punk rock grammy

 A couple of months ago my grandmother was complaining about people patting her on the shoulder everywhere she goes.   So, I bought her spikes.

friendly spikes - rounded points to inspire fear, rather than draw blood

I showed up with them this weekend, and in mere minutes, pointy, pointy spikes were all over her favorite sweater.  For the rest of the post, please, marvel at how pointy they are.

I also taught her how to 'rock on', which eventually lead to a discussion of anarchy and various other symbols.    The sweater remains anarchy -free.

One way or the other - I like to think the days of people patting her on the shoulder are over.  Because this is a lady who says 'hell no!' to the dementia of other people who can't seem to remember to keep their hands to themselves

Converting my grandfather's shirt

Raw materials and goal

  A few months ago, my grandfather died, and as a part of cleaning everything out, I was given a handful of his shirts to play with.    The two polos (there is also a navy blue) were a nice, thick, springy jersey and I knew they needed to become something good.   Conveniently enough, I had a RTW shirt I'd been wanting to copy for ages.   I loved the general lines, but it was from my freshman year of college - back when the style was for cropped shirts and I didn't mind if bra straps showed out of the top.

tracing the sleeves was a pain in the ass, but worth it.

 When tracing off my pattern, I added about 4 inches of length and widened the cuff (is it a cuff if its that close of my shoulder?) by about an inch, for comfort.

pretty close, no?

I also decided to bring the neckline in a bit at the shoulders, so rather than using an even binding all the way around I added lozenge shaped sections for the shoulders.  When folded in half they made wedges which sit nicely, hold the shirt in place and make a decent attempt at keeping my bra inside my shirt.  (always a plus).    If you compare the image below to the later pictures, you'll see the center back binding was replaced with ribbing.   It kept gaping, and I had original collar of the polo version of the shirt left over....   so, I stretched it out, sewed in it in place, and no more gape!  (a bit of wrinkly pull.... but c'est la vie.  I like that the collar is still the collar. 

neckline binding

  Side note: it is insanely hot here.  Current temperature is 101 - heat index at 111 (Fahrenheit, obviously, otherwise I would be burned to a crisp)  I was outside for maybe 10 minutes taking pictures and nearly sweat through my clothes -- in the shade.  However! I found a plant!     Anyhow - check out those shoulder lozenges doing their thing.  Also the extra 4 inches of length bringing the shirt into the current decade.

And of course the reason for the increased sleeve width:  my insanely huge biceps.  However, when you can tear your eyes away, check out the non-gaping back neckline.   Also, the sun decimating all things in its path over to my left.  Here's hoping for a thunderstorm (we had a solid two weeks of rain, followed by a heat wave.  I vote such things be properly interspersed.) 

All in all, I am most pleased with this shirt and plan to make more of them.   I'm also getting a kick out of it being from Chiefy's polo - I think he would have been entertained by it too.  He would pat me on the head (literally), cross his arms and laugh.

The tale of a patch-over

This is the story of an avid sports-fan, and a pair of Boston to Philly transplants.

Somehow or another, Papelbon moved from the Red Socks Sox to the Phillies.(I was pleased that I knew it was baseball.  The specifics of the transfer are beyond me).   M, our plucky fan, had made the same move and decided her favorite shirt could live on! She asked me to help her patch the Phillies logo over the Red Socks Sox, brought them both over -- and they sat in my closet for about a year.   

The other night, we actually got down to it -- its hard to see in this picture, but there is a chalk outline around the Phillies logo that traces the curves of the words - we decided it would be more interesting than a straight rectangle.   After that it was just a matter of zig-zaging over the chalk and trimming off he excess green fabric.

The whole process took less than an hour  and resulted in a very happy sports fan.  Also a discussions of motorcycle gang patch overs.  It seems there is an etiquette to such things.  All to the music of Mr. Nimoy.

Refashion Fun

once upon a time, at graduation

 A couple of weeks ago I ended up going to a reception for a project Kel has been working on.  I knew it was coming up, but for whatever reason, I thought it was going to be low-key, during the middle of the day and of course, I would not be going.  Silly me.  It was at night and formal - in fact, not just formal, but described to me as everything up to, but not including black tie.   And I only had four days.  In the normal run of things, not such a big deal.  I have a couple of perfectly lovely dresses - one brown and one navy- but it turns out Kel was going to be wearing black.   I know.   And only four days....   Now, I almost never have a reason to dress up, so I haven't bothered doing anything with some of the stunning will-someday-be-formal-wear fabric I have, as I tend to focus on things that will be more practical.. and only four days.   (First world problems, I know, but so terribly terribly frustrating.)

trying it on last month

Anyhow, enter my blue silk dress  (store bought. not me me-made) -- I hadn't worn it since graduating college, and didn't really love it even then.  The fit was just never quite right, although at the time I didn't know what was bothering me   Anyhow, still loved the fabric, and still hated the fit- although by now what was once a trifling annoyance had become unacceptable to wear out of the house ... so I chopped it in half and made a skirt.   I was originally trying to reshape the bust and keep it as a dress -- but that just wasn't going to work out unless I put in a lot more time / patience than I had.  ..so, chop chop chop!

new waist band

I cut it off right below the empire waist section, which didn't quite work, as the variation between the width of my butt and waist is rather more than had been built into the garment - so - a couple of rear darts, some extra lining to bind the raw edges and a new zipper for when I accidentally pulled the original's pull off and couldn't get it back on, and whamo! new skirt!

all snazzy and wearable

It turned out to be a good thing I didn't have weeks to prepare, as I would have ended up way overdressed.  But lets be honest, who would really care?   Party dresses are fun and people are boring.   Party dresses for everyone!   (Someday in the future.   Still working on practical coats over here.  grumble grumble grumble)

Anyhow, as this took a dead weight out of my closet and turned it into something new, and because I am already tired of this fabric-fast, I am counting this as item two of fifteen.

PAC MAN!!!!!

 

Our tale begins with a the glory of pacman and the sorrow of men's sizing.   For behold!  It is pacman and he doth nom all the things!  But he resides on a shirt most rectangular.

Sorrow.   Longing.  Inspiration.   

Okay... I'm done.   Anyhow.  This is your standard t-shirt re-fit to take a rectangular men's t-shirt and make it lady-shaped.    Unpicked the the sleeves and then plopped a shirt I wear often on top to get the correct sizing.  (The sleeves are tucked in to get the armhole placement.) 

Short story even shorter,  I cut the pacman shirt just outside the purple shirt (just enough for a seam allowance) and angled the hip down to the edges so I could keep the original hem.

Serged up the sides - pinned the sleeves back in (mild easing, but they fit very well without any alteration) and serged those too.

After trying it on, I decided the neckline was too high, cut it off, rolled the hem and proceeded to stretch the living daylights out of it with my zigzag.   Most irritated, but such is life.   Someday I will manage a sewn knit neckline with out doing something horrible to it.

but -- PACMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!