22 Things Before 22! - Wardrobe Refashion

Hello there lovelies,

Here I am, half-way through my 2 months of Wardrobe Refashion. I have to admit, I caved after the first week. It's shameful. A top I liked at work was marked down to $5, so I thought it's only $5, right? It's only one top, right? Until the next week, when I bought a dress and a pair of pants. And jewellery. That is when I finally thought, "enough is enough." If I'm not going to take this seriously, then why should I take any of the goals I set myself seriously? Sure, the only one who loses out is me - but then, I'm the one losing out. I want to be able to make goals, and stick to them. I want to be able to stick to my goals just because I DAMN WELL MADE THEM. So I'm 'fessing up, and making myself a vow to stick this out, for serious this time.

A few months back I was spending anywhere between $30 and $100 a week on clothing. ON CLOTHING. That is ridiculous guys! Especially when I don't have the income to support that spending, the time to wear the clothes, or the space for them, and when I can make my own clothes. The worst thing was that I didn't really want or need anything, I just got into the habit of buying clothes. I've been doing a whole lot better - spending $30 or less every week. But still, this is a habit I'm determined to break completely. I want buying clothing to be something special again, instead of something I do every week. I want to improve our financial situation. And most of all, I want to increase my creativity/motivation to sew.

So, here are my own Wardrobe Refashioning goals (for life in general, not just the next month):

• I will not buy it if I can make it myself.
• If I think I could make it myself I will try to make it before buying.
• I will get more clothing and sewing supplies second-hand.
• I will not buy it if I don't really need it, or have other things exactly like it.
• I will not buy it if I don't really like it that much.
• I will not buy it if I just feel like buying something.

I'm so excited about these goals that I've already been refashioning like crazy! I can't wait to show you today's projects.

Until next time, xo.

22 Things Before 22! - Wardrobe Refashion

Hello there lovelies,

As part of my 22 Things Before 22 gambit, I challenged myself to take the Wardrobe Refashion pledge. I pledged for 2 months (mainly because that was the only time limit that finished before I turn 22, lol. DAMN SEMANTICS OF CHALLENGE NAMES). I am expecting to find this tough, but when I cleaned up my sewing supplies recently, I realised that I have no excuse not to be making more of my own clothes. I have piles and pile of things just waiting to be refashioned, and heaps of perfectly good fabric! The main problem I have is being surrounded by clothes all day at work. As the Head of Ladieswear, I spend most of my time around new clothes and the idea that you have to have them really grows on you. Anyway, here is my pledge! I'm going to give it my best shot.

I, Miss Peregrin, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 2 months. I pledge that i shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoted, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed MP.

What? You thought that was all? Pfft. To kick things off, I made a kick-ass skirt from my favourite pair of old man pants, using Thera of Crafty Pirate's fabulous tutorial. I loved those pants so much, but the hems of the legs were fraying so badly that the legs of the pants were starting to deteriorate. Also crotch seam had a hole in it so big that my cats probably could have crawled into my pants through it - and I mean both my cats. Luckily, I got to give them a whole new lease on life!

SEWING IS SRS BIZNESS. More like, I've been at work all day and haven't had nearly enough caffeine to cope with the flash on this camera. Also, where did my hair go and why is this mop on my head?

My ruffles are all over the place, but I love this skirt so much! The Boyfriend is also a fan, which means I've done a pretty good job in my books.

Hurray, I'm so damn inspired to keep sewing! I'm going to follow the crowd and give Thera-Joyce and Max California extra shout-outs, just for being so damn inspiring. These girls are taking over the internetz you know, so keep your eyes peeled for their exploits!

Until next time, xo.

DIY Madness!

Hello there lovelies,

Now I know that at least some of you out there have been dying to see some more DIY goodness from me, and you know how I hate to disappoint you! As my first from-scratch sewing project for 22 Things Before 22 I decided to finally finish the Madeline Mini Bloomers which were the first project in Max California's Rock & Roll Sewalong.

Ta-da! Cute, puffy, rock & roll shorts.

Back view, hurray!

The fabric I used was gotten on sale at Spotlight as a remnant. I added some cool buttons, and bows of ribbon covered in hearts.

I did a terrible job (read, didn't even try) matching up the tartan, but when you're wearing the shorts you don't even notice because of how puffy they are. Yay!

I also reconstructed a t-shirt using Max California's bow-back tutorial. It started life as a rather boring stripy v-neck top, which I acquired for $2 at the op-shop. But, when combined with a little bit of lime green jersey (also from the op-shop), it became something else entirely.

From the front, it has become a round neck top, with lime green neck binding.

From the back, superawesome bow back top! Excuse bra straps, and my wierd posture making the shirt look wonky. I even used fabric from the original shirt for the middle of the bows. I'm so in love with this! I can't wait for Summer so that I can wear it.

