Tank top as pattern for Flapper dress

I've been in seriously low depression these past three weeks; it took me forever to get to the sewing machine. With depression I had zero and I mean NO energy at all. A fog of a wet, damp cloud fell inside my head, weighing down my thoughts and exhausting me. After a batch of chocolate chip cookies and a homemade pizza, life is looking a little better!

Walmart sells cut-rate cheap fabrics, some of which I used for the flapper dress. To start, I folded the cloth and used a tank top half for a pattern at the fold. It was so easy: What a discovery!

I used chalk to trace the tank top shape on the fabric fold, then cut. Iced Coffee fueled the project!

You can see the neck and the arms as a one-piece.

Inserts were added to shape the sides.

A good 11" inches or so from the bottom needed to go to achieve my favorite "midi" length.

See the shape of the hemline - it worked! Woot!

Finally - I can smile in the sunlight again!

Muddy colored sheet to sweet pink kimono!

The thrift store sheet had a muddy purplish hue, and I needed practice sewing. When sheet met me, I seized my chalk, yardstick, and scissors and followed the instructions for the retro Magic Reversible Kimono. (Only one sheet meant only one-thickness kimono, not reversible, fyi). Then I made my own bias tape with which to trim the neckline and fill in the too-open back. (Cheap Wal-Mart discount material proved abundant, and the material's creamy shininess actually complements the pink). Yes, pink: I bleached that old sheet with a vengeance, then dyed it with a quick bath of RIT Petal Pink. If you leave it in the full 30 minutes, the pink is too "bubble-gum" and I wanted it a gentle pastel. So I just ran the sheet through the 15 minutes of RIT Petal Pink fame in the hot water cycle. And I love the result!!

Sweater hat

I made a hat out of a scrappy old moth-bitten sweater. Sorry - forgot to take a "before" photo, but in my defense the sweater was pretty ratty. It makes for a lovely little hat, though!

Horrid Caftan to Comfy Skirt

Old sheets from the thrift store were meant for practicing on, right? So practice I did, and attempted to sew a caftan. Each time I wore it, a kitten died, it was that horrid. What to do? Take scissors and chop, of course! And so I did, re-fashioning a skirt from the bottom half. First try, and it feels comfy. Sure, it's not perfect, but I never made a skirt before so I am fairly pleased with the result.

Taking it all off!

It's 85º F. outside and by golly, I need a sundress. This thrifted blue denim dress with the pin-tucks came down to my ankles, fercryinoutloud! And it's been in my closet for a decade, no less than, anyway... so what on earth could be done to improve this Blue Bad Boy? Let me take off the bottom, a full 11", and we shall take it from there. Well, I adore the way it came out! I don't think it needs anything else (though I was considering bleaching a section for the "ombre" effect). What do you think?

Another Happy Hat from old, torn sweatpants

Hats are so much fun to make, so satisfying to collect and to wear. Why is that? What is it about hats that makes them special? My daughter's sweatpants had a huge hole, and it was calling my name: "MAMA! Fix me!" Naturally, I felt compelled to rescue the poor sweatpants. I followed My Magic Mom's 'Cloche Hat Tutorial'. Only now do I realize I forgot to take photos of the pieces I traced and cut out; however, the aforementioned tutorial will show you exactly how I did it.

Fat Me and a Pocket Shift from an old sheet

Fat Me: Thank you, psychiatric meds. You've made my body a blob of yuk and I hate it. Psych meds, you've packed on fifteen or twenty pounds over the course of two months. Salads be damned! And I practically live on salads, greens, veggies... Seriously, I do not know how much less I can eat without stopping eating altogether. Betcha I'd still gain weight if I quit eating. Grrr... How much of the weight gain is due to menopause? The weight gain really bums me out and balloons my bum. No, it is NOT funny!! Grrr... Should I quit the psych meds and be skinny but depressed? At least I'd look good. Oh, Woe Is Me! Woe! And there's Chocolate Moose Tracks ice cream sitting in the freezer, a virgin half-gallon, which I yearn to sully.

