Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: World's Raggiest Boxer Shorts Edition

This is the story of a pair of boxer shorts. They are cotton with an exposed wide elastic waist that says Old Navy and very soft. They were given to my son but at the time they were a size too big so he didn't want them.

Since I wear hand me down boxers for pajama shorts in the summer I appropriated them. I don't care if they're too big, they're comfortable. They were worn and washed hundreds of times until finally the elastic gave out. No problem, they were too big anyway, right? I simply cut off the elastic, serged the top of the fabric to keep it from unraveling, then folded it down and sewed the fold in place for a very easy casing which I filled with a slim elastic that I tied together at the ends. I wanted to be able to replace it easily if this elastic wore out as well. I planned to wear these for another bunch of years, until they were nothing but threads thank you very much.

Well, the time of the threads is beginning but I'm not ready to let go. So, out come the pinking shears. I cut a couple of patches from a little boy's shorts project gone wrong (the rest of the project went into my box of fabric scraps for Karen's Online Angels quilting projects and the waste into my stuffing bag) and sewed them over the disintegrating areas of the boxers.

You can see the edge of the waistband elastic in this one.

I plan to add patches as needed until there is no more room to patch. ;)

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Pink Floral Dress to Pink Floral Skirt

A few days ago my daughter, a size 0, cleaned out her closet and brought me this very pretty size 4 dress from H&M. It was destined for my charity box, knowing it would make some young girl happy to have something so pretty...until I noticed that it had a stain on the front. Also, she had melted the ribbon trim when she'd accidentally touched it with the iron. So now I knew it wasn't suitable for giving...sigh. What to do with it? The fabric was too pretty to let go. My daughter suggested grocery bags, but I hoped to see it have a second life as clothing.

Finally, I decided to remove the ribbon and separate the bodice from the skirt. I thought the skirt wide enough that I could make a summer top from it for myself, a size 16.

Once it was detached I slipped it over my head only to decide it was too snug around the top and made me look squished. But I did discover just how much give the fabric had and decided that with very little effort I could have a bright, new skirt.

All I had to do was iron down along the old fold line and sew a quick stitch all around the top. I can't believe how much stretch it has to it! I saved the usable parts of the ribbon - heaven knows I'm always looking for nice ribbon - in my ribbon stash box. I need to check with my daughter to see if she'd like the bodice as a summer top, otherwise I'm going to scavenge it to make a nice fabric bow to cover the stain. It falls very high on the skirt and I plan to wear a long shirt with this anyway so I will be able to get away with it regardless of whether she wants the bodice or not. If she doesn't, I'll also end up with a very long pink zipper. I'm thinking it might make a fun purse. We'll see.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Legwarmers From a Felted Sweater

I got hurt at work and the doctor's orders are to stay at home with the wound open to the air. But we keep the house a comfortable temperature for walking around in flannel pajamas or sweats. How can I keep my knees exposed and not have my legs cold? I needed some nice wool legwarmers. So off to Goodwill I went on the way home from the doctor. Hey - he said I could stop for my prescription, what was one more stop? It was something I needed to convalesce.

This is a nice, heavy Ralph Lauren wool sweater. I washed and dried it when I got home to be sure it was felted all the way down. It had clearly been donated because the previous owner had begun the felting process. ;)



In this first photo you can see where I've begun to pick the sleeves off stitch by stitch.




The second photo shows the sleeves-cum-legwarmers, a small pile of wool bits which went into my stuffing bag, and the leftover body of the sweater. Anyone have a suggestion for what that should become? I'm thinking of trying either mittens or slippers. What do you think?

Two Hats for Thursday

As always, for Online Angels.

These hats are in honor of my Angel friend Tracy and her beautiful Mom, who passed this week.

Betty worked long after most folks have retired, was a strong and loving lady. She certainly raised a wonderful woman, Tracy, who herself is a strong and loving mom.

The black yarn is soft, like a mom's loving touch, and is recycled from a hat I made my own mom. The body of the hat is very thick and warm, protecting a little one's head from being cold or bumped, just like Betty - strong and present.

The variegated is a favorite yarn of mine. It makes me smile when I see it, just as Tracy brings joy and light to those around her.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Pink Trim Jeans Skirt

The decluttering of the attic continues.

