Years ago, I stumbled upon a blog that I thought was so cool. The author spent one year buying thrift store clothes and refashioning them. Her blog is called refashionista (http://refashionista.net/category/refashions/). I loved her concept and looking through her pictures it was so fun and interesting to see the before and after photos.
No one taught me to sew. My mother is a gifted seamstress. I mean hugely gifted. And I was an impressively stubborn child. She tried to teach me but I’m mostly self-taught due to my stubbornness. I sat down at the sewing machine and would rarely accept tutelage. It turned out I had a giftedness for it and so it came to me easily.
After moving out, I rarely sewed. My mother’s sewing room was so well stocked. Sewing in her sewing room was like sewing in Joann Fabrics. You need buttons? Got tons. You need a zipper? There’s a drawer for that. You need a pattern? Boxes full of them. You need, literally any color of thread, Velcro, snaps, elastic? It’s all there. So it was annoying for me to learn outside of the perfection of that sewing room.
At 35 years of age, I finally picked up the hobby again. I needed an outlet desperately. Something that was all me, all for me, and creative. I’ve been married 11 years, have 5 kids, and have moved crossed country three times in less than five years. It was time to reclaim a corner of my taxed mind.
I love refashionista’s concept but I want to do something different. I’m going to make one new thing a week for a year, I may repurpose something but I’ll do mostly new. 52 weeks of adding new things to my wardrobe. I fully realize some of these things will be flops but that’s part of the fun and learning.
So if you like before and after photos, like sewing or like fashion (flops and successes) follow along it ought to be interesting!
My first sewing project in a while was this dress. I thought the pattern was fun and different, and it’s woven fabric so easy to work with. I picked out the fabric and my kids responses to the pattern with the fabric were epic. My 17 year old daughter politely responded, “Well, it’s not my style.” My 9 year old upon seeing the completed number stated, “Wow, that looks better than I thought it would.” LOL! I also finger knitted the scarf to match. That was a fun little skill to pick up, gotta love you tube!
The first project, week one, will be this peekaboo shoulder shirt. I fell in love with the fabric and bought it before I even knew what I’d do with it. Stay tuned for the reveal, and what I thought of the pattern! -Tricia Priest
Sew Sanity 