 |
Yeah! So much better with a well-fastened
waistband and belt loops |
When I daydream about sewing, it's the new stuff I focus on. Bet you too have a lot of goodies stashed away in your fabric inventory for which you have great plans. I don't, however, very often think about
how to improve on garments I've made in the past.
Refurbishing doesn't have the same éclat as creating. But when I think about it, it's often more satisfying to rework a garment that I've worn a bit and studied the value of for my lifestyle.
Recently I
cleaned my closet, not really out of choice mind you! My husband needed access to the under-the-house zone. Access to the furnace and water heater in our little pre-war (that's WWII) cottage is only possible by crawling beneath the floors. Boy, do I appreciate him doing that work. You better believe
I don't complain that my only part in this project is to take everything out of my rather small 1939 closet, so that he can pull-up the trap door and slither through the opening.
When I shovel the contents of my wardrobe out, I often pause to sort through my clothes to
clean out the inventory of garments I've got hanging in there.
You know how it goes I bet - have I worn this in the last year? Am I likely to? Do I really
like this piece? What's flattering? What needs
replacing? Which things are just a waste of space?
Some decisions are hard to make, but there's an element of
shopping my closet that makes the whole thing a bit more fun.
 |
This eyelet peasant blouse I already had, is
nice arty romantic look that really suits my wardrobe style |
I wore
these shorts (a green home dec print) a fair amount last summer, having finished them
late in the summer of 2012. But they weren't a huge favorite.
Why was that? I wondered when I reviewed them against some of my other clothes?
1) The original waist closure wasn't well worked
2) The waistband, interfacing notwithstanding, doesn't give a crisp look at the waist.
3) I didn't feel like they went well with any of the tops in my closet or drawers.
So despite my latest June sewing goal, I stopped to do some refurbishing.
1) I sewed a new waistband hook on either side of the waistband bits.
2) I sewed thread belt loops along the waistline.
3) I identified two white shirts that I already have, that look great with these shorts.
(One of which I'd photographed in my original completion photo, but never actually worn with them!) In fact, when I biked over to the Sunset Open House last weekend, two different people unexpectedly complimented me on my outfit. At the time I was wearing
the cap I made that matches the shorts and I think that makes it clear that the outfit is something I created. I have worn cap more than the shorts, because I'm pretty regular about skin protection, but it's even more fun to wear it with the matching shorts.
In fact, though I tend to think of tee shirts as being the appropriate garment for shorts, these white shirts give the garment a dressier more arty-romantic look than the tee-and-shorts style.
My cleanout work not only made my closet tidier, the resulting refurbishment project gave me one more reason to be ...
Enchanted by Sewing!
~ ~ ~
Web Resources
Suzanne Beaubien - How to Sew Thread Belt Loops
