Shirt Sleeve Refashion and Repair

Repairing  clothes is something I seem to do a lot of, not just for my family but for friends also.   If you can repair an item it not only saves you having to replace it, it also saves that item from landfill.  I think these days people are far too quick to throw things out that can be salvaged, even if they don't know how to do it themselves there are people out there who can repair items.  Sometimes people may even see it as an ideal excuse to buy new but when did our clothing become such a throw away item?

Anyway rant over, this post relates to a shirt belonging to my husband that he split a few days ago when he put it on.  The split is on the sleeve and he did say it was too tight so no longer any use to him.  At this point the options usually are; can I make it into something for me? Shall I deconstruct it for the fabric? Is it nice enough that oldest son might want it ? Shall I take it to the charity shop?  (Charity shops also take damaged items for rag weigh in, so don't be put off.)  It is a nice shirt and my son likes it so I said I would sort the sleeve and resize it for him.

Here is the offending ripped sleeve...

My son wanted the sleeve length just above the elbow, about where they would be if you rolled them up.  So I marked where he wanted it to finish.  Then I cut the sleeve off just below so there would be enough to fold back.

Then I repaired the bit of the sleeve that was ripped and zig zagged the edge. 

The cuffs were used to cut out a small rectangle that would become the tab on the sleeve.

I edged each side then folded a small hem to make the tabs, button hole is already there.

I made a small hem on the bottom of the sleeves then folded it back and put my tab in place to get an idea of where to stich it and where the button needed to go.  (The tab in this picture is not yet hemmed I was still getting my idea together at this point.)

Here it is finished.

I also had to take the shirt in to make it fit my son, he also wanted it a bit shorter in case he wanted to wear it out of his trousers.  It looks more of a casual shirt this way so more his style but it will still be smart enough to wear to work.  Being a young man he is more into gadgets than buying clothes so I'm sure it will be appreciated that it is one less item of work wear that needs to be bought.

Once it was all finished I gave it a good iron, it is still a bit crumpled in this picture, I have to take the photos while it is on my mind so I am trying to get into the habit of doing it straight away.  

I hope this has been useful if anyone has had a similar mishap with a shirt or if you just want to change the sleeves to this  style.

Charity Shop Finds

At the weekend we had a walk around town, by that I mean the city centre.  It is not something we do very often as I am not one for wandering around shops but we were going for a bit of lunch so I had a look in a few charity shops. (Those shops I like.)

I am always on the lookout for inexpensive fabric and these days I tend to look at the duvet sets as I have a few good purchases in the past, I made the napkins for Christmas day from a pillow slip and pyjama bottoms from a duvet set previously.  I always look but I don't always find anything, I don't want anything too worn and of course it has to be a pattern I like. So when I saw this red duvet cover for just £3.25 it was perfect, I love the colour and the pattern.

The beauty of this is you get so much fabric for such a good price.

Here it is on the line after being washed on a hot temperature, I always do this as things are often sat around in bags in the back room in a charity shop and I like to wash all purchases on hot.   My usual wash is on a normal temperature that's better for the environment.

Then in another shop I spotted this dress...

Now this is a size 14 and I am an 8 but that's not a problem it can be easily taken in.  The fabric is lovely for the summer and will be ideal for work, I may need to take it up a little as well as it is a bit long. It was £6, the items were from 'Mind' and 'Cancer Research'.

I think I would quite like to make a dress with the red duvet fabric, although there will still probably be lots left for other projects, the duvet is 142cm wide by 200cm so if you factor in both sides that is 4 metres of fabric. It will probably be popping up in cushion covers, make up bags and patchwork for quite some time.

Some people don't like to buy used items but I really don't see problem as long as you wash things thoroughly as you don't know how they were stored but then when people buy new they don't know how things have been  stored either.  Many items come from factories over seas or in the UK where fabric may have been stacked in  a warehouse, they don't know what may have crawled on these fabric stacks and yet still they wear items unwashed because they are new.  This in my mind makes all argument for not buying used invalid, you decide on the cleanliness of your items when they come into your possession.

Today I will be repairing the sleeves on a shirt and resizing it for my son, I will take a few pictures and share tomorrow.

Caravan Upholstery Update

Just recently I made over the caravan seats for a colleague of my husband and I shared the images of the finished cushions.  Well things always look better in the correct location and the owner of the caravan has very kindly sent me the images to share.  I have to say looking at the cute little caravan has got me a bit nostalgic for ours that we sold.  These particular caravans are called Freedom Sunseekers and they are small and light with a pop up roof, they are so light they can be towed by smaller cars.  This was always something we looked at when we had a caravan as you don't want to be driving a large fuel guzzling car all year just so you can tow the caravan a couple of times a year.   We always looked at the weight first.  Anyway here are some images...

Here is the sleeping area at one end, I love the fairy lights over the bed.  The curtains are blackout lined.

Seating at the other side where you can eat.  My boys used to sit and play games at that end of the van when we had ours. 

It looks nice and modern inside.

There is just one side that she doesn't have foam for and I have saved one bit of the fabric for when she wants that one doing. This pattern of fabric is very wasteful for matching so while the curtains line up and match and the seat back and base it was tricky for the sides without wasting too much.  The piece saved is big enough for another box cushion and I know it was expensive so I didn't want to waste any of it.

We are hoping that in the future we will buy a motorhome, when we retire we are thinking it will be easier to travel with dogs and quicker to set up, stop off and see more places.  We are saving for that time and I know there are lots of beautiful places in the UK that we have yet to see and explore.

Thank you to the lovely owner of this sweet caravan for sharing with us.