Upcycled Curtains -> Futon cover and Cushions

In the new house, the sewing room has an old futon. It is very comfortable but the cover is terracotta and faded unevenly. I've had a throw on it, but have now replaced that with a fitted cover. The seat depth is a little too deep for me so I like cushions to support my back. Its a great place to sit when unpicking, drinking morning coffee, or for OH to chat whilst I sew.

It can also be a spare bed for guests, and the bedding is all stored underneath.

I didn't buy anything new for this project, which is good from both a financial and a reuse/recycle perspective.

The sofa cover is made from old curtain lining fabric. It is just a simple envelope with the far end left open. 

I went for huge cushions, 65 x 65 cm, and stuffed them well as they tend to flatten down with use.

The cushion inserts are made from the front of the same curtains (plain thin cream cotton) stuffed with wadding from various unused smaller cushions etc.

The cushion cover fronts are made from another old curtain of mine, and the back from some really old curtains, from a friend's house many years ago.

Platinum Jubilee Dress Completed

I've finished the Platinum Jubilee Dress.

It has one sleeve and the outer wrap front in the Union Flag print (on the diagonal).

The other sleeve, other front and back in red. The neck band and ties in dark blue.

Pocket for a Polo Shirt

 I had this shirt which had a logo on it (related to something I was involved in many years ago).

As the shirt was still in good condition I decided to add a pocket to cover the logo (for the photo below  I have coloured over the logo as its not relevant).

I chose a quilting fabric from Auntie J, which I interfaced and lined with plain purple fabric from Auntie A.

I plan to wear this with olive or tan pants as it doesn't particularly match the other purples in my wardrobe (purple is not a key colour for me)

Platinum Jubilee Dress Ideas

I rummaged in the knits box and found these 3 fabrics which work quite well together.

I am envisioning a wrap dress, using the blue fabric for the neck binding and ties, and then the red and print for the rest.

I've sketched 3 options all with the blue bands. 

The first has the front wrap and one sleeve in the print and the rest of the dress in red. 

The second has the body in red and only the sleeves in the print, and the third has the upper body in red and the skirt in the print.

In any of them I could also run the blue band down the front edge of the skirt overlap to add a vertical line.

I have 2.8 metres of the plain red, 0.6metres of the blue and 1.4 metres of the union jack flag print.

All of them are lightweight viscose jersey with a little stretch.

I'm planning to adapt this wrap dress pattern from Prima September 2014 (nice to use a British pattern).

Which dress layout do you prefer?

Platinum Jubilee Capsule Wardrobe Plan

I had an idea for a capsule wardrobe for the Platinum Jubilee weekend.

I've not done a capsule wardrobe for ages, so a new one would be fun for me.

Where I can I will reuse or repurpose existing items as this just seems to make sense.

This shirt from February, cotton so could be worn in summer.

Perhaps this dress from January, though ponte may be too warm for June.

This top also from January, this is viscose jersey so fine for summer

worn with the blue jeans from March, not too thick so should be OK.

Blue Cardigan from Oct 2020, over the red dress.

Red cardigan from April 2020, over anything blue

T shirt from Jan 2020, has brushed poly sleeves so can feel quite warm.

Hmm that would cover the 4 days without me sewing anything new! 

However if the weather is warm on those days, several of these outfits would just be too hot so perhaps there is some scope for sewing some more summery items.

New Sleeves for Old Shirts

I own a number of short sleeved shirts from Regatta, unfortunately the cut of the very short sleeves was neither comfortable nor flattering and they were in the alter or donate pile.
So I decided to remove the short sleeves and add alternative sleeves to the shirts, which has made them all wearable. I used the sleeve and cuff pattern from the Prima Shirtdress (March 2020 Prima Magazine) as the starting point.

I'll start with my last one as it is my favourite.

I didn't have any co-ordinating print fabric in my resources for this one, so used plain white and added 3 machine embroideries on each sleeve, all done with the same pink/wine/tan threads. The butterfly at the top is built in to the Janome 200E, the dragonfly is from Kiwi Kreatives and the floral from Oh My Crafty Supplies Inc.

The red and tan check shirt has white embroidered sleeves.

This shirt has turquoise batik sleeves.

This shirt has pale blue sleeves, picking up the blue in the check.

This green and white check shirt has sleeves from a green sewing themed fabric.

This blue and white checked shirt has 3/4 sleeves in a blue, white and aqua print and extra long cuffs with 3 buttons.

Although a lot of work went into the cuffs and their 6 buttons and button holes it is my least favourite as the 3/4 length sleeves are rather awkward. I suspect it'll get edited again to have elbow length sleeves.

This white shirt has bright floral print elbow length sleeves, the fabric rescued from a gone wrong dress project.

I don't have any pictures of the shirts before the alterations, however they were all of this sort of style. The short sleeves taper towards the end, in a way that my own arms do not ;-) hence the need for the work.