Bridie: It's a Sewing Mashup

So it's been a while since I've taken the time to sit down and blog about my makes which I apologies for, my only excuse is that finding enough time to sew is hard enough with a small child let alone blog about it , plus there have been lots of exciting things going on. For those who follow our Facebook page you'll already know but if you don't I've started teaching a few sewing classes at Rock Paper Scissors which has taken a lot of my free time to plan my lessons, but now that they are going well I have more time to sort through the many back dated blog posts I have planned (I've still been sewing honest!). 

This is a project I did a few months ago, I set it as a mini challenge for the SIY Meet Up, I called it a charity shop mash up, but basically we had £5 to buy two items of clothing which we would take apart, cut into and pretty much destroy in order to mash them up to created a completely new outfit. 

These were the two items I picked, a very ugly pleated skirt which was a size 20 (that's quiet a lot of fabric to play with) and a pretty sheer blouse that was massive on me!  

 I started by pinning down the pleats (so many pleats) this took quiet a while and a few pricked fingers but it needed doing as I wanted to keep the pleats in my dress.

I then cut just above pins, I'd already worked out the length I wanted it to be and didn't want to touch the hemline, I wouldn't have a clue how to re hem it if I'd cut into it from the bottom.

For the blouse section of my dress I took it in at the sides and gathered it around the waist line.

I then pinned the skirt to the blouse after taking off any excess fabric from the skirt. I had lined up the buttons on the skirt and the blouse so that I could get into it like you would a shirt dress.   

 I sewed them together and tidied up any edges (seriously wish I'd had a over locker for this part sadly I do no) and that's it. I teamed it up with a big gold belt which I think goes really well with it, plus has the added bounce of hiding any little mistakes. 

This mini challenge was a lot of fun and shows that you don't have to spend a fortune on fabric. It could be an old bed sheet, curtains or a huge ugly shirt you found at a charity shop, if you love the fabric that's all that matters and no one will know where you got if from when you've finished! They'll just be impressed you made it yourself!

   

Happy Sewing x

PS sorry for the grainy pics I think these were taken on my old phone.