Refashion Friday: The Refashioners 2016 Result!

Ohmygoodness have you even seen the refashions coming out of this year's Refashioners blogger challenge hosted on at Portia's Makery blog?! TOO MUCH AWESOMENESS!!!!! I genuinely didn't expect the level of innovation AND wearability from every single instalment so far. If this doesn't get sewers running for their nearest charity shop/thrift store/op shop, then literally nothing will. Well, until they see my contribution perhaps!! I jest. I'm really pleased with the three projects I created from the three (ok, it ended up being four) pairs of unwanted jeans pictured below.

The garments I made are useful, well-made items that I know will see lots of use. However, I'm just not in the headspace these days to respond to this brief as creatively as the other bloggers seem to have so far. But no matter, if I have been able to inspire some people to look to existing textiles rather than always opting for metres of new fabric to indulge their passion and clothe their kids, then I couldn't be happier.

So what did I make? In short I made a pair of stretch denim jeggings for Dolores, two denim bucket hats (one for Dolores, one for the mini-dude I'm growing), and a pair of appliquéd dungarees (also for He-who-has-yet-to-be-born). As I mentioned in my previous post, I was interested in using this year's Refashioners challenge brief to explore the different types of denim that are used to make mass-produced jeans, and to figure out suitable projects to best utilise the variety of properties. More details of the why's and how's of what transpired can be found on my post over at the Makery blog, but basically there was a lot of this type of thing going on:

What's been your favourite of the blogger jeans refashions so far? For me, from what we've seen so far, it's a toss up between Rosie's graduated shades of denim dress, Joost's epic denim shoes and Megan Nielsen's panelled dress. Don't forget that there's a hefty prize for the winner of the community challenge, so why not have a bash at a jeans refashion yourself?

Refashion Friday: The Refashioners 2016!!!

(The Refashioners 2016! image source: Makery)

Ohmygoodness! SUCH exciting times. The Refashioners challenge, brain child of the wonderfully creative Portia, is back this year with a new theme: JEANS. A quick explanation: a selection of amazing sewing bloggers (and me) have been asked to refashion/rework/remake/reinvent some jeans, and their creations will be revealed on Portia's Makery blog throughout August. There is also a community challenge where anyone can submit a jeans refashion, and may well snag an ENORMOUS bounty of sewing-related prizes.

My part in this challenge is pretty much done: I've refashioned my heart out and submitted my blog post and images to Portia. My post will appear with the rest at some point in August, but I'll blog about it and link to it over here once it's gone live in case you'd like to take a look. Obviously, those of us taking part in the blogger challenge are pretty much sworn to secrecy until our posts publish, but I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying that the above three pairs of jeans don't look like that anymore! It's going to be beyond exciting to see what the other bloggers AND THEN the whole damn sewing community come up with. There's going to be some seriously interesting, creative and inspirational projects being shared, of that I have no doubt. The unwanted denim of this world is no longer safe!

What about you? Are you going to be taking part in one form or another this year? Have you refashioned jeans before? What did you make and was it a success? Have you seen any other fabulous jeans refashions IRL or on the interwebs that've inspired you? 

Refashion Friday: The Refashioners 2015 Result!

If you are even vaguely interested in refashioning, then you've probably already been flipping out over the Refashioners 2015 series on Portia's Makery blog. The big reveals of the shirt challenge results are filtering in, one per weekday, throughout August. There's been some amazing and truly inspirational projects so far, including Elisalex from By Hand London's reworking of the swiss dot Farah shirt I sent her. 

So, it's time to share my shirt transformation! I started out with this bias-cut gingham dress shirt (picture above) which I turned into the toddler shirt dress you can see in the other pictures in this post. It was probably no surprise to you all that I made something for Dolores. I make no apologies for that as I know it's going to see a good amount of use, and I refuse to make anything these days that I don't think will be worn (by someone at least!). 

The shirt I was sent felt quite preppy to me and the fabric has quite a lot of body, so those things helped me figure out what approach to take with the project. If you want to read more about how I went about this refashion, check out the full post on Portia's blog here. 

Don't forget: you can take part yourself by submitting a shirt refashion. You could end up winning a truly ridiculous amount of sewing-related prizes, which is now worth something like £700 (including my Dolores batwing pattern, donchaknow!). If you have even a vague idea of something you could do with an old shirt, then you may as well have a pop! And if you don't have an idea, go on Pinterest to get some inspiration (my Refashioning Project Ideas board has some crackers). Good luck! 

Refashion Friday: Announcing The Refashioners 2015

It's an exciting time for fans of refashioning! Portia of Makery (formerly Miss P) is currently hosting another round of The Refashioners, a group based challenge where she invites a selection of sewing bloggers to attempt a refashion, and shares their methods on her blog in a bid to encourage more members of the sewing community to have a go at refashioning. Well, this year she has amped it right up! 2015's challenge is more refined (this year it's focussing solely on shirts), she has amassed an amazing array of 20 talented and sewing bloggers (you can see the line-up here), AND she's encouraging other sewers to take part with the chance to win some amazing sewing-related prizes.  

Personally, I was lucky enough to be asked to take part in 2011 and 2013. AND I'm taking part again this year! I'm really excited as it's soooo much fun to be involved in! And preaching the gospel of refashioning is something that is very close to my heart, as Portia knows. Because The Refashioners has grown so much, Portia is no longer sending out the raw materials herself (that would be insane-expensive), so instead most of us are taking part in a swap to provide each other with the shirts. I bought a shirt and sent it to Elisalex from By Hand London, and Sally from Charity Shop Chic (who I interviewed here a couple of years ago) sent me the bias cut gingham dress shirt pictured above. 

Our deadline is the end of July, and at the time of writing, all I've done is stick it through the wash! However, I just made four sample garments in eight days whilst Dolores was napping or after she'd gone to bed, so I'm not worried that I won't get it done in time! I've got heaps of ideas of what direction to take that I keep tossing about in my head. I can't wait to see what the other sewing bloggers and the other sewers come up with! So, what about you? Are you going to have a crack at a shirt refashion?

Refashion Friday: The Refashioners Return...

With much excitement, today I can announce that Portia (AKA Miss P) is hosting and organising another round of 'The Refashioners'. As she discussed in the recent interview she undertook on this here little blog, Portia explains that the aim of The Refashioners challenge is to encourage sewers to use  existing garments as the basis of some of their projects, and to look at refashioning in a new light. 

Kicking off on her blog on 3rd June, over two weeks we'll be seeing the results of the selected sewing bloggers Miss P has charged with injecting wearability into unloved garments. 'So who are these sewing bloggers Miss P has gathered for the 2013 round of The Refashioners?', you may ask... 

Karen - Did You Make That 
Dixie - Dixie DIY 
Portia - Miss P 
Marie - A Stitching Odyssey 
Joanne - Stitch and Witter 
Lauren - Lladybird
Tasha - By Gum By Golly
Elisalex - Stitch me Softly and By Hand - London
Sally - Charity Shop Chic
Liz - Cotton & Curls 
Zoe (AKA me) - 'So, Zo...' 

I think Portia has done an awesome job in approaching sewers that create a real variety of personal styles and sewing approaches. I'm positive that the results will be as equally varied, with those two weeks providing a healthy dollop of inspiration whatever floats your own stylistic boat.

Shortly we will all be sent our raw materials to get making. I feel a little intimidated about creating something fabulous but wearable whilst in such talented company! Especially because I feel a bit out of practice having not worked for TRAIDremade for six months now. I can only flex the refashioning muscles my mumma gave me I guess!