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Crafty Inspiration | Thursday, February 18 Groundhog predictions be damned, we have heroically begun our spring cleaning at the Frankenbaby Lab. First up was our closet, which contained an array of never-worn, worn-out or just plain ugly clothing that somehow survived our past closet purgings.
Among these hearty cockroaches: some of Lab Partner's beloved and utterly threadbare Western shirts, a violet men's dress shirt that I can't fathom LP buying, and a second-hand sweater that I hoped would look vintage Fair Isle (it just looked ill-fitting and sad).
But! Don't count them out quite yet. I am already planning their second life as clothing for the little monster. I've found some brilliant mama bloggers who make re-purposing clothes look easy:
MADE
The guru of transforming men's shirts into girly dresses has tutorials, tons of examples and transformations from other raw materials (tee shirts! pillowcases!) on her blog.
Mama Uses Needles
Three words: Pants. From. Shirts. Watch as sweaters, turtlenecks, sweatshirts magically become adorable baby pants.
If all of this doesn't sound absolutely nutso to you, you're in luck: you have a few days to sign up for the next round of Wardrobe Refashion. This Melbourne-based blog challenges participants to abstain from buying new non-handmade) clothing for two, four or six months -- or life. Although I certainly don't have the sewing chops to go handmade indefinitely (or, um, six months), I'm thinking about taking on a two-month pledge. Who's with me?
Reader Comments (8)
I really think that post-thesis, we should make a concerted effort to craft and re-purpose old clothes into cute things. I can't take that pledge because now that I'm working, I enjoy being able to buy clothes too much!
Wow, so impressed, and very excited about the prospect of seeing Frankenbaby in Papa Frankenbaby's old Western shirts.
I am not "with you" in the sense that I will certainly buy clothes in the next two months and will also certainly not make clothes for myself, or anybody else, during that time. But! I am with you in the sense that I am going to start learning how to use the awesome sewing machine I got for Christmas (thanks to T for getting it, and N for helping him pick it out!), and after I have conquered my first project (a tablecloth--have to start somewhere) and my second project (a yoga bag), I will then hopefully move on to making actual clothing items. Yay!
I made a dress for Mardi Gras this week! I have never done that before, and it was made much easier by not really having to finish any edges, since I was just going to glue sequins all over it anyway. I do have fantasies about fashioning clothes for Pepper. I say I will make ONE thing for her before she gets born!
Seeing that shirt in that bag makes me really sad, but thinking about seeing Estelle wearing some iteration of it makes me glad. Try to put some of those snap buttons on there!
I started making these rolled edge handkerchiefs out of some of Andrew's old western shirts a couple of years ago. This is an easy project you could work on while watching Project Runway!
Hmmm, now that you guys mention it, the challenge seems near-impossible. Plus, you need to post your creations every week, so that's eight garments (as they say on Project Runway) in two months. Yikes!
But, all of these mini-projects and pledges are making me happy: Jenny's tablecloth, Jackson's Pepper apparel, Meghan's handkerchiefs...
So! How about a mini-refashioned project pledge, confined to this tiny corner of the interwebs: I hereby pledge to make two creations out of our castoffs in two months. And, LP, I'll even try to keep a pearl snap button or two alive!
I wanna see your aforementioned creations, too! Promise you'll shoot some photos my way?
oooh! i'm so inspired by this! sadly, i've given away many great old shirts from my days of dressing like a boy i might want to date, but there might be a few left in the closet to tranform into something awesome for the little ladies i know and those i am excited to meet.
Wow, those men's shirts into girls' dresses are just gorgeous.