The Vix Dress

Hello Folks! Thanks for your lovely supportive comments on my last blog post - sorry to be such a bummer.

The bad news is I am still not 100% - but the good news is I received an e-mail from the passport office and my application is being processed.

Now onto much happier things - my latest sewing project! I've named it the Vix dress after the amazing Vix of Vintage Vixen.

It's named Vix as I can see her totally rocking this fabric - also it embraces her ability to recycle all kinds of fabric (Queen of curtain couture) and I also used a pattern she gave me to create the dress.

So let's start at the beginning of the project shall we? A couple of weeks back I picked up this EPIC maxi skirt from a second hand shop. It DID fit me, but it wasn't very flattering. Also it was handmade by a very tall lady as it was very long on me (as in dragging on the ground and I'm not that short - I'm 168 cm).

However, I decided to buy it anyway as I loved the fabric and I thought I could "make it work" somehow.

However, when I got home I really decided I couldn't make it work in its current form and seen as it needed to be shortened anyway I figured I would see if I could re-fashion the skirt.

Some people are so good at re-fashioning clothes, they can see the potential in any old crap and next thing its a couple of snips here and a few seams here and its awesome. It's a skill I wish I could say I have - but I just don't (believe me, I've tried a number of times).

Instead I used the skirt as a piece of fabric and decided to see what pattern I could use to turn it into something else.

In the end I decided to use the Maudella Pattern that Vix gave me to make the dress - I've made this pattern a whole bunch of times before including here and here, but this was the first time I've made it in a woven fabric rather then a stretch fabric.

I was crossing my fingers it would all come together and hurrah it did - I was able to recycle the whole skirt, including the zipper.

Here is the finished dress - looking slightly wonky on the coat hanger - but I am very happy with the final product. I just love the fabric so much.

I wore this dress to work today - but I had to wear a cardi as well as its kind of chilly at the moment (note to self, next time take the coat hanger down before snapping photos).

I hope you guys all have a great week - here's to good health and a current passport by the end of the week!

Upcycled Sugar Skull Cushion

Last year I took part in the 12 Days of Christmas Swop and on day twelve I relieved this rad sugar skull long sleeve t-shirt.

Unfortunately it was way too big for me and also way to big for Rich - but I loved the design so much, I didn't want to give it away! However, I also didn't want to leave it sitting in our drawer doing nothing. It seemed like a waste. I loved the design so much.

I figured I'm pretty handy with a sewing machine so I can do SOMETHING with the shirt to make it more useful. I have been wanting to make some cushions for the couch, so that's what I decided to do.Initially I thought I would make a square shaped cushion. But then I decided skull shaped is so much better!

This is a really simple project - all you need to do is find an old t-shirt, cut out the shape of the pillow you want, sew it up leaving a small space to put in the stuffing (in my case an old pillow that had gone "flat") and when you've finished stuffing it whip stitch up the end and you're done. This guy came out much better than I expected - I'm super happy with the result.