There you go lovelies! You can be expecting a lot more DIY madness from me in future, because I'm determined to start handmaking/refashioning more things. Next on the list includes this, this, a few of these, bleached jeans, distressed/studded cutoff shorts, lots of jeans to skirt conversions, a jeans to dress conversion, a patchwork t-shirt maxi-dress, tops and skirts made from the awesome pillow cases/quilt covers I have acquired and lots of fabric paint. Oh, I also want to make some of these bracelets! Stay tuned!

Until next time, xo.

22 Things Before 22! - Crafting Clean-Up

Hello there lovelies,

Time for an update on the 22 things front - some are going well, and others I'm falling way behind in. Taking a photo every day hasn't worked out for me so far, and the way I'm feeling at the moment it's been pretty hard for me to motivate to do anything after work, but I'm doing what I can. On the positive side, I did clean up all my crafting/sewing supplies over the weekend, and it gave me a hell of a lot of inspiration! Here's some ideas for what you can do with an over-abundance of sewing supplies.

• Slash up old jeans, and turn them into shorts, skirts and dresses.
  


• Make baggy sack dresses into cool new pin-up dresses.
  


• Liven up old clothes with a bit of fabric paint, or bleach.
  


• Tackle all that mending you're putting off - it will cut down on clutter, and make you feel productive! (Alternatively, steal the pants your Dad/boyfriend/husband want you to mend, and make them into this cute skirt).
  


• Sort through your refashion pile - if there's anything you can't see yourself actually refashioning, donate it to charity.
  


• Make a pile of t-shirt scraps into bathmats/door mats, and scarves. If you have scraps you don't have a crafty use for, use them as rags or in place of paper towel.
  


• Do a crap-ton of t-shirt surgery. If you're afraid of wrecking t-shirts with sentimental value, why not neatly cut out the design and sew them all into a patchwork "memory" wall hanging?
  


• Use up all those old zippers making zippers cuffs and brooches for your friends.
  


• Turn buttons, ribbons, eyelets, d-rings, ribbing and any other random things into zany new accessories!
  
  
• Take old bedsheets or quilt covers, and make them into this adorable underbust pinafore dress, or this dress. Turn pillow cases into skirts, or cute tops.
  
  
• Throw away anything unusable. Donate anything you don't want, or can't think of a use for that may be useful for someone else.
  

These are all ideas that occurred to me while sorting through all the (enormous) piles of junk in my sewing room. Maybe you should give it a try! Who knows what kind of creativity may sneak up and hit you over the head with a baseball bat while you're doing it?

Until next time, xo.

Note to self: Next time, pick less violent metaphors.

22 Things Before 22!

Me, on my birthday last year.

Hey there lovelies,

I've been looking for a way to shake things up a little bit, and here it is. I couldn't decide whether to cut my hair, start 365, participate in wardrobe refashion, do 101 things in 1001 days, or start a 50 book challenge. So, logically, I decided to combine all those things with a bunch of other things I want to do, and came up with this - 22 Things Before 22! You may have noticed the new countdown on my sidebar. This is because all the things you see on this list, I'm doing to do before my 22nd birthday on November 30th of this year. And, of course, I'm going to be blogging about these things as they happen.

1. Get a pixie cut.
2. Take a Zumba class
3. Learn to knit.
4. Sew 1 from-scratch creation every week. (0/ 16)
5. Go to the beach and wear a bikini without feeling horrible.
6. Participate in wardrobe refashion for 2 months.
7. See three movies in the cinemas (0/3).
8. Finish Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Again.
9. Finish reading the Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist (1/3).
10. Read three non-fiction books (0/3).
11. Watch all three seasons of Dexter (0/3) Note - I do realise there are more than 3 seasons, but I only have access to the first three. .
12. Save $10 every week.
13. Take one photograph every day (0/105).
14. Have at least two girly gatherings (0/2).
15. Sell all my unwanted clothing on eBay.
16. Have a huge clean-up of all my crafting supplies.
17. Get a gym membership, and actually go to the gym.
18. Unclutter my house - get rid of anything I don't want or need.
19. Add at least 10 pages to my Happy Book (0/10)
20. Go out to dinner wearing a dress and heeled shoes.
21. Buy a pair of neon Doc Martens.
22. Throw a bitchin’ birthday bash!

Stay tuned! I would have already made my sewing creation for this week if I hadn't left the handful of zippers, eyelets and snap studs that I bought on the backseat of The Boyfriend's sisters' car this weekend. She lives about 6/8 hours away, so this presents a problem. Anyway, I'm hoping this list will inspire me to do something with my free time, and to finally do some things that I've been thinking about for a long time. What do you guys do when you start feeling like you need to shake things up?

Until next time, xo.