In my latest find I came across a pair of jeans I once loved but which were put away when I hit size 28. They're tagged as a size 20, but the waist measures 17.5" across the back, making them a 35" waist. No before photo, sorry. I forgot. The jeans were that bleached, nearly-white denim from the 90's, with a strip of light pink braided fabric down the sides.

I snipped the legs off, partially picked out the front and back seams, then resewed them with a light pink thread that matches the side accents. I also sewed along the bottom so it will only fray up a little bit, then picked the tag off the back pocket. It was black and red - definitely didn't work with the pink.





Once it was completed I loved everything about it! Then I put it on.

Is size 20 a 35" waist? I wear 14/16 and they usually have a little give in the waist. Regardless, as you can see from the photos, the skirt I so lovingly remade from a well loved pair of jeans that were stored away for years makes me look like a walrus. :( It's a stretch denim & the jeans were clearly made to stretch attractively across the body of someone who has feminine hips, which I, sadly, do not. When they were jeans I wore them with a long shirt over them - the one I made the pink pillow from a few days ago - and clearly never noticed how bad they must have looked on me.

So - my bad luck is your good luck. Someone out there with a 35" waist and a beautiful feminine figure is going to receive this skirt to enjoy. I'll run this giveaway until 8pm Eastern US time, Thanksgiving Day (for those outside the US that's Thursday November 26th, when I'll have one of the guests at my family gathering pick a number from all the entries received.

To enter please comment below with your blog URL. If you don't have a blog of your own show me the URL of a blog you enjoy reading.

Choice of shipping method reserved. I am not a professional seamstress, skirt may or may not fit you, stand up to the durability of your laundry appliances (it has been washed twice on heavy duty with no problem), YMMV, etc. Risk of use of this item is with the winner, I shall not be liable for any damages, real or perceived, as a result of winning my friendly little drawing.

Enjoy folks!

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: More Pillows

Another project from the old pillows I pulled out of storage. I loved the shirt, but it was a 3X and no matter how I could picture modifying it to fit me now there was no option that would cut away the stain that was right on the front. Making a pillow cover did the trick. And of course there are the obligatory guinea pig pillows made from the sleeves and stuffed with scraps from other projects.


These took all of twenty minutes to put together. And for all my 'get rid of it now if you can't use it' I'm kind of glad I found this stashed in the attic. The colors are pretty and it makes me smile to look at the shirt. Finding a good use for it will let me smile at it some more.

Halloween Costume Accessories From Too Big Linen Outfit

I love dressing like a Pirate Wench whenever the opportunity arises. I've been trying to stick to period when I make new pieces and had been wanting to replace the stretch velvet accessories I had with some linen ones. While going through the attic I found an old Lord & Taylor linen outfit in size 26. I thought I might refashion it into a smaller size of the same outfit, but then the elastic let go when I picked it up and I decided to just rip into it and scavenge the fabric. Here it is before:


From that nice amount of fabric I made a head wrap, a belt that wraps around me three times generously with leftover still hanging to my knees, a pouch from the linen side of the pockets and the jacket drawstring, some long strips to secure my fake weapons and scope to my belt with, and a nice, long strip to wrap around my antiqued 'rum' bottle. Here they are folded up on my ironing board:



And here they are in action:


I had a great time wearing this, especially at work!

Easiest Refashion Ever

Can I even call this a refashion? I needed a shrug to wear with the dress but didn't have anything that suited it. The 'shrug' you see here was originally a tightly fitting wrap top. I tried it over the dress and while it didn't look bad, it took away from the nice structure of the dress itself. I untied it and caught a glimpse in the mirror when I went to take it off. Loose like that the bottom had a nice flare that flattered my figure and let the fit of the dress show.

At first I thought I'd just leave the four strings dangling, and I might have if not for the fact that I needed this outfit for work. It would just look too sloppy. I tried a couple more tops but kept going back to the wrap. Finally I realized I hadn't worn it as intended in the entire time since I got it as a hand me down from my kid, so why was I hesitating to snip off those extra strings? So I did. Now instead of an unused wrap blouse I have a great little black shrug.

I got SO many compliments on this outfit and can't wait to wear it again! But do you think I'm cheating by calling this a refashion?

