Elbow Patches: Repairing my favourite cardigan

The other day I was pretty sad to discover that my favourite cardigan EVER had developed a rather large hole on the right elbow. Before I even had time to get fully upset, another hole sprung up on the other side. I never thought I'd ever have a genuine need for elbow patches, but there you go. Excessive head-on-hand-lecture-listening has taken its toll on this little thrifted favourite.

I popped to a little haberdashery to see what my options were. I nearly went for some teacher-esque corduroy ones, but settled on these faux-suede ones instead. Ridiculously, they cost more than the cardigan itself (£2 vs. €3.50!) but to me, it's well worth it! The cardigan should have been a lot more expensive - it's made from cashmere, and originally from Jaeger!

If you look at this photo, you can see how thin all the surrounding fabric is...

Attaching the elbow patches 

Using iron-on elbow patches is pretty self explanatory, but I needed to deviate a bit from the instructions! Firstly, I had to sew up the actual hole, just to make the surface a bit more even. I also decided to make the patches a bit smaller by cutting off the edges (but leaving the pre-cut sewing holes in tact!). I think these patches are also designed for men's jackets, so are a little too big for women's cardigans.

When positioning the patches, I marked out where the tops and bottoms should go with pins, then made sure they were completely symmetrical before pinning the actual patch on to the cardigan.

Then all you need to do is iron them on, and for extra security, you can also sew around the edge!

 

Repairing old favourites is a great way to be a bit more environmentally friendly. The rest of the cardigan is fine, but cold elbows are no fun!

Sadie xxx

Dusting the cobwebs off the sewing machine

There is something about writing essays for uni that makes me really want to sew. It's probably procrastination, but I also find it really relaxing, and I also love the idea of making things with my very own hands. I'd take fabric and thread over writing out long bibliographies any day!

Now I've finished my first major essay of the year, I'm deliberately giving myself a few weeks off to do things I feel too guilty doing when there is a deadline looming. I brought these three retro patterns back from home after Christmas, and found this salmon-pink fabric for €5 at a vintage shop in Montmartre (living the dream!). It's a bit more pink than it looks in the photo, and I think it'll make a lovely blouse à la this one, but probably with sleeves this time.

I'll let you know how it goes...

What's your favourite thing to do to de-stress? Does anyone else sew or knit?

Sadie xxx

Updating an old blouse with buttons...

As you may or may not know, I'm a contributor over at the Oxfam Fashion Blog. This week, I upcycled a blouse using some vintage buttons. To read more, click here!

Sadie xxx

DIY: How to make pompoms!

For some unknown reason, I recently had a massive urge to make pompoms. This is an activity I used to do with my mum when I was little, and is surprisingly easy (the proof: a 6 year old me could manage it!). I picked up the wool at the largest charity shop I have ever seen, Emmaüs, in the 19th arrondissement here in Paris. But more on this incredible shop another time. The balls of wool were 50 cents each as they were partially used, not that that even matters... making for a very cheap and fun little DIY!

You will need:

Wool

Sheet of cardboard (an old cereal packet will do)

Jar lid & coin (to draw around)
Scissors
Pen

Method:
1) On your sheet of cardboard, draw around the jam jar lid twice.

2) Place the coin in the centre and draw around that too

 3) Cut the shapes out

4) Place the circles one on top of the other, and cut out a little wedge shape. This is a sneaky trick to make the process a bit quicker, but if you want a more even pompom just leave the two circles intact. Basically, this wedge method means that you don't have to awkwardly pass the wool through the small centre hole every time you wind.

5) Start to wind your wool around the two layers of cardboard.

6) Continue until the whole thing is covered and is several layers thick!

7) Take the scissors, and poke the end in between the two pieces of cardboard.

8) With the scissors between the two pieces of card, and with a firm grip on the centre of the pompom, cut all the way around the edge.

9) Thread a length of wool around the pompom, between the two pieces of card. Tie it in a tight knot as close to the core of the pompom as possible. You can repeat this a few times for extra pompom security.

 10) Remove the pieces of card! Et voilà!

And here's one I made earlier...

'But why would I want a pompom?', I hear you ask! Well, there are a million uses for a pompom and they are definitely 100% necessary as general household decoration, fashion accessories and finishing touches for all manner of customisation projects. If anyone has any fantastic suggestions, please feel free to mention them in a comment!

Also, aim for second hand wool if possible: it's just as good, 5x cheaper and doesn't use extra resources. Keep your pompoms ethical, guys! haha.

Sadie xxx

Late Night Sewing: Cushion Cover

Last month I finally got around to making a cover for a plain cushion that I spontaneously bought at Ikea at the start of the summer (Ikea: the land spontaneous and unnecessary purchases). I thought I'd make use of some of my old scraps of material - you may recognise the lace from my shelves at uni! The dark boiled wool is from an old skirt that didn't fit, and the pretty retro green fabric is something I pulled out from the bottom of a pile offcuts at a carboot.

