Quick Sweater Knit Skullcaps

I recently got some sweaters, on 99¢ day, with interesting textures but terrible construction, with the express idea of cutting them apart to use for a specific project.  I got everything out to start that project, but decided, first, that I'd make some quick little hats from them.

  

Blergh.

 My last monthly cycle is what ramped up my productivity earlier and then proceeded to destroy any further inclination to sew that I had.  For the last few days, I've been feeling more like I want to make something, but haven't been able to figure out what.

And I still haven't figured out what, but I have been finding fabrics that I can admit are good but not for me.  And, as I have been poking through my stash looking for anything else that can go, I rediscovered what may technically have been a huipil (from the friend's relative's destash), but a very hastily machine sewn and polyester lace and tiny amount of embroidery kind of maybe huipil.

So I cut off the lower pin tucked and lace inserted part and added a waistband

Haunted House Renovation

 So.

In 2015, I made a dress with a strip of Halloween print patchwork in the skirt.

And it was too small, so I didn't wear it.

In 2016, I made a shirt from a Halloween print.

And it was so roomy that I never wore it.

In 2020, I merged them into a single dress.

And I never wore that, either.

Finally*, yesterday, I picked things apart and converted the former dress's skirt into the standalone skirt I should have made to begin with

I used the same fabric and method as in the previous skirt restorations.

Unlike those, though, I did decide to salvage the shirt/bodice.

Skirt Restorations

So, when my body shape changed, I gave away a lot of the things I'd sewn, but I did keep a few skirts that I eventually attached to bodices

Strawberries / Spiderwebs / Forest eyes

And then today I converted them back to skirts 

Ties Dyes

 No, I didn't do the tie dying--I used tie dyed shirt parts that were in the things the friend brought from the relative's stash (thanks!)  There were several tie dyed shirts that had areas cut out, probably interesting graphics to use for other projects, leaving 90% of a (seemingly) usable shirt, so I decided to combine things back into a single loud shirt for the kiddo.

 

Upcycle #7

This is, as far a I know, the last one!  And I rushed it, of course, although not after vacillating over bodice fabric for a few days.

The skirt was this one, which I sewed in 2018 from thrifted wax print

Initially, I had picked out a lightweight aqua twill to use for the bodice, but the color match was Really Not Good, and there wasn't enough of it anyway.  Then I considered using another wax print, but, for various reasons, no.  Then, as I was falling asleep, I had the thought: A black & white print.

So.

Good idea?  Enh.  Finished idea?  Yeah!

Upcycling #6

Many years ago I couldn't resist thrifting a bit of yardage with loads of colors that I usually don't wear, but...butterflies and moths...although...manufactured by Shamash and Sons, so: butterflies and moths rendered in the most direct, unstylized--yet vague--way.

I immediately made a skirt

(the files say June of 2013)

I wore it a lot!  And managed to spatter paint on it from an airbrush mishap (not the first or last time that happened.)  And then gained weight.  But I kept it, because, as subtle as they were, there were still paint spatters, so it was completely inappropriate for donating.

Then I decided to do this whole skirt-to-dress upcycling project.

Upcycling #4

Hmm...so...  OK, the last dress, with the new-to-me shirt pattern used for the bodice?  Mmmh.  Yeah.  The sleeves Do Weird Things, as I later saw in many reviews of the pattern (whether or not the person who sewed it even realized.)  Plus, since I had omitted the dart and that meant a little extra work to even things out, I decided i was not going to use Simplicity 8523/8061 again as a bodice

except

I really liked the neckline, especially how it was narrow enough that I didn't have to wonder about showing bra straps. (Yes, I know, I could make loops to keep the neckline from shifting around that much.  Don't wanna.)

So, I went back to Butterick 6470, modified with the neckline/facings from Simplicity 8523/8061

except

The bodice for this one was made from a skirt I made a while ago that had the zipper break, and I wasn't immediately inclined to replace that zipper, so it had been in the "mend?" pile for a while...but...when I was looking for something to use with another skirt (sewn when I was pregnant 12-ish years ago) I was going to turn into a dress, I realized that the purple in both of the skirts was too amazingly close to ignore.

and I ended up with this

Upcycling #3 with one iteration

This time the skirt is one I made--earliest photo of it I found was an outfit of the day photo from 2010, so we'll say it was made in 2010.

