Friday 10 September 2010

Second Hand Rose

I saw this blouse in a charity shop - I loved the fabric which  was a well-washed  cotton and  is consequently soft, rather than crisp, and having tried it on, it fitted well, but I hated the puffed sleeves.  Inspired by regularly reading New Dress a Day who takes some unbelieveably hideous garments and transforms them into something wearable, I decided to give it a go. 
So, I cut out the sleeves and stitched a little turning, and now I love it.  All for £2.99.
I had quite a productive day, doing some stitching on my rust dyed fabric, using metallic thread (as per my homework) and taking ideas from my sketchbook as inspiration. 
The ones above are ATC sized - and I've decided I'm not very good at doing edges, especially the corners - so any advice would be welcome! 

I think that the black stitching on the last one is a bit heavy looking for the background, but I like the rust markings.
I'm probably too slapdash - but I guess if I keep practising they will improve.  At least I've had more success with the metallic thread - I used a different machine, and put the spool in a jam jar behind it, rather than on the spool holder.  (Blimey - this is interesting stuff isn't it)
Anyway, I'm going now before you doze off.  I'm going to see Muse at Wembley later - all by myself - so I do hope it doesn't rain.

(Second Hand Rose - Fanny Brice) Who knew she was a real person?!?

6 comments:

  1. What a transformation with the blouse! The rusty fabric is great - the neighbours will be thinking there was some kind of nasty chainsaw massacre ....

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  2. I like the atc rust pictures, who cares about the edges

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  3. You must have better arms than I have..but you have youth on your side!
    Now I think the jam jar bit is very interesting actually...

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  4. Great transformation on the blouse (and thanks...another blog to read!) Your homework looks brilliant... I wouldn't worry about the edges. Have fun tonight.

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  5. I really love your ATC and that rust fabric. I think your machine embroidery is lovely and I like the idea of the spool in the jam jar, never heard of that one before x

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  6. all of your ATCs (plural) by the way, that was just a typo x

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