Cushion covers are probably the easiest thing in the world to make, the only thing you need to remember is leave enough overlap for the seams, and to sew the two pieces together inside out when you assemble them. Apart from that, the world's your oyster - it's a good way to upcycle old bits of material, and they make sofas and beds extra comfy (and pretty!).

What do you think of them? I couldn't resist taking some photos of them basking in the warm light from my lamp... makes me feel all wintery... and dare I say it, Christmassy? (I'm normally a bit of a Scrooge!)

Sadie xxx

The Cheat's Guide to Re-Hemming

I'm always talking about how amazing charity shops are, and forever blogging about my recent finds - but I often fail to mention that with nearly every purchase there is always a bit of extra work involved: re-hemming. Being 5ft 2" and with a particular fondness for wearing most things super short (à la 1960s/because in theory I think it makes me look taller...), I'm fairly used to lopping of the bottom off of dresses and running them through the sewing machine, often only to realise that I have in fact cut off far too much. But it must be said - all the effort is worth it when you realise you have just breathed life into an old unwanted garment that cost you a mere couple of pounds, turning it into a wardrobe-worthy item to cherish.

For those of you who don't have access to a sewing machine, I can imagine that the potential of charity shops seems much more limited - but it doesn't need to be! Although I'm sure most people have heard of re-hemming tape, I feel I should point out just how good it really is - in fact, I may even be ditching the sewing machine for these jobs in future!

For under £2 I bought 10m of tape, enough for at least 5 items of clothing. It can be found easily in most haberdasheries and supermarkets at very little cost. With this magical invention, the entire process of re-hemming takes under 15 minutes!

So without further ado, introducing the item to be re-hemmed - a stunning mondrian-style shift dress, picked up in a local charity shop for just £4. Admittedly, it doesn't look very long in the picture, but you will have to trust me that it just didn't feel quite right!

1) Always try on your item before deciding on a length! Once I had the dress on, I decided I wanted it to be about 8cm shorter. So, allowing for a 3cm hem, this meant that I needed to cut off around 5cm all around.

2) My mum taught me a very quick technique for measuring how much to take off, which means you won't need pins or markers. Simply fold over a piece of paper so that it is the desired width of the amount you need to cut off (5cm for me), and place it against the fabric along the current hem as you cut. Note that this works best with straight hems!

3) I used straight scissors, as I planned to turn the hem in on itself as I ironed in order to hide the raw edge, but pinking shears would also work very well and would mean that the ironing stage is less fiddly.

4) Fold your new hem up inside the dress/skirt/trousers about 3cm, and iron it into place. The dress will hopefully now be your desired length - but double check in the mirror before ironing the hemming web in! In the photo below, I've actually ironed two creases - one to conceal the raw edge. But if you used pinking shears, ironing two creases is unnecessary.

5) Lie your re-hemming tape along the crease and fold the hem over it, ready to be ironed.

6) Making sure that none of the tape is visible, carefully iron along the hem to melt the tape. You will need to have your iron set to cotton heat (but be careful with synthetic materials!) and make sure you press quite hard!

7) Wait for the hem to cool

8) Model your newly shortened dress in the garden! haha.

There are some amazing advantages to using tape rather than sewing the hem - firstly, you can't see stitching (which in my case is always wonky!), and secondly, most types of tape can be peeled apart if you re-iron them - so even if you make a mistake, you can go back and change it easily!

So everyone - go forth and thrift those odd-lengthed and unwanted skirts and dresses and turn them into something lovely!

Sadie xxx

P.S. I will be back soon with an amazing jumpsuit which I am very excited about!

Summer Sunshine & A Homemade Blouse

I have finally finished exams and I'm back home - which can only mean one thing: lots of time for blogging! Unfortunately my blog always gets a bit neglected at this time of year (as does a lot of the blogosphere!), but I'm sure you can understand why - exams have to come first.

I've only been home for a matter of days, but I have been itching to get back to sewing, so I jumped straight back in with the pattern cutting, pinning and hemming to produce this 50s/60s style sleeveless top. It had to be sleeveless, because I only had a metre of material - but I think it is better that way, and besides, I barely have any sleeveless tops for the summer!

The material is left over from when I made a bow-tie for my boyfriend's birthday - so I'm hoping we don't match one day by accident! Since then, it has been a 'table cloth' for my bed side table, but after packing up my university room I thought it might look better as an item of clothing.

This is probably my favourite creation to-date, largely because I spent a bit more time on it and paid more attention to the finish. For once, I have covered all the seams - so I don't need to worry that it will fall apart in the wash!