Pocket Shift from an Old Sheet: I posted about this briefly over at Refashion Co-op. Now here's the deal with the shift - I dyed the old sheet twice. The first time I used only one bottom of RIT Dye Black, and the cloth turned purple not black. Nice, but not great. So the second dye bath used RIT Dye Dark Brown and a half a bottle of black, and POW! The color punched up nice and rich. I'm happy with it. I added large pockets to the shift, plus I hand-stitched a silk tie around the neckline. The inspiration came from Annekata's page on Japanese tunics, which are simple yet adorable.
Albert 'photobombed' a couple times, for added charm.

from Gnarly Sweatpants, a fetching Black Beret

The black sweatpants are pilled, stretched, and just plain gnarly. What to do but a black beret?!!? I only used one leg, so there's plenty of fabric left to work with later. I took pictures and provide a step-by-step set of instructions for making the beret. Annekata's tutorial taught me how, so you might like to check out her guidelines.

Old Navy Jeans Refashion

Two years ago I weighed some 165 lbs., thanks to a change in medication. I ballooned and then the weight gain made me totally miserable. After I lost the weight by ditching the meds, I had cut into these Old Navy Jeans because they were too large... Well, my cutting flubbed and I stuffed them in a little closet. Early this morning I remembered them and so here you have it, a photo essay of a jeans to skirt refashion.

Voila! A normal length skirt
White leather belt fell in love with me at the Goodwill...

Side view with Doggie photobomb heh heh

Rear Window

My husband's Levi's were made into a fetching jeans skirt, which I wear at least once a week because it is so comfy. But - and I do mean butt - the left rear tore today and exposed my assets. No small children were here to see London, France, underpants...
So rather than do a traditional mend, I performed a purple strip. heh heh

Peek-a-boo! 

The Purple Strip: A touch of poetic nuance...

Now you see it! The Cheeky Purple Patch.

Upside-down peach & sour cream cake

Hey - it's MY blog and I can post an OFF-topic thing if I feel like it. So...there! HAH!
That said, I am so pleased with the way this luscious peach cake came out that I feel compelled to brag, brag, brag and to share photos & recipe.

Making A Bell Hat ("Cloche"): A Dozen Photos

I traced the pieces from THIS pattern and followed THESE directions. So without further ado, the photos...

Hats & Cat

My daughter brought home a boy kitten, The Joker... Apparently, mine is the bosom of choice for lounging and purring on. My husband detests cats, but The Joker goes back to college with my daughter in a couple weeks so the tension isn't so bad.

Kitty helps me type this up...

What to do?

What should I do with this blue denim button-down dress? I was thinking of dying it a dark, rich brown and leaving it at that. Another alteration I might make is shortening it a bit, up to just below the knees. But alas, I cannot decide just yet. AND I am wearing it today, all day, as it is 90º f. outside and inside. Yikes!
So, should I dye it? Shorten it? Both?

Goodwill, $2.50, "National" brand

Blah Caftan to Cute Caftan

Ever watched those PBS specials with fellows in nightcaps and nightgowns? Well, that's what the original caftan I made looked like. So I chopped and lopped and re-pinned, with a strip of stiff cotton-y fabric atop the bottom piece. Thank goodness I discovered chalk, by the way, which replaced the pink magic marker I had been using...

Giving Credit, Paying Dues

Just a word about giving credit for the photos and writings on Embarrassing Disgrace: I found this poster via Design*Sponge. It pretty much sums it up:

Refashion Co-op's Posting Do's & Don'ts page refers to it!

Have you ever found flow charts and diagrams confusing? I have a visual-cognitive disability that makes this chart read like Mandarin Chinese characters... So the contents of it were reformatted to plain old text, sentences and paragraphs... Without the ability to read graphics, you'd think there would be little problem since I can read black text on a white background. Well, you would not believe how incredibly visual our culture is! Everything is a symbol, a photo, a picture... graphed and mapped and clearly illegible for the likes of me. I do not mind, but my professors tend to get annoyed at making the adaptations. Tough cookies.
And now, a fresh pot of coffee is long overdue...
~Rachel

Tunic Time

I'm back!

My Olympus camera finally died and my health deteriorated: That's why I have neither refashioned nor posted. So I bought a refurbished SONY Cyber-shot (2001) and put myself in the hospital for a week. Now I can sew again, take photos, and write about my miserable afflictions.

