I often bang on about my love of Pinterest so I thought I would commit my love to the Internet and carry on my adoration via our little blog. I often spend evenings whilst half watching the telly, looking for ideas for my little craft business and for my wardrobe. My favourite thing at the moment is upcycling or as I like to call it ‘the art of making good”. I have tonnes of fabric stashed away for that day when I can use it, it drives some members of my family a bit barmy as they are do not share my hoarding gene. I also have a number of charity shop items where I liked the fabric but not necessarily the shape and thought I would hang on to it to do a “Great British Sewing Bee” alteration to it.
To add to my stash I’m pleased to say I’ve accumulated quite a few of my fella’s’ old work shirts. He goes thought them like you wouldn’t believe. He’s also lost quite a bit of weight recently so has surplus shirts which I have cunningly snaffled and now have a bag full.
It would appear that gathering the ideas is one thing but when it comes to actually doing it, my skills are somewhat lacking, or so I thought….
One day last week whilst managing half term chaos, whingeing, falling out etc., I stole 5 minutes for a sneaky Pinny peak (probably on the loo but that’s maybe too much info). Low and behold there was the perfect and seemingly straightforward idea for upcycling. I was clamouring to get going but wandering around with my wonderful sewing scissors, lots of pins and small children, I would have to wait for an evening of child free peace to get going.
The idea was fairly simple really, take a mans work shirt and make it smaller to fit me – Simples! To start with I cut the collar off and made the neckline into a granddad shaped collar. Hurrah! I was on a roll, the cuffs were cut off below the elbow and sewn smaller – this was all going brilliantly! Well, it was until I realised I had a lot more work to do to the get the side seams right so I didn’t look like I was wearing a nightshirt. I kept referring to the Parisian beauty on Pinterest just to make sure I was doing it right. She had done this in no time and now looked like she had stepped out of Vogue magazine, I was wearing a half cut up shirt over my PJ’s and looked like Miranda!
Eventually I worked it out whilst watching The Casual Vacancy – that was no mean feat I can tell you. I had to cut along them side seams all the way to the cuffs and take in the shirt whilst trying to give it a more feminine shape and making it so I could fit it over my not particularly ample bosom, lost yet? I was. Eventually after much pinning, hand sewing, swearing, unpicking and finally sewing proper I had a finished shirt. After a good iron it looks pretty good! I’m waiting for a warmer day to wear it but I think it looks pretty nice. Thank you TM Lewin who made the shirt in the first place!
Till next time xx
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