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Bless Someone Else

I've begun working on shredding years worth of files that I have been needlessly saving mostly because I couldn't face going through it all. I've gone at it here and there but I never tackle it. Generally, I'd say it is because I seem to always have to stop because the house gets out of control if I don't keep tending to it.

Well, I'm about at the end of my rope with the house and have made that very well known. As a result it seems that my spouse (the official dishwasher, lawn-mower and mechanical handyperson) is making an effort to wipe off a counter after making a sandwich and that sort of thing that seems small but takes tons of time out of the day when you have to do it over and over again. We won't even mention the built up resentment over it.


Adding to the ability to keep the house a little more under control is that the kids have their own spaces now. I say spaces and not places because only my son has his own place. My daughter has taken over the studio apartment over hubby's workshop which previously served as their teenage hangout and childhood pool cabana. So she's not exactly left home but she's in her own space. This is wonderful for two reasons - spouse can't abdicate responsibility for cleaning up something by blaming it on someone else but best of all - when I come across something that belongs to one of the kids it goes in a bag or box that gets handed to them. If it isn't important enough to occupy their space then why should I have to store it? You wouldn't believe the amount of stuff my kid has told me to donate. It has been great to give so many things (often brand new) to OA to give to folks to enjoy.

With these two great improvements under my belt I have decided to begin to tackle the next beast - our attic. I used to be very good at keeping up with it but when I got sick I couldn't go up there any more. That was over ten years ago. I've made short bursts of progress up there in the last couple of years but my daughter just bags things she can't deal with up and tosses them there so any progress disappears when the clothing season changes.

I've decided to come at this by taking one box, bag or plastic tote down to look through each week. Today, the first day, I actually brought down a kitchen trash bag, a plastic tote and a few items I pulled out of another tote. Lots of little gifty things for the Angels to put up for auction, a few toys still in their boxes, some moldy baby outfits bought for a gift and never given (makes me wonder how badly the few keepsakes I have up there of the kids' fared *sniffle*)...and a bin of 3X clothing.

Now I'm not much for saving that kind of thing. As I lost weight my clothing was given away to family members who it would fit but I couldn't let go of the last of this. My spouse promised me that if I ever needed it again he'd just buy me something new but I'd already spent quite a few dollars on these very nice dress clothes. At the time I wasn't very keen on dressing up so each item was worn very few times and very carefully.

What a blessing these items will be for a person who needs these for job interviews or office work! They're boxed up and ready to be dropped off for shipping to Online-Angels. No refashioning of these - I think they'll do more good as they are.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Curtain to Grocery Bags

More from the ultra-soft 80's curtains Mom gave me. I used the bulk of them for pillowcases, put some parts not large enough for me to work with but large enough to be quilted with in the box where I collect fabric to send to the wonderful Karen who makes tons of quilts for OA and have made some grocery totes from the leftovers large enough to work for that purpose. One for Mom, one for me. Extras will be split between OA and Christmas giving.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: My First Reverse Applique

I'm very excited about this adventure! So excited that as you can see there are two posts today and I took quite a few photos of this project. I wasn't able to decide which to use so you've got a Photobucket slideshow.

The white, short sleeve shirt was such a favorite of mine that around here it is known by name - Midvale School for the Gifted. It was saved in a drawer for (mumble, mumble) six years (mumble, mumble) because I loved it so much I knew I could eventually find a way to wear it again. Midvale had two major problems - it was a 2X, and praise God I am no longer a 2X, in addition to it having quite a few stains on it. The neckband was discolored from age. Funny enough, in the process of remaking these shirts I found that the back of the print is stained too but luckily it does not show through to the front. You can see that stain in the slideshow.

The second shirt is a Large and while I'm a large in Ladies' garments, I am apparently not a Large in Men's long sleeve t-shirts. So it is a little wide around the middle and the shoulders are too big. Being a plain, not well fitted shirt, it wasn't getting much wear. I wanted to resize the shoulders, but the sleeves, despite how large the shirt is, come just to my wrists. Because I am often very cold in the winter I need the length of the sleeves so until I have the patience to lengthen them while taking in the shirt overall, I'm going to leave it as it is. Due to said coldness I generally dress in quite a few layers so the extra space is good for the wintertime layering. When it starts to annoy me I'll adjust it some more.