A new medication has made me gain 15 lbs. in three weeks - without my changing my dietary habits. 

My shame-ridden family... They seem to accept "traumatic brain injury" and "complications from seizures" easier than they accept "mental illness: Major depression." I roll my eyes and sew something therapeutic.

Excuses, excuses...

Both my daughters are home from college. My re-fashionings have come to a screeching halt!! My camera finally died... well, it is gasping its very last... I was still able to take a couple photos of the same old sheet I've been working on since the beginning of the month!! Ugh. The dream is to turn the sheet into a comfy caftan. So far, it's a fail.

Old sheet with nice stripes

Dyed it brown, but it came out yukky
Sleeves are yukky
Caftan is shapeless
FAIL

A touch of yellow

What I'm Wearing Today

GAH! Can't see the clogs yet...

BETTER! Now you can see the clogs...

• Refashioned GAP blouse, dyed yellow, with sleeves removed
• Dyed an otherwise drab blue denim dress (upped the color)
• My beloved Sanita clogs, yellow florals

Tunic Upcycle

A beige linen was so dull and boring I dyed it a rich dark brown. But... it never did fit properly thanks to  generously endowed, um, assets. Love the color, but I'd never wear the darned thing.

Remembering the two-tone skirt made mid-April, I dug out the bottom chopped hem of the blue knit. Then I chopped, pinned, and sewed a new tunic for myself! Woo-hoo! What's so great about it is that I can wear it any season, with or without a shirt underneath.

As a show of mercy, I promise to always wear it with shorts, leggings, or sweater tights because no woman my age should wear anything that short!

A Tale of Two Levi's, Part Two: The Quasi-Prairie Skirt

So who wants doggie friends? I don't, not when I'm eating bacon! Trust me: you do not want your dog's snout hovering near your bacon-bedecked plate. Grrr...

Friday's post tells the tale of how I made like a serial killer and vengefully wreaked havoc on two pairs Levi's with a pair of scissors: Slash, snip, and rip! You can see "before" photos of the virgin and unsullied innocents prior to the desecration.

Then I made an A-line skirt with one pair, and saved the other pair for today's more complicated (for me) project: A quasi-Prairie skirt. It's the Prairie skirt technique I'll be using, but the combination of cloths I chose are not "country-style" prairie. But hey, the photos will hopefully serve as a tutorial of sorts.

A Tale of Two Levi's, Part One: The A-Line

Two pairs of Levi's I purloined from the Pack-Rat Husband Extraordinaire. These old Levi's have been patched, re-sewn, and patched again; the fabric is too weak for bleaching and dying: they're from the late 1970's!!
Now he cannot wear them any more because each is shredding at the crotch (and I fed and put weight on my husband so he won't fit into them ever again, anyway). What to do? Answer: One A-Line skirt and one Prairie skirt, woo-hoo! Forget about your cares, it is time to relax and join me in a cuppa joe as I get started.

Fuel via the re-fashioned Chemex (messy stove - oops! Mybad).

I Purloined My Husband's Jeans!

My husband's job buys work clothes for him annually; he has more work jeans than a body can wear! So I stole, I purloined a pair yesterday. They were hideous, anyway, and must have been several years' old because they are too small for him now. I feed him that well.
So I bleached the life out of these things, following the excellent bleaching and dying guidelines by The Little Giggler.

Blouse refashion & FAIL for fun

I've held on to this blouse (from a thrift shop) for several years because I liked the dark color and its small pattern.  But its cut makes a girl look too much like General MacArthur, what with the shoulder pads and sharpened sleeves:

Shoulder pads. Poofy sleeves. NO!! 

Upcycled maxi to top

You know, I cannot seem to break my depression. The Abilify fattens me - so far I've gained a whopping ten pounds and I'm up to 150 from LAST WEEK. This is NOT acceptable. It's bad for my blood pressure, which goes up with weight gain (not rocket science). Time to quit Abilify because I won't be able to fit into my clothes if I keep taking it. Damn it all, the Abilify works but there is this trade-off, which just isn't worth it. Maybe with the Springtime sunshine the depression will lighten on its own. We shall see...

