Monday, May 18, 2009

My 1st time to refashion clothes

Hi c",) I'm Eva from the Philippines. Our family business is exporting Philippines handicrafts. I designed most of our products using our local materials -buri, sinamay, buntal. etc. making it into hats, gifts, bags, Christmas decors and housewares. Since I'm into designing - topics that interest me online are anything about crafting, designing, decorating, etc.
Which gave me also good ideas on what i can do with our export over-runs/stock lots in our warehouse.
100_6426 My father asked me to clean/organize our warehouse.
100_6427 I found out there are so many unused products/materials that are everywhere - in our warehouse & showrooms.
Presently, we are cleaning the showroom-hopefully I can organize it.
Assorted All the materials/products to be together and sorted out.
Placemats All our over-runs together--sorted in kinds--in good conditions/need improvements/rejects, etc.
Backpacks It will be easier for me to think of what i have and how I will recycle/redesign it.
Last May 2008 my younger sister gave me a sewing machine-as a birthday present. It was a CASCADE S0138 sewing machine. But the manual said-MEZZO sewing machine.
Cascade sm Actually, i don't have formal lessons about sewing. When I was in 1st yr High School-my grandmother taught me how to sew an apron with bandana for our H.E. class. After making a very nice apron/bandana (how i wish i kept it-I can't find it anymore) I didn't touch the sewing machine ever again.
Just until now that I have new sewing machine. I'm so glad I still remember how to put the thread and other stuff in the machine. Although, this is very different to my grandmother's old style Singer machine.
Sometimes I can't still figure it out why thread breaks, continuously. Or how to use those other footers--I'm still afraid to try it. I can't feel if there is really difference when i adjust the thread tension. I can't also figure out how does the pattern selector works--the red color thing. The manual I have is very incomplete. I tried to search online--they don't have it.
I guess, when you like something done and really like what you are doing - even if you are not good at it/or having trouble with your machine - you can do it ! I will look at my materials - ideas will just pop up - suddenly I know how to sew it.
But instead of recycling/redesigning our over-runs products as my 1st plan - after reading some blogs about recycling, refashioning, sewing on clothes - which i got so interested and try to read more about it. I thought of trying refashioning clothes instead and will work on our handicrafts later on.
So, I got 2 shirts that are small on me already. Choosing between the 2 - which one is still in good condition and it will be the main shirt.
Inside-resized Project no. 1: 1-dark blue shirt as the main + 1-light blue shirt sewn on both sides & bottom
Finish-resized = 1 new refashioned blue shirt
Inside-resized  
 Project no. 2: 1-light brown shirt as the main + 1-orange shirt sewn on both sides and bottom
Finish-resized = 1 new refashioned brown/orange shirt
Wht&stripes shirts-resized  
Project no. 3: 1-white shirt as the main + 1-white/blue stripes shirt sewn on both sides & bottom
Finish-resized  = 1 new refashioned white/stripes shirt
I'm playing badminton 2x a week. I usually wear skort (skirt with short inside) when playing. I have this long skirt I'm not using anymore. So, I thought...maybe i can try to make a skort out of it.
Makeskort-resized  
My gray long skirt & my blue badminton skort
Taa--daaa!! Project no. 4: Finish-resizes I now have a new gray skort for my badminton. I was so happy-showing it proudly to my badminton playmates that I made it myself c",)
So, here are the 4 projects i made last 2008 - the very 1st time I tried refashioning clothes. Thanks to all the bloggers online who shared their ideas. It gave me inspiration to make my own.
**sorry there are no tutorials yet. I'm still new here and sometimes I was so engrossed sewing, I'm always forgeting to take pictures.