. (Could you hear my English accent when I said that?) 🙂

You can watch it here:

Happy Sewing!

Beth

Refashion a Man’s Button Down Shirt for Day Five of Dress For Change Week

Posted on April 5, 2013 by The Renegade Seamstress

Well, here it is, Day Five of Dress For Change Week. So far not one of my students noticed that I was wearing the same skirt all week. Hmmmm…… makes one think.

Today, I’m wearing another quick and easy refashioned man’s shirt with my black skirt.

I started with this shirt.

I cut off the sleeves very close to the stitching so I don’t have to hem and used them to cut out two flounce ruffles using my previous pattern.

After you cut them out, make one cut through each one to open it up. I then attached them to either side of the button placket like I did on this shirt, but instead of putting the gathered edge along the placket, place the short edge (the inside edge) along the placket.

The flounce ruffle is a completely different look from a gathered ruffle. I love how soft and feminine the shirt is now.

Here’s a recap of my outfits for Dress for Change Week:

After Tondra Denise read about Sheyanne’s project, it struck a nerve with her and she immediately signed up with her eight year old daughter to participate.

Check out her blog, Ordinary Moments…Extraordinary Memories, to see what inspired her and what she wore each day each day.

Thank you Tondra for participating.

She’s Wearing That Same Skirt Again!

Posted on April 4, 2013 by The Renegade Seamstress

I heard them whispering to each other on their way down the stairs as they both glanced back up at me. “She’s wearing that same skirt again.” Giggling together, they ran the rest of the way. Later, I couldn’t help notice the way they would smirk and walk way around me acting as if they were smelling something horrible. I could’ve given up right then. I could’ve gotten my feelings hurt. But I knew I’d made a commitment to this project and I knew it was the right thing to do.

Lucky for me, I chose to wear the same skirt and lucky for me, I knew it was only my friends at work lovingly teasing me. But it did make me think. Hopefully, this week of Dress For Change is not only changing lives for underprivileged girls in Africa, but I hope it’s changing the way many of us think about our own situations.

It’s amazing how abundant our lives really are. I’m so fortunate to have enough food to eat, an education, a good job, a loving family, great friends, nice clothes to wear, a beautiful home, safe community, my health, a reliable car, a sewing machine….the list could go on and on.

I’m also fortunate to have such a great local thrift store, where used clothing is very affordable. Day Four’s entire outfit has been thrifted throughout the years and the scarf was just recently refashioned from an old pair of pajama pants.

Thank you to everyone who chose to participate in Dress For Change Week.

Here’s to a day full of gratefulness!

Beth

For more refashion ideas:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged clothing, DIY, fashion, gratefulness, reconstructed clothing, recycling, Refashion, Sewing, Thrifting, tutorial, upcycling | 8 Comments

Dress For Change- Day Three

Posted on April 3, 2013 by The Renegade Seamstress

It’s here! It’s finally here!

So far it’s been a beautiful week. Sunny, warm, and calm. The windows in my classroom have been open and we can hear birds chirping and dogs barking. At night I can hear the frogs. I’m back to walking everyday and I feel great. There’s nothing like spring to cheer a girl up and make her feel alive again.

Today is Day Three of Dress For Change Week and I’m wearing a thrifted black and white shirt with my Quick Cropped Sweater refashion from the other day. I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone else is wearing for this Little Black Dress Project.

Cheers!

Beth

For more refashion ideas and tutorials:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged clothing, DIY, fashion, reconstructed clothing, recycling, Refashion, Sewing, Thrifting, tutorial, upcycling | 12 Comments

Make This World a Better Place, One Refashion at a Time/ Dress For Change- Day Two

Posted on April 2, 2013 by The Renegade Seamstress

Yesterday I received a beautiful comment.

I love your site! I am always checking it to see what idea you have come up with. I am trying to get as many ideas as I can to show my orphan kids in Africa. Some of them are learning to sew and I thought with as many used clothing they have to deal with, what a wonderful way to inspire them! I am hoping to go back probably in December again. Thank you so much for the many ideas you share. I will try to share some of them with the kids at Umoja Children’s Home in Bomet, Africa. Lynn

This comment meant so much to me because, you see, each time, right before I push that publish button, I close my eyes and envision that my post will have a positive impact on someone somewhere. To find out that a fun hobby of mine is actually benefiting someone half way around the world makes this all worthwhile.

And how appropriate as we go into Day Two of Dress For Change Week, where we have committed to help Sheyenne provide dresses for girls so they can receive an education, and in comes Lynn who will be using these ideas to help orphans in Africa. I’m constantly amazed at the wonderful things people do.

It’s nice to know that in some small way what I’m wearing today might help a little girl on the other side of the world. Today I chose to wear Saturday’s refashioned white shirt with my black skirt.

If you’d like to see how this was made, check out this tutorial:

Thanks to everyone who is participating in Dress For Change Week and

here’s to making our world a better place one refashion at a time. 🙂

No Sew Infinity Scarf-Dress for Change-Day One

Posted on April 1, 2013 by The Renegade Seamstress

Today’s Infinity Scarf is so easy, you can hardly call it a tutorial. All you need to do is make one cut.

Remember this dress refashion?

and this:

Well, all I did was cut off the bottom of the dress.

And the bottom of the dress became this infinity scarf.

Now that’s two refashions with only one cut. Crazy good!

Thank you to everyone who signed up to help with Sheyanne’s senior project and are participating in the Dress for Change Week. Today is Day One. I’ve chosen to wear my black skirt all week and hopefully include one refashioned thing in the outfit each day.