And now it looks like this

although for a little while it looked like this

Upcycling #2

This time with two thrifted skirts, because they're both on the sheer side (and they both originally had built-in slip layers, but I removed those ages ago so I could wear little petticoats under 'em)

And I also used the super simple extended shoulder bodice from Simplicity 9153, and ended up with this

I suspect it'll be more fun to wear than to look at

Upcycling #1

I grabbed all of the skirts in my closet that I have not worn for a year and decided I would use them as skirts for more loose pull-over dresses.

And then they sat in a box in my sewing room for a few weeks.

Chip said it made a great cat bed.

Two days ago I made myself cut out the bodice pieces for one, and yesterday I started sewing it, using the "sew one seam, go do something else for fifteen minutes" method.  I got the bodice assembled and picked apart sections of the skirt side seams to insert pockets yesterday, and early this afternoon finished.

Yes, it's another fake Burda 6401, with a skirt variation because, as mentioned above, it was a thrifted skirt so I didn't make the decisions involved in sewing it.

Yes, I know, such a cheerfully summery frock!

Skirt-to-Dress Conversion #3: Spoopy

This one is also a Shirt-to-Dress Conversion, as well as technically being a Dress-to-Dress Conversion, since I used the skirt from a dress I made in 2015, which didn't even fit well then (and that was before the weight gain)

I knew I wanted to salvage the skirt somehow, and for a while the plan was to add an elastic waist.  Yeah, never did that.  But, when I decided to convert the other two skirts into dresses, I decided I'd do something similar with this, too.  And I had plenty of that haunted house print left, so of course I could use that for the bodice!

but...I also had this shirt, made from McCall's 7956 and that same haunted house cloth in 2016, and never worn--initially because it seemed so ridiculously voluminous, despite the six darts added to the back, and later  because of that weight gain (and not wanting to deal with picking out those six darts)

Well.  I called upon my stubbornness and dealt with those darts

Skirt-to-Dress Conversion #2: Strawberry

In May of 2014 (eep!), I made this dress

And then not long after that, I ripped it along one of those sharp angles at the arm opening, patched it inelegantly, ripped it again, and gave up on it being a dress and turned the bodice into a waistband and made a side-zip skirt.  Then it got squirreled away in the "maybe I'll do something to make it fit again" pile after the weight gain.

And now I'm making this post...

Skirt-to-Dress Conversion #1: Swirl

So, in June of 2015, I made this skirt

And although it is one of many things I outgrew in the years after, I still kept it, for a while letting it ride up over my abdomen and accepting it as...just...shorter, then eventually shifting it to the category of "maybe I can do something else with it someday."

And I finally have!

Duvet Retro

I am one of those people who likes a lot of blankets, while the other person in bed...not so much.  So, ages ago, I made a just-for-me comforter, two yards by 40"

I recently took a good look at it and realized that I had worn it threadbare in many places, as well as being reminded of the random holes and popped seams, and also the colors were very much not my thing these days.

But, it still worked perfectly well as a blanket, so I decided I'd make a new cover for it, and I decided to go ahead and make it a duvet cover.

Another "quick" project

Among the many textile things the friend brought over the summer were many pieces of partially dis-assembled clothing, including a purple tiered skirt with the waistband cut off.

  I had it stuffed in with my fabric for a while, and finally decided to make a quick bodice to sew it  to, to make another under dress.

Of course things didn't go as quick as they could have.

Quick Projects Yesterday: Thrift Shirt + Thrift Skirt = This Dress

So I had, at different times, thrifted these

  And in the past, I did wear them, although not necessarily together.  I realized that I probably would not wear the shirt, because it would require something with a waistband to go with it, or me making a jumper, and in a solid color, which...maybe someday...  So I looked at all the thrifted things with waistbands that I also am not currently inclined to wear and decided the fabric weight and pleats-instead-of-gathers of this would go well with the cut and fabric of the jack'o'lantern shirt.

(and then I was prepping them and noticed the name on the skirt tag...geist...ghost...so...extra appropriate, yeah?  yeah?)

