The Renegade Seamstress

Spring Sweater Refashion

Posted on March 4, 2012 by The Renegade Seamstress

Get Out of Jail Free Sweater!

YUCK!

All I need is a ball and chain to complete the ensemble.

Let’s see what we can do to make this better.

First, cut off the huge sleeves.

Save them for later.

Next, cut off the extra around the armholes.

Pin down the sides to fit.

Sew along your pin line on both sides of the sweater.

Trim along the seam line.

Pin and sew both shoulders to fit. Trim seams.

Put sleeve on inside out and pin to fit.

Pin to fit and sew both sleeves on the pin line. Trim each seam.

Turn sleeve right side out an place inside armhole, right sides together.

Pin in place, matching bottom and top seams.

Trim away the amount of length you need and save the bottom of the sweater so you’ll still have the nice finishing at the bottom of your sweater.

Next, pin and sew right sides together, matching the stripes.

Press the seam flat and cut press Heat and Bond under the seams to keep the seams flat.

And now you have a nice, new, fitted Spring Sweater.

Posted in DIY, Refashion, Refashioning, Sewing, Thrifting, Tutorial, upcycling | Tagged Refashion, sweater refashion, thrift store | 51 Comments

“That’s the beauty of bein’ me”

Posted on March 3, 2012 by The Renegade Seamstress

My children tease me mercilessly. According to them, I can be forgetful, a tad bit obsessive, a little fickle at times, and I live in my own little world.

But,

“That’s the beauty of bein’ me,” I tell them.

Every day is a new day, every movie is a new movie, every book a new book. Forgetful? Perhaps. I choose to believe it just might be economical.

Then there’s that back porch filled to the brim with thrift store clothes waiting for their turn to be refashioned. I do tend to go over the top when I get excited about something. Obsessive? Perhaps. I choose to believe it just might be a blessing.

I know I’ve been professing the “Think Spring” thing lately, but, I think I’m going to load up the Suburban with teenage boys, head to the mountain, and spend the day skiing in some fresh air. Fickle? Perhaps. I choose to believe it just might be spontaneous.

But I guess, “that’s the beauty of bein’ me”!

Posted in family, friends, Uncategorized | Tagged beauty, children | 5 Comments

A big day!!!

Posted on February 28, 2012 by The Renegade Seamstress

Well, it’s not EXACTLY like winning the lottery, getting my doctorate, becoming a grandma, or having start up stocks in Facebook.

But at this point, to me, it’s almost as big.

Thanks to all of you, after 2 months of blogging, Chic Envelopements has received over 10,000 views.

I’ve been so encouraged by all of your comments and my mind is full of ideas for future refashions.

For example, I just received 3 pairs of my late mother’s wool pants from my niece, Melanie. Since the pants aren’t really anything we would wear now, she asked me to refashion them into a bag or a purse. What a great way to “carry” 🙂 a little of our mother/grandmother with us each day. This is a project I can’t wait to start and share with you.

Thanks again for taking the time to come into my world for a little while each day!

Posted in Refashion, Refashioning, Sewing, Thrifting, Uncategorized | Tagged blog, fabric bag, fabric purse, follower, Refashion, refashioning, Sewing, wool pants | 22 Comments

Drafting your own patterns

Posted on February 27, 2012 by The Renegade Seamstress

Make a perfectly fitting pattern using only your hip and bust measurements? Could this be true?

In my quest to create clothes that fit, I’ve become intrigued by a pattern making system that claims to be: “Astonishingly simple, you need only two measurements to make an excellent fitting pattern every time.”

It does sound too good to be true. It’s called the Lutterloh System and, no, this is NOT a paid advertisement for them. However, I checked out their video demonstration and it looks like it just might work.

I’m just curious if any of you have ever tried this system and if so, what did you think of it? It would be an investment to purchase and I don’t want to spend money on something that doesn’t work.

If you haven’t tried the Lutterloh System, but perhaps something else has worked well for you, would you let me know? I really appreciate your comments!

Posted in Patterns, Sewing | Tagged clothes, Lutterloh, lutterloh system, measurements, Pattern making, patterns, Sewing, video demonstration | 18 Comments

Awards, chips, vintage campers, AND oil field trash?