I used the same pattern that I used for this blouse, and again had to adapt the dress pattern (making sure to add material for the button overlap). I also changed the collar from a pointy one, to a rounded one, in keeping with the 60s aesthetic that I love so much (trying to aim for a sort of 'Orla Kiely' look). The thing that is great about patterns is that once you have found one that fits, you can carry on making lots of different items and feel confident that they will all be the right size!

I know lots of you have asked for advice on sewing, and all I can really say is just try it out! Patterns are brilliant because all you have to do is cut out the pieces and sew them together - they usually include instructions as well to explain the more complicated bits. My favourite place to find patterns is eBay, as there are loads of lovely vintage ones up for grabs! Bear in mind that you might have to go for a larger size than usual - I have used up to a size 14 vintage pattern, although I am a modern size 10. Also watch out for american sizing differences!

Sadie xxx

Sunset

I've now finished the aforementioned nightmare of an exam - only 5 more to go! When I got back from the exam hall I decided to have an afternoon off revision, and treated myself to all sorts of naughty things like... half a tub of Ben and Jerrys (nomnomnom), watching lots of nonsense on iPlayer, filling some pages of my sketch book and reading the new Vogue (at £4.10 for a copy, that well and truly is a treat). I've never felt more relaxed!

I also took the opportunity to dig out all of my favourite clothes and actually wear something nice for a change. Recently, for the sake of revision comfort, I have been living in jeans and a jumper and feeling rather dull as a consequence - so a return to a nice retro outfit was a welcome change. Anyway - it just so happens that I ripped said jeans whilst riding my bike home... so it looks like I'll have no option but to wear pretty things until I work out how to mend them!

Anyway, this morning *cough, afternoon... I am a student after all* I tried my best to blow dry my hair into a 60s bouffant/beehive sort of thing. I managed to get a bit of volume, but my hair has now returned to its normal flat self. I'm considering trying out those BumpIt things, but I'm not sure if they're any good. Have any of you tried them?

Today's outfit consisted of my favourite burnt-orange skirt, a vintage red belt and this blouse that I made back in January. I decided to also don my beret and red coat for added 60s pizazz - not sure about the whole red/orange combination but its nice to feel like a sunset once in a while :D.

Now on to the 'controversial' copy of vogue, which contains an interview with Alexa Chung that caused a bit of an uproar amongst bloggers recently. Here is the offending quote, "Blogs are ridiculous; they're just mood boards." Now I don't particularly find this offensive - in a way, blogs are a little ridiculous, but in the best possible way. And why shouldn't a person be allowed their own place on the internet for their thoughts and opinions? I like to have a place to create a moodboard of my favourite outfits/inspirations/eras/styles, especially as it is my only real 'artistic' outlet in a student experience that mainly involves balance sheets, verb tables and supply & demand curves. What does everyone else think about this? If you are a blogger, were you offended by this statement?

Sadie xxx

One Pound

One of the charity shops in town had a sale on the other week, in which all of the stock was reduced to £1! Although I had only visited to purchase a burgundy-coloured velvet blazer that I had tried on the previous day (unfortunately it had already been sold by the time I got there), when I realised that all the stock was so cheap I couldn't resist having a look.

I came across a rather fetching pair of navy and green tartan trousers, which I immediately envisaged as shorts - à la this post from all the way back in November 2009. They were pretty easy to re-hem as they didn't fray too much, although I did have a bit of a palaver when I accidently melted them with the iron... hopefully no-one will notice :). I tried to give them a 'turn-up' effect, rather than simply re-hemming them, which I think gives them a nice finish.

Of course, after cutting them down to short length, I had two trouser legs' worth of spare material, which I thought would make a nice neck tie. I borrowed this idea from Cait (from the blog Wayward Daughter), who made a very charming matching outfit from some gorgeous tweed material last year. As with Cait's outfit, I've gone for that 'Gossip Girl' look - complete with a boater hat. What do you think?

Before and After pictures:

It was a bit chilly outside so after taking the main outfit shots I also had a play around with the camera settings indoors, and ended up making loads of silhouettes against this frosted glass window. The photos aren't entirely relevant to the post, but I thought they came out quite nicely so I thought I'd share them anyway!

Sadie xxx

How to Upcycle a Chair

Way back in December 2009, I wrote a post about upcycling a chair and using it as a unique Christmas present. Upcycling cheap furniture has been at the back of my mind ever since, and so when I found this chair in a charity shop for £3, my thoughts turned once again to paint, sandpaper, staple guns and spare fabric.

This time, I wanted to avoid shabby chic and instead go for something more sleek. I had a sample tin of black matt wall paint left over from when I painted a black and white scene earlier in the year (shhh... wall paint is cheaper than artist's acrylic and basically the same!), and thought it could be put to excellent use on the chair. I had also just purchased a scrap of fairly thick material from another charity shop, which just so happened to go well with the matt black! So the project was born.