Anyway.

I cut the shirt off  at about waist level, making the cut gently curved but still using the stripes as a general guide, and cut the waistband off of the skirt and sewed them together, pinning the pleats in place and stretching the skirt slightly to fit the shirt edge.  The skirt fabric is a crinkly weave with a lot of stretch (for a 100% cotton woven.)

I may only wear this one or twice a year, between the weather staying hotter longer and my general dislike of wearing orange, but how could I resist those dobby weave jack'o'lanterns?

Fallout--Now For Kids!

Of course I understand that the Fallout series is most definitely 100% not for kids.  Of course.

That said, the kiddo has watched his Dad play the game, as well as some relatively kid-friendly YouTubers (yes really) and we've discussed some of the Issues™ brought up by the game (although 'subversion of the capitalist ideal' is still a bit beyond him--we're good on 'violence isn't always the best or only answer.')  So the nine-year old isn't directly playing the game, but he does load mods for vault dwellers into any game he can. (After he's loaded mods for characters from Pokémon and Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex.  Yes, we've discussed the Issues™ of that series with him, too.)

Husband had bought a Fallout t-shirt that he didn't like the way it fit; a recent trawl through Kohl's clearance racks found a replacement with the same graphic and better fit.  I immediately--as in, while we were still in the store and hadn't purchased the shirt yet--decided I'd re-fashion the ill-fitting shirt into a shirt for the kiddo.

And I did.

I left the collar and shoulder seams in place, cut off the sleeves and cut the body open at the sides (where seams would be if it'd had side seams) before folding it in half and cutting it with the t-shirt pattern I'd amalgamated from a few patterns.

As usual, I cut the sleeves to retain the original shirt's coverstitching, so all I had to do was set the sleeves, sew the side/underarm seams, and hem the bottom.

I ma keenly aware that the print is slightly skewed--the original shirt was sewn incredibly off-grain, and I attempted to true that up least a little.  In the end, nothing was true, and that may also be a bit of a lesson to learn from the game, too.

T-shirt Weekend, Part 1

So, after the successes of the quick t-shirts I made for the kiddo...and...after realizing that "comfortably baggy fit on a nearly-nine-year-old-kid" = "slim fit on that kid's mom," I decided to try making a few shirts for me from the same pattern.

Well...more or less "the same pattern" because...y'know...it's me...

A shirt you can hear

I made another very lout t-shirt for the kiddo, and from cloth left over from doll sewing from things sent by a friend, and here it is

 The cloth was originally an adult t-shirt, but I had previously used the sleeves to make doll clothes.  As small as the kiddo is, I still couldn't wrangle enough cloth for the sleeves from what was left, so I used bits of another of the previously-used-for-something-else t-shirts that had also been sent.  But I didn't use the sleeves, because...those had already been used for something else...  Cutting these sleeves from the hemline of the black t-shirt worked just fine and allowed me to use the existing coverstitched hems, which I also kept from the loud t-shirt for the hems of the finished shirt.  (This was supposed to be a fast project, and it was, just...with a day or so pause between each step...)

And here you can see how I handled the fact that the existing hems would be meeting at the side seams, so I tacked down the seam allowances, after trimming them away from the edge, with reasonably matching top stitching.  The...uh...the other side didn't line up quite as well...but with the print this loud, I really didn't stress over it.

I also applied a contrast pocket, to bring a bit more black to it.  I realized a while ago, when dressing dolls, that I like to have three areas of a contrasting color, and I guess that applies to clothing items like this, too.  Anyway.  I used another bit of the black t-shirt hem for the top of the pocket and folded over the sides before edge stitching, then top stitching a presser-foot-width away.  I didn't turn one corner correctly, but, again--quick project *shrugs*

I realized after I took this photo that the print direction is reversed from the front, but that's the way it was on the original shirt, and it hadn't occurred to me that it would be flipped.  S'OK.  And the collar lays much flatter after the whole thing was washed--I probably should have taken it in to be a bit smaller, but it was a seamless circle and I didn't want to make a seam in it, y'know?

The kiddo has already worn it to school, which restarted last week.  I wonder what kind of impression it made on his new teacher...