Posted on February 24, 2012 by The Renegade Seamstress

Ok, now how lucky am I?

Two blogging awards in one week!

I’ve received the Versatile Blogger Award. Thanks to Kelly from Re Stitch Me !

I highly recommend you check out Kelly’s blog. She has the re-purposing bug, too, and posts loads of fun projects. I love her sense of humor which is a must when you live with teenagers as she and I do!

Kelly has asked me to share 7 things about myself that you might not know. Here we go:

1. I should never be allowed to have BBQ potato chips in the house! These crunchy little morsels of tasty goodness are like crack to me. As a matter of fact I’m dipping some in cottage cheese right now. Weird, huh?

2. I absolutely LOVE vintage campers. Here’s a picture of my 1966 Barth travel trailer parked in one of my favorite places in the world. But I’ll blog more about this in a future post.

3. I’m a Project Runway Fan. Need I say more?

4. The Polar Bear Club has my name on it’s roster. One winter, while on a winter camp out in Northern Minnesota, I was crazy enough to first bake in a sauna, then run straight to a hole cut in a frozen lake and jump in! I. Thought. I. Was. Gonna. Die!

5. In my early twenties, I lived in an oil field camp. Yep, I was Oil Field Trash. My husband was a driller for Anderson Meyer in Wyoming and Utah so before we had kids, I traveled around with him. Fun times!

My hubby is the handsome one on the left! Oh Yah!!! 🙂

6. I literally cried tears of joy the Christmas I was eight when I opened my stuffed Snoopy because he was soooooooo cute. I still have him, I still get a little emotional when I hug him, and I want to be buried with him.

7. I’m a Kindergarten teacher. I’ve been a teacher for 22 years and have enjoyed (almost) every minute of it. When I grow up, I want to work in publishing. Magazines have always been my guilty pleasure and I’ve secretly wanted to set up photo shoots or be a graphic designer for one, but since I’ve lived in remote areas my whole adult life, I never thought it would be possible. Hmmmm….maybe dreams do come true…….

I’d like to nominate these terrific bloggers for this award:

Sarah from Goodbye Valentine has decided to give up Ready to Wear clothes for a year and she’s quickly becoming an amazing seamstress. I really enjoy reading about her sewing adventures.

Sandra, a new blogger also, from Simple Restyle is “restyling her life through repurposing, refinishing, reusing, and recycling.” I keep going back for more of her creative projects.

Julie from We So Thrifty is a down to earth graphic designer from Canada blogging about her outfits “made entirely from second hand items and el-cheapo finds.” I love how she has declared 2012 as the “year I broke up with the mall”.

I’ve just recently met a new friend from Amman at Jen Maan in Amman. She moved there from California and her blog is laced with humor, cooking, crafting, and her Middle Eastern discoveries.

Sanja and Dragana at Twisted Sisters are just that, sisters who love to create. Their latest project, Shirt Art, has inspired me to want to try embroidery. I love it!!!!

Thanks again Kelly, this has been fun!

Posted in Awards, Crafting, Refashion, Refashioning, Sewing, Thrifting, upcycling | Tagged polar bear club, Refashion, tasty goodness | 9 Comments

Nothing says “Spring” like stripes!

Posted on February 23, 2012 by The Renegade Seamstress

Nothing says spring like stripes.

This XL thrift store striped shirt was just begging me for a refashion. I was inspired by Little Miss Momma and my wonderful new assistant, Valerie, to make this spring shirt and necklace.

So let’s get started:

The original shirt was not only huge, but the v neck was way too low for me. I turned it around on my dress form to use the back for the front and the front for the back. 🙂

Next, I cut off the sleeves and saved them for later.

Then I cut the neckline for a much better look.

I measured the side seams to fit better and pinned it to fit. I even sized it to my curves so it would be a custom fit.

After pinning, I took the shirt off the form and drew a seam line with tailor’s chalk. I then sewed and trimmed both side seams.

Now it’s time to sew the neckline. After folding the raw edge under, I sewed all the way around once. Then folded it under again and did a double seam. It would’ve been nice to have a double needle, but I did the best I could with one.

I found out that when sewing with thin t shirt material, the needle you use is EXTREMELY important. I used a 70/09 needle made especially for knits. If you don’t use the right needle you will get missed stitches.

