The Refashioners 2017

So over at the makery Portia’s running another year of refashioning, this year with the theme of “suits you”, i.e. suit refashioning! Entries close at midnight on 31st October, which isn’t just over 2 hours away as I write this, honest… (nothing like being organised). I love this challenge – refashioning is where I started, mainly from altering clothes to make them the right size for my shortarse ways.

I was a bit slow getting started. I went searching for a suit, but all the ones in the charity shops near me were very expensive (£20-30) so that was out. I then found one on the nearby estate which was closer to a tenner, but it was such good quality I didn’t want to deprive someone of an interview suit. I thought I was destined to not participate this time. Then… during the first week of term, while everything at work was very busy and I wasn’t 100% healthy, I was phoned and invited over to Church one evening to be a (scale) model while their charity shop showed some of their outfits. There I mostly wore a series of tiny dresses in front of the local WI equivalent, but I also got to look through all the stuff they’d brough along. One of the things was a gorgeous light wool ladies suit, which I noticed had a small hole in, and thought it would be perfect to cut up as it couldn’t be sold. Unfortunately on closer inspection there were a LOT of small holes, so that didn’t come home with me. Instead I found a polyester Next ladies trouser suit in size 14 where someone had taken up the sleeves but they were falling down, so it was another one which was ready for a refashion.

Here I am in the jacket looking like it’s the first day of school and I still need to grow into my blazer. I didn’t bother putting on the trousers…

So what to make… One thing I wanted to make sure of was that I ended up with something that I would actually use, rather than something which ended up never being worn. A wardrobe check showed that what I really needed was a skirt. With POCKETS. Because pockets are ace. Fortunately the jacket offered a very good solution…

Please ignore the tired face! I had 5 hours of teaching today (plus all the other jobs that need doing) and didn’t finish until after 6pm… Also see previous comment about photos being due today, so you don’t get a nice view of the garden this time… This is made out of the bottom part of the jacket, with some darts added, and the waistband from the trousers. I used the one original buttonhole and added a few more, then used a selection of vintage buttons from my Grandma’s button tin.

POCKETS! I really like it – it’s not a perfect fit but is definitely my style and will be worn a lot (once I have washed it a few more times).

There was still a lot more left from the suit, so I’ve started on something else… A little jacket. It’s not finished yet (I need to take the shoulders in quite a bit more and take up the sleeves) but it’s promising…

And here it is, all together. Thanks Portia for the push to try this 😀