This was a VERY quick and easy 'upcycle'. The word works better than "refashion" because the maxi-dress was truly trailer-trash tent-like. So it classes it up a bit, chopping it at the waist and hemming the top. The bottom part I've set aside for another skirt, which I'll write about at a later date.

Sweatshirt to cardigan with my morning coffee

My 19 year old daughter bought me some lovely, fragrant coffee beans!! She visited my 22 year old up in Mt. Holyoke, Ma., where my eldest is a student in Russian. Those girls make me such a proud Mom. Brewing coffee begins my week with a huge grin, a delightful Sunday morning it is.

What I'm Wearing Today

Just a quick post on a linen skirt I dyed. I find I am actually wearing clothes I refashioned! Held on to this skirt for years, and rarely wore it. Now I love it!

What I'm Wearing Today

Earlier in the month I posted about this two-colored skirt.

A windy day, I want to dye my hair red, red, & more red!!

• Granny boots: Thrifted
• "Lagenlook" skirt I made 
• Thrifted knit black top
• My daughter beaded the necklace

Re-newing a Re-fashioned Skirt

Did you ever have a not-quite "fail"? This overly long two-toned prairie skirt could have gone either way. Fortunately, with a little snipping and hemming it turned out even better than I thought it could - YAY!!

Way too long...

 

Mean Greenie

My step-daughter Diana gifted me her lovely Italian silk plaid blouse when she visited me in the hospital in July 2012. (My depression was so deep I took an overdose and woke up in the hospital a few days later. I stayed for a month.) My husband's love and concern acknowledged, he had no clue as to what things to bring me, especially clothes. Jeans? "Here, honey... yeah, they were my Dad's but..."
So I begged my daughters & my step-daughter to donate to The Clothes Cause. Now, I'm a full-busted lady, a "full-figured gal" a la Jane Russell or Sophia Loren. Perhaps young, very slim girls in their late teens and early twenties have different visions of what the "Older, Full-Figured" style might entail... Diana got it almost right, but the blouse just would not adapt and I tore it. Oops! Time for a summery style skirt and a photo essay on how to make it:

Making A Two-Tone Prairie Skirt

A friend known since second grade is like my sister: "Miss Jenny" lives in a huge country house in the Heldebergs and I'm just starting to recuperate from the weekend. No booze - I don't drink, never have - instead, we spent the time cooking and eating. Have you ever tried reading a book with lots of tiny print and multi-syllabic words? Never mind the book I was catching up on had one page of footnotes for every page of text: I was reading the excellent and worth-the-time book The Open Society and Its Enemies by Sir Karl Popper. Do you have a list of books you "mean to" read but never do? I finally pushed myself...
And now, on to the Two-Tone Prairie Skirt project:

Made it! Another maxi-skirt

My friend Jenny grew up with me; she and her husband own a huge old country manor in a rural New York village. Guess who is going to visit over the weekend? Yes, that would be me.

What I'm Wearing Today

The $5 Macy's Clearance skirt used to be a bright powder blue with bright green palm tree design on linen... I used RIT Black & RIT Brown dyes mixed together and transformed the linen to a more subtle design. Easy!

Adding length to a short skirt

I adore this Ann Taylor cotton skirt because it fits beautifully at the waist and hips BUT it is too damned short! It is inappropriate to wear above-knee skirts with naked legs in the summer at my dignified age. Other women might be able to carry it off - and well, too. But I am no Barbara Eden or Joan Collins...

The Beast & I at play!

The Yellow Maxi-Skirt

In an earlier post, I put up photos and wrote about dying old blue jeans to yellow, using RIT Lemon Yellow.

What I'm Wearing Today

Wearing my yellow maxi with

• Thrift store white knit top
• Sanita yellow clogs with wood heels

Adding length to an above-knee skirt

• My kid's X-Small Charlotte Russe top 
• $1.00 Goodwill black above-the-knee skirt, size 10 (my size)

Easy and cute "Upcycle" for this Mom whose knees are the
National Treasure hee he

Prairie Skirt, Pt. II

Wearing my new Prairie Skirt with my floral Doc's!!