This is what the back looks like now:

Next up, sewing the sleeves back in. Putting the sleeve inside the armhole right sides together, I eased the sleeve into the hole with small pleats at the shoulders.

And now a much better fit!!!

I used the other green shirt to make the necklace. There is a wonderful tutorial on how to make the Pom Pom Bib Necklace on Little Miss Momma’s page

Remember, THINK SPRING!!!!!

Posted in Crafting, DIY, Refashion, Refashioning, Sewing, Thrifting, Tutorial, upcycling | Tagged bib necklace, recycling, Refashion, shirt refashion tutorial | 10 Comments

Party on!

Posted on February 21, 2012 by The Renegade Seamstress

They say you’re never too old to learn something new. Learning this whole refashion and blogging thing has been ridiculously exhilarating for me! I just recently discovered link parties and joined a few of them today.

Check them out, I know you’ll like what you see!

At Because (I Think) I Can I joined Leanne’s 3rd Sleepy Sunday Linky Party

At Sew Country Chick I joined Justine’s Sew and Tell Saturday

Then there’s A Round Tuit (you know, something you want to do when you get A Round Tuit…. ) at Creating My Way to Success

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged link parties | 2 Comments

The Sunshine Award

Posted on February 20, 2012 by The Renegade Seamstress

One of the many reasons I started this blog was to connect with all those creative and talented people who have inspired me along the way.

I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know people around the world who share a love of crafting, sewing and thrifting.

And now I’ve been given an ultimate compliment from Elizabeth at

Let It Be Lovely:

The Sunshine Award!

Elizabeth is an excellent writer and in her blog Let it Be Lovely she shares the fun and interesting things she’s found in the blogosphere as well as her own life experiences. Thank you for giving me this honor.

To pass on this gift, I’d like to nominate these incredible blogs:

Sewing with Trudy Trudy is a beautiful mother of six from Texas who somehow finds the time to sew wonderful things and blog about her projects and her life. You can just feel the love and patience she has while reading her blog. She gave me encouragement when I first started blogging.

Ooobop! Janene is a graphic designer from London who blogs about her sewing adventures. She is candid and funny and shares her frustrations as well as successes in this highly entertaining blog.

Everyday Chaos Bridget is another mom of 6 who somehow finds time to sew and craft the most beautiful things! I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Bridget since she was in my 3rd grade class. And I can see I now have so much to learn from her about blogging, her blog is amazing!

Let’s Get Thrifty Tracy’s blog is as much fun to look at as it is to read. She’s got great photos and and I love how she compares refashioning to Michelangelo’s work. 🙂 She can make anyone get excited about thrift store finds!

Nifty Thrifty Goodwill Another great blog on thrifting and refashioning. I really like the recent dress she made from a skirt!

Elizabeth also asked me to answer these questions so you could get to know me a little better.

Favorite Color: Blue and Green. I just can’t decide on one.

Favorite Animal: Snoopy

Favorite Number: 3

Favorite Non-Alcoholic Drink: COFFEE!

Facebook or Twitter: FB

My Passion: My Family. Crafting. Sewing.

Getting or Giving Presents: Giving is way better!

Favorite Pattern: Maremeko or any mod print

Favorite Day of the Week: Sundays

Favorite Flower: Daisy

Thank you again, Elizabeth, this has been fun!

Posted in Awards, Crafting, friends, Refashion, Refashioning, Sewing, Thrifting, upcycling | Tagged beautiful things, blogger award, recycling, Refashion, sunshine award | 8 Comments

Trying to “Think Spring”!

Posted on February 19, 2012 by The Renegade Seamstress

This is one of my favorite refashions so far. I used a thrift store tee shirt and an old long wrap around skirt to make this dress. I’m sorry there aren’t any “before” pictures. But I do think my son, Cooper, did a good job taking the “after” photographs considering it was only 34 degrees and we were freezing!

First, I cut off the bottom of the tee shirt and used the bottom to make 2 inch strips. I sewed the strips together and using the longest stitch and the highest tension ran the strip through my machine to make the ruffle. After cutting the neckline the way I wanted it, I attached the ruffle all the way around. Next, I sewed up the sides of the skirt and attached it to the tee shirt, using a thrift store elastic belt on the inside to gather the middle.