Friends, I'm humbled to be part of The Refashioners 2018 epic line-up. This year, Portia has opened the challenge right up - absolutely any garment goes, as long as you start with an image that inspires you!

With that in mind, you're probably wondering why the heck I've played it so safe!?! Well, aside from not being a particularly gifted refashioner, my initial plan kinda went to pot. 

I was hoping to make a patchwork Megan Nielsen Karri Dress, using the many unloved pairs of jeans I've been holding onto for years. I was really excited about this idea, until I realised that none of the jeans I owned were wide enough for the skirt pieces. 

A trek to my local charity shops revealed that I would need to buy quite a few jeans/denim items to be able to carry this off, which really got me thinking about waste. It seemed like I would be buying items just for the sake of it, when I already have plenty of me-mades in need of some TLC. So, I decided to hold onto my jeans until the right project comes along and hatched another plan.

 

I turned my attention to the By Hand London Kim Dress I made four years ago, using the loveliest Liberty London cotton lawn. Even though it was pretty, I'd never worn it because it was a little too revealing in the bust area, plus I'm not a fan of light-coloured dresses on me. 

Wasting such beautiful fabric made me uneasy though, so this was the push I needed to do something about it. I googled 'Liberty fabric blouses' which led me to this divine image from Pompom magazine and the Stevie Tunic pattern by Tilly and the Buttons immediately sprung to mind! 



Having already made two Stevie tops that I love, this was the perfect pattern to ensure that my Liberty lawn got the second chance it deserved. I chopped the skirt off my Kim Dress and...the rest is history. For this version I opted for the ties at the back and added cuffs too. The purple contrasting fabric was in my destash pile, so I'm glad I found a use for it. 

Was the original dress cuter? Possibly. Will I get lots of wear out of this? Definitely!




If you've got this far, thanks for sticking with me! Once again, Portia's challenge is super inspiring, so make sure you stay updated with the latest here

It's also proven again that when it comes to refashioning, I'm definitely a harverster instead of a reworker. This means that I'm not great at reimagining garments and pretty much only see them as fabric I can use for something else. Elisalex of By Hand London has written an interesting article about these two different approaches in this month's Love Sewing magazine!

Are there any more harvesters out there?

After many an Instagram teaser, behold my striped Cocowawa Honeycomb Dress!

Can you believe I started it back in July? It took me forever to finish, because work was super crazy, plus I was juggling a couple of other sewing projects at the same time.

But, I had SO much fun playing with the direction of the stripes and nailing the front bodice stripe-matching gives me life. I hope you'll also be impressed to know that I managed to squeeze this out of just 1.5m of fabric (a cheap and cheerful seersucker from Stuart's Fabrics stall on Leicester Market).



There's not an awful lot to say that I haven't already covered in my posts about my animal-print dress version or my cocktail-print blouse version.

However, I did make a few small tweaks. I cut a straight 4 (UK size 12) again, but shortened the bodice by a good 1.5cm which makes it perfect in the back, if a little borderline in the front. 

I also took in the top of the princess seams by a 2cm to reduce the shoulder width and took out the same from the back yoke so that the shoulder seams matched up.  

Finally, I cheated and sewed the buttons on without buttonholes. I actually have no problem sewing buttonholes, but I just didn't want them to mess up my stripe-matching on this occasion.



Ironically, I didn't add buttons all the way to the top as I prefer a slightly open neckline, but my collar was misbehaving in these photos as I hadn't pressed it properly. So I finger-pressed it together and it stayed...haha!


I couldn't resist ending with an out-take of me looking displeased with my photographer. Sometimes I can be such a blogzilla...poor Charlotte!


Anyway, although I'm sad I only got to wear this once before the weather turned, I'm happy to have made an early start on next year's summer wardrobe.