Upcycling a chair takes about 2 hours from start to finish. Here are some basic instructions!

1. Find a chair with a seat that can be removed (test it by pushing up under the seat).
2. Use sand paper to remove the layer of gloss on the outside and to make a nice surface to paint on. You don't really need to be too thorough.
3. Wipe all of the sandpaper dust off using a damp cloth.
4. Paint all the wooden parts of the chair - you may need to give it a second coat, especially if you are using pale paint. Then leave to dry!
5. Cut your fabric to size so that it fits the seat area (remembering you need enough to wrap around to the underside and possibly fold over for a neater finish).
6. Hold it in place and use a staple gun or a hammer & tacks to nail the fabric to the wood on the underside of the seat. Mind your fingers!
7. Once the chair is dry, slot the seat back into the frame!
8. Find a nice corner to put your chair, for everyone to admire :).

***

I've just found a house to live in next year for uni (the most stressful thing ever!), and I'm looking forward to incorporating the chair into the room design - hopefully it won't be such a 'small space challenge' as this year is :).

Sadie xxx

P.S. Have any of you upcycled anything? I need inspiration for my next project!

P.P.S. I recently did an interview over at Dirt on Your New Shoes. I'd definitely advise having a look at Chloe's blog, which is filled with great outft inspiration!

My 'Mad Men' Blouse - Homemade!

During one of my first weeks at uni, I bought a length of delicate floral fabric from a market stall. The fabric waited in my room for the whole semester, desperate to be turned into something! I always had a blouse in mind for it, and I wanted to try out a slightly more pointed collar, à la Mad Men. Anyway, I found the perfect solution when I went to the Clothes Show - an amazing Maudella dress pattern, tucked away in a box of other retro designs in the new 'Sknitch' zone.

I had to adapt the pattern to turn it into a blouse - creating an overlap at the front for the buttons and getting rid of the back zip. I was pretty surprised when it turned out that the blouse actually fitted - it's the most complicated thing I've made, so I'm quite proud!

I decided to be bold and go for bright pink stitching down the sides of the buttons, then added the thin ribbons around the cuffs.

What do you think? I feel a bit like Peggy Olson when I put it on!

I'm in two minds about how to style it - here, I've gone for a land-girl-meets-librarian look, but perhaps a skirt would be better? I might try it out with a matching bow tied around the collar :).

Sadie xxx

Interior Design in a Small Space: My University Challenge!

Before moving to University, I was thinking a lot about what my new surroundings would be like - especially my new room! I was half dreading the idea of leaving my comfortable space at home for a small boxy room in university halls, and half ready to embrace the challenge of decorating this new blank canvas.

Trying to jazz up such a small space when you're a) not allowed to paint the walls, and b) not allowed to hammer anything into the walls, was a difficult proposition, but I was lucky enough to be given a book about retro caravan interior design by my boyfriend for my birthday, and it has proven to be quite an inspiration! The book, My Cool Caravan, is filled with eyewateringly beautiful caravans decorated to reflect the owners' unique tastes - with the end result of a book containing both immaculate examples of the ever popular shabby chic trend, and slightly more unusual design concepts- one Frieda Kahlo inspired caravan was particularly attention grabbing!

I'd completely recommend the book for any lover of retro-inspired design - or indeed any university student who is in a bit of a quandary about how best to leave their own stamp on what can be a very small and oppressive space. The book has little design tips throughout, as well as hundreds of photos by the talented Hilary Walker (I would show you them but I don't want to break copyright laws!) and a nice little paragraph about the history of each caravan. Just a warning though: you will end up wanting to buy a caravan after reading it!

So... here are a few snippets of my university room so far! The photo at the top of the page is of a cushion cover I made from offcuts from previous sewing projects. Working to the colour scheme of blue and green, I selected materials with similar sized patterns in order to make a subtley matching cushion that adds a little homeliness to my space. The cushion filler was about 79p from Ikea!

My sewing box, material for my next project!, books, tea, and Eustace the owl...

Cheating slightly with these fake roses, but I think they're charming all the same, and add a nice pop of vibrancy to my bed side table. The vase was 10p at a carboot, and the roses were 3 for £1 on the local market.

Some friendly faces and... a cactus in a teacup. As you do.

This poster is possibly my favourite part of the room. It's an old school educational poster from the 40s (to the best of my knowledge) and its just oh so cute! I found it on ebay for under £10 - best purchase ever!

I've chosen quite a bold patterned duvet cover, seeing as its the only major thing I can change about the colour of the room. I absolutely love it - and for only £3 in a charity shop, you can't go wrong :).

I hope you've enjoyed my little tour-de-la-chambre! What do you think of it? Are any of you facing similar small-space design dilemmas?

Sadie xxx