Stitches

I've  had a busy week - gardening whenever the sun was out, and sewing when it wasn't.  Which it mostly wasn't.  

So this weekend I've rescued two pairs of jeans that were destined for the charity shop, and made them into shorts.  Never fear, they won't be seen in public, just for the garden, so it seems daft to spend good money on them.  

 

And, just so I don't have two pairs of identical denim shorts, I dyed one pair black in the sewing machine.  Pity the stitching doesn't dye too - why can't manufacturers sew cotton fabrics with cotton threads?

I've re-fashioned two shirts.  One was an old shirt that I cut down to size and added a contrasting collar, as per this tutorial on Zoe's blog

and the other was a gingham shirt that I bought in a charity shop on Thursday.  It was from the M&S Per Una range, so it obviously came with the obligatory frills, ruffles and fabric roses (no wonder their profits are going downhill fast) so I unpicked the button bands and removed and binned all unnecessary adornments and now it just looks like a shirt I'll wear.  

I'm not sure if I should remove the sleeves too, but I'm still thinking about that.
I've also made two skirts, one from - wait for it ..............  this fabric

I saw it when I was fabric shopping at Blake House Craft Centre a few weeks ago and I really liked the colour, so I pulled the roll from underneath a load of others.  It was at this point that I realised it was Toy Story fabric, and was covered in little Woodys and Buzz Lightyears.  I suppose I should have immediately put it back, given the fact that it's probably intended to make duvet covers for small boys, but both my friend, and the very nice sales assistant from "and sew on Fabrics" at Blake House Craft Centre, dared me to make a skirt and wear it. And I'm never one to shy from a stitching challenge. 

No one dared me to buy this fabric, but I guess in for a penny .............

So, girls - I did make them, and I WILL wear them to work. But possibly not this week, when I start on a new team, in a new office, with a load of people I don't know.  

But, give it a couple of weeks..............

Stitches - Urge Overkill