TIP:
I hand-stiteched my ribbon+fabrics through the Rear pockets,
by sticking one hand inside the pocket so
I didn't stitch all the way through it,  

Prairie Skirt, Pt. 1: "My Bad" In the Middle of the Prairie

I started taking Abilify again after ceasing the second week in. But the depression came back full force so it seemed wise to either take Abilify (which does pull me out of the Darkness), or just succumb to suicidal ideation.

Oh, Hell, one of Abilify's side effects is that it increases production of prolactin (aka the breastmilk hormone). Yes, my 40D's are larger and I got my period for the second time in a week. Good thing my OB/GYN appointment is Wednesday: Hello, checking estrogen levels! So here I am, peri-menopausal, drugged up on psychiatric meds, and scarfing down chocolates to satisfy cravings. Oy vey is right!!

On to the Prairie Skirt Process... The final photograph shows "My Bad" - where I will have to go back and re-baste the black cloths to the ribbon, and then pin the ribbon to the denim all over again. BUT at least it's easy to do, just time-consuming.

What I'm Wearing Today

The Insomnia-Borne Skirt

*Not shown: Floral Dr. Marten's (what else?)*
Thrifted tee-shirt dyed from puce to dark lilac 
As a sort of "re-mix," I turn the tee around and wear it backwards: It looks like a 'boatneck' collar in front.
That floral design made of cheap polyester "lace" gives off a hairy-chest look when worn 'correctly'. 
My 19 year old daughter approves!!

Rachel Recommends...

The supply of denim in my home seems to breed. The piles of clothes left behind by my two beautiful daughters (college-ages 19 & 22), combine with baskets of jeans my husband wore throughout the course of his adult life - a male Pack-Rat. My husband's jeans' inseams runs between 34" - 36" longs and that means lots and lots of denim fabric for me to play with! Jim is 6'5", a former basketball player for Siena College in the 1970's. We are that old... 

Here are links to two recommended refashionistas:

Insomniac makes skirt

I quit Abilify and Ambien cold turkey on Sunday night; Thursday night (last night) I had wicked, wicked insomnia. Naturally those sweatpants just begged for a sex change! I did not take a "before" picture - you have all seen what an old, pilled pair of Hane's sweatpants look like. (If not, save your eyesight and don't bother... meh!) Without further ado:

Hand-stitched the inserts from a thin black tee... 2am!

Good Morning!!

"On the back-burner" is the next denim refashion, a prairie skirt. Sincerely, Kinsey posted a terrific Prairie Skirt DIY, a "for dummies" that one may follow with confidence. Oh, Prairie skirt, how charming thou art! I love longer skirts because they permit one to stomp-walk and to wear one's floral Dr. Martens with impunity. Short skirts allow the unforgiving lady-saunter which is to say, not at this stage in the game of life!

24 oz. Latte in a cobalt blue mug! Woo-hoo! 

Hair Affair III

Is this life full of exciting thrills or what?
This afternoon Husband & I hit Wally-World to smirk at its people and purchase hair dye. I wound up with L'oreal Excellence because I liked the name of the color: Dark Chocolate. So you-know-who's born to be wild spirit broke from its harness and that's right, shook up the L'Oreal Feria routine and went a little nuts with L'Oreal Excellence. If I drove, I'd run the yellow lights, too, because I'm living on the edge here.
See the "After" and "Before" pics below (yeah, in that order, because I'm a rebel).

Dancing with Albert, not having a seizure...

What makes this a "re-mix"? First, I wore this skirt in a recent picture, with a different outfit. Second, beside the skirt, everything else has been in my possession for years, plural. I started cleaning my daughter Betty's room, as it has become the 'elephant graveyard' for both her clothes and Miriam's. Such great finds, starting with a few things stolen from this Mom... always a pleasure to re-discover a favorite sweater!

Hair Affair: II

Sunday night, I stopped taking Abilify* (an anti-psychotic) and Ambien (a narcoleptic). My scalp's sebaceous glands were working overtime and the skin on my earlobes, of all places, started cracking and bleeding(!!) The medications surely must have initiated these mild dermatological annoyances. I'm an empiricist: I took new meds for a couple weeks then once I stopped, *voila* my skin cleared up.