Here’s what I’m wearing for Day One:

I hope wonderful things come your way today!

Beth

Put a Ruffle on it! (Bonus Feature: How to Make a French Seam)

Posted on March 30, 2013 by The Renegade Seamstress

I know! I know! You’ve heard me say it before. But this shirt REALLY needed a ruffle! It was such a sad little shirt!

It did have some fun eyelet detail, but other than that… Snoozarama!

Let’s give it some new life with ruffles using the fabric from the sleeves!!!

This next step is on one long side and both short sides of the ruffle piece.

Hey, at least I didn’t “put a bird on it”! 🙂

Have a beautiful Saturday!

Beth

For more ideas on how to upcycle old clothes go here:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged crafts, DIY, fashion, reconstructed clothing, recycling, Refashion, ruffle shirt, Sewing, Thrifting, tutorial, upcycling | 55 Comments

DIY: Quick Cropped Sweater

Posted on March 28, 2013 by The Renegade Seamstress

They were right, it WAS my kind of candy store!!!

I just spent the last two hours tasting the patterns on the BurdaStyle site. I’ve had little samples of their sweetness before, through other sewing blogs, but never have I actually binged on the absolute deliciousness of it all like I did this morning. I’d need three lifetimes to complete all the projects I’d like to try and there are still twenty more pages of patterns to sample. Good thing it’s Spring Break because I think you might just be seeing a completed BurdaStyle project in the near future.

For today, here’s a quick sweater refashion:

This cute little sweater has been in my stash forever. I keep trying it on to wear with different outfits, because I love the color and all the fun button details.

But each time I was disappointed because of the fit. It was too long, too wide and the ribbing hit me in a strange place. So when trying to find something to wear with my striped dress yesterday, I decided to crop this to a better length.

Now it hits me in a much more flattering place and I’ll be able to wear it with so many things.

Just a little reminder, I AM a Kindergarten teacher…….:)

DIY: Dress and Cropped Denim Jacket

Posted on March 27, 2013 by The Renegade Seamstress

Ahhhhhhh, Spring Break is finally here!

Nine whole days to exercise, sew, relax, and generally get caught up. Our family doesn’t usually use this time to travel to exotic places as so many people do since my Ruggedly Handsome Contractor Husband is still busy working during this time.

But I actually don’t mind.

There’s something very comforting knowing that I’ll finally have some time to complete some of those undesirable tasks that have been looming ominously over my head for quite sometime. And also to know that I’ll have some uninterrupted time to do some of those fun things I’ve been wanting to do.

Like refashioning this dress I found at the DI in Nampa.

Great brand for a great price!

It’s a high quality knit that feels oh so nice. Only thing I didn’t like….the length.

No problem there, just a few snips of the scissors and…..

since it’s a knit, I don’t even have to hem it. Much better!

Now, about that jacket….. This is something that’s been in my stash for quite awhile. I’m pretty sure I threw it in my bag during a bag sale at the thrift store. At two dollars a bag, the cost was negligible. I just wasn’t thrilled with the color of this one so……..

I soaked it in a plastic tub of bleach and now I’ve got……

white denim!!

Now I just wanted to make it shorter.

After making the first cut, now cut off the bottom band to resew onto the new bottom of the jacket.

Now I have a cool, cropped, white denim jacket to wear during Spring Break.

For more refashion tutorials click here

Don’t forget about signing up for Sheyanne’s Dress For Change Week that’s coming up the first week of April. I’m off to refashion a few fun accessories to wear that week.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged clothing, DIY, fashion, reconstructed clothing, recycling, Refashion, Sewing, Thrifting, tutorial, upcycling | 50 Comments

How To Get New Work Clothes For Free (Almost) :)

Posted on March 24, 2013 by The Renegade Seamstress

It’s fun for me to see the comments people write when they pin pictures from The Renegade Seamstress to their boards on Pinterest. Often times my head is swelling from the nice things they write. The biggest thrill for me comes when I see comments like, “She makes me think I could do this” or “I want to learn how to sew” or my personal favorite, “I want this woman for my best friend”. Because, you see, the two main goals for this blog is to one, inspire you to try these things and two, connect with other folks who love to do what I love to do.

The other day, there was another comment, that got my attention. Ashley wrote “This woman is so creative when it comes to refashioning clothes!! I’m on such a tight budget right now but in desperate need of some new work clothes…I think it’s time to break out the sewing machine again!”

It made me think of how refashioning isn’t just about cutting up t shirts and it isn’t just about creating costumes for parties. It made me think about how much money I used to spend on clothes for work. It made me think about how much time I used to spend at the mall trying things on, getting frustrated and feeling bad about myself because things didn’t fit right.

But as I found out it doesn’t have to be that way.

Upcycling thrift store clothes can be a great way to build up your work wardrobe without spending much money. So many of us are on tight budgets these days. So instead of spending all that time in the fitting room feeling bad, I have been having the time of my life being creative with a hobby that not only saves me money, but makes me feel good in my own skin again, creating clothes that actually fit, are comfortable, and I can wear to work.

Take this long, gray, silk dress I found at the Goodwill last fall for $2.99. I wouldn’t wear this to work in a million years. But after making a few simple changes, I want to wear it everyday!

Cut the bottom part of the skirt to desired length, saving the middle piece to use for the ruffle.

Here, I cut a quarter inch piece of elastic, stretched to fit my waist comfortably. I then sewed it to the waistline seam allowance, stretching it to fit as I sewed.