There were two graphics on the shirt, the large main one on the chest, and a smaller one near the hem, front left. I like the look of shirts with a little graphic at top center back so I placed the smaller graphic there on the project shirt. The large graphic went back to the same place on the new shirt as it was on the original.

The color of the shirt to be appliqued said Frankenstein to me so I wanted to make a Frankensteiny stitch for the project. Good thing - because at first I forgot to change to a ball point needle. It was definitely looking Frankenstein-like by the time I figured it out. But I did eventually catch my error. Since I was going for Frankie anyway, I didn't pick too much of it out. The stitch is my machine's smallest straight stitch, layered next with the smallest zig zag and topped with the largest zig zag. On the front it is flawless. The back has remnants of my experimentation. If it begins to annoy me I'll pick more of the non-ball point needle stitch out.

In the true spirit of Waste Not Want Not, I made pillows for our guinea pigs out of the short sleeves from the white shirt and the panel I cut out from the green one in order to expose the applique. They're stuffed with the other leftover bits of the white shirt.

I love how it turned out and know I will wear it quite a bit now that chilly season has set in.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Bathmat Edition

As you can see from this photo, our bathmat had quite a large area that had turned to nothing more than strings. The towel next to it was fine, with the exception that the sides were unraveling. I can't remember where I saw the idea of a bathmat woven from towels but I knew these two items were destined to become one.

If anyone reading knows where I found my inspiration please comment, I want to credit the person whose idea it was originally.

Once I had all the strips cut I stitched them in place across one end horizontally and one vertically then wove them into each other, then began anchoring each strip down between the weaves. The first couple of rows I sewed without pinning. I started to get frustrated at the weave slipping out when I worked it in and out of my machine so I took to pinning it.

Then I got tired of pinning and repinning every time something shifted, so I went back to no pins. I felt like it was a lot of work for something so simple, but what it came down to was it was quite a task for my little quarter century old Kenmore. I love my machine dearly, it has been quite the workhorse but two or three thicknesses of fluffy towel and a thick bath mat are just too much to ask of it. I really need to learn more about heavy duty machines because I should eventually add one to my lineup.

As you can see from the photo, it is not quite perfect but it sure is nice. Thick, soft and will keep the tootsies warm this winter.

Two favorite things about this project:

How soft and pretty this turned out.

Hearing the following conversation going on in the living room:

(Phone Rings)

Kid: Hi Dad

(Pause)

Kid: She's in the office. (My sewing room is also the home office & library.)

(Pause)

Kid: Sewing a new bath rug out of the old bath rug and a towel.


Now, you probably have to love crafting as much as I do to be so pleased by this, or at least know how matter of factly she made the last statement as though her father should know if I was in there SOMETHING was being remade into something else.

I Made It to Wardrobe Refashion!

On my 3rd try I finally made the cut! You can see my first post here!

The Pledge

I, Crunchysews, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 2 months. I pledge that i shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoted, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed, Crunchysews.

Waste Not, Want Not Wednesday One

I've got an alliterated theme day!

Years ago when I worked in a retail store warehouse I needed jeans to wear. Being an 80's throwback used to wearing leggings I purchased some skin-tight, stretchy, pull-on jeans which I wore with longer shirts. Well, needless to say, I haven't worn these in years, both because I don't own many long shirts anymore and because I generally wear skirts, even in the snowy days of winter. (You just wear longer skirts with sweater tights under them then.)

I've got at least five pairs of these just waiting for something to be done with them. Today I finally got around to the first pair. I was lazy, since this was supposed to be an experimental project and didn't rethread the serger with black thread, but other than that I will deem this a successful project. It also marks my first use of iron-on hem tape in place of pins. I think I will be using that approach for a while as I have a bunch of it I got with Ikea curtains and never used.

The insert fabric was a piece I had on hand from one of the many remnant bin raidings I have been on over the years. So many little bits of fun fabric come from there!

It was very easy to do, just cut off the legs, sew in the fabric, try on, mark the hem, serge it to the length I wanted, turn under, press in place and sew. My one frustration was that the fabric, as mentioned, is stretchy...ugh...not fun to sew with a regular machine but I did manage.

I'm planning some more of these!