Yellow denim fabric for a 'Maxi-Skirt'

Oh, for a lemony yellow maxi from old, oversized ManJeans!!  The Little Giggler's "Bleaching 101: Dark Jeans to Pastel Shorts" is a well-written and detailed tutorial — I followed her guidelines and started the bleaching process on 3/29...

Photo 1. What I started with:

"At the starting gate"

Upcycled cuteness

A white cotton Gap shirt transformed to a bright lemony yellow: RIT dye, I love you.

April 2nd and it's snowing... I needed some lemony cheer!

Embarrassing and Disgraceful Refashion: Pt. III

I've been in bed with bronchitis or something like it, and my dining room needs a proper cleaning. There's no table space for the sewing machine yet. I did this skirt entirely by hand:

Front of skirt - I am so pleased!

Sprucing up the Chemex coffeemaker

My Chemex coffeemaker was hand-blown in the 1960's. The wood collar is original but the traditional pieces
(wooden bead and rawhide tie) were long gone; a piece of white polyester twine had been holding the wood collar pieces in place. Springtime Spruce-up idea:

braided and beaded blue cord, with an old wooden Coates & Clark thread spool for the bead

Ah, Menopause! and a "Kojak Alert"

My hair sparkles with silver strands! The G.P. (general practitioner/family doctor) advised me to make an appointment with an OB/GYN (girly-parts doctor) and have my estrogen levels checked. Menopause, permit me to introduce you to clinical depression. The addition of Abilify to my regular Effexor compels me to crave starches: pastas, breads, rice... ANY starch as long as I can keep eating it. I've already gained three pounds since last Thursday. Ugh. The hunger cravings and Hello pounds of plump!

Velour: Tacky to Sexy

Why must all junk accumulate on my dining room table? Sewing clutter hell in the dining room: Is it my destiny, "Whom the gods would destroy, they would make insane?!!?" I need to set up my sewing machine to finish up that Levi's midi skirt, as I've done all I can by hand. Besides, my husband needs more chores on his Honey-Do List.

Drats! Woke up congested and coughing...

Oh, fercryingouttears... I have a viral infection according to the doctor, so all I can do is the Matzoh Ball Soup cure. Today I am staying mostly in bed, except for my bleaching & dying project. I found well-written instructions on how to bleach and dye jeans properly, via "The Little Giggler." "Before" and "after" photos from her "Bleaching 101" Tutorial inspired me to follow her guidelines.

Should I be embarrassed by my weight?

Obviously, no... when it comes to other people. But who is the hypocrite in this salad mix? C'est moi, mes amis, c'est moi!! I detest my body, I think I look too fat, and that is just plain wrong-headedness. Why post a photo of myself, then? To show my thrift store style, for one thing... the style that embarrasses the bejeezus out of my parents - both of whom are new name-branders when it comes to clothes. Ugh. Even if I could afford it... the only things I buy brand new are undergarments. Oh, let's be honest: If I could afford it, I'd buy out Imelda Marcos in the shoe department!

Embarrassing and Disgraceful REFASHION, Pt. II

Yesterday I posted photos of my crazed frenzy with scissors and old pairs of jeans. Today I pieced together a jeans skirt (photos below) using two of my 'victims'. Such rough edges with both photography and sewing/refashioning! Posting these decidedly amateurish spectacles with pride...

Embarrassing and disgraceful REFASHION, Pt. I

After last week's stint in the hospital, this week's bank account plummets. Time to break out the scissors and slice up old clothes to soothe my furtive brow... Indeed, cutting up my old jeans feels so cathartic. This evening I took photos to show you what sort of trouble I'm making for myself this week. 

I enjoy playing with scissors. (3/26/2013)

Implements of Doom

Showing off some of the coffeemakers I own and use - there are more - with links included, in case you want to check something out. Mind you, ALL of my purchases are strictly thrift shop or eBay... Would I pay full price if I could? Nope. That takes half the fun out of the hunt!

~Rachel

The Mono Cafino

Coffee and Batman

I must post photos of my coffee maker collection... time to take new pictures! 

I disappoint my parents.

Permit me to introduce myself: My name is Rachel... age 48, married (happily, so buzz off creep). I embarrass my parents and I'm a disgrace, a disappointment. My parents hang their heads in shame!