Wednesday, August 28, 2013

First Post and a Skirt Refashion

Thank you for allowing me to share my growing enthusiasm with you!  I am excited to blog about what's increasingly becoming my thrifting and refashioning obsession, and I have a lot to share with you. In fact, I'll start right off with a skirt to purse refashion.

A few months ago, a friend of mine hosted a clothing swap.  I came away with several great items, one of which was this cute flower print skirt.  I grabbed it because of the cute print, knowing that I would never wear it as a skirt ( a tad bit teenagery).  


Cutsie skirt.


When my sister's birthday rolled around, I knew just what to do. I got busy refashioning this cutsie skirt into a chic purse for her.  I first cut the strip off the bottom.


As you can see, strip is cut.

Next, I trimmed off a bit of the sides just so it wasn't flaring out  and sewed the bottom of the skirt, inside out and right sides facing, to create the bag.  I then laid the bag over an old t-shirt, and measured and cut out a lining.  Note: I only cut up to the base of the elastic top. 


Measuring and cutting lining from an old t-shirt.

Once cut, the t-shirt lining was sewn up just like the bag, right sides facing (all around the edges, leaving an opening at the top).  I now had a lining, and I slipped it into the inside of the purse and spread it out.  Note: the right sides should be facing you when you look in the purse. Folding over the raw edges, I stitched it onto the inside of the purse along the bottom of the elastic top. 



Lining sewn in at the base of the elastic.

Remember the bottom part that I cut off?  I don't have any photos, but that became the strap.  I folded it over and sewed down the edges and then sewed it into the sides of the purse. 
 
Now here's where it got tricky.  I decided to sew in a zipper so that the purse would stay closed.  I'll get this out in the open now.  I'm not an expert seamstress. I have a hard time with zippers.  I have always just avoided them or hand stitched them in.  Yet, I suppose my growing confidence led me to attempt a zipper.  So...  I found a zipper foot (I didn't have one before.  Hmm.. perhaps this is why I had such a hard time?) and found that it was actually easier than I thought.  In fact, I only had to rip the seam once.  For those of you who are zipper challenged like me, check out this helpful  Zipper Tutorial.  


I folded down the very outside edges and sewed as close to the zipper as I could get.

In the end, the purse turned out really cute.  I made a few fabric flowers out of the scraps and stitched them on the outside.  


Dotty was happy to model.

I think my sister was pleased with her refashioned birthday gift.


Cutsie purse for a cutsie sister.


 









2 comments:

  1. Trish, this is too cute! love it, and Amber's modeling pic is the best.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Jen! It does look like she's ready to head out for the day with her new bag.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for sharing your thoughts!