Thursday 6 December 2012

Disasterous refashion

Once upon a time a girl had a pair of lovely green satin knickers.  They were a Christmas gift from some friends and in the sales she stumbled upon the matching camisole.  In a cruel twist of fate however, the camisole was only available in a size too small or several sizes too large.

"Oh no!" cried the girl.  "Whatever shall I do?"

She racked her brains and decided to buy the smaller top, thinking with her magic sewing skills she would be able to transform it into a camisole fit for a princess.  But it was not in the stars for our young heroine, as we shall see if you turn the page...

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It's so beautiful

By now you must have guessed that I am the fair maiden in the fairy story.  I figured it would be a quick and simple refashion, unpick the side hems, insert some black lace and there we have it, a lovely matching cami for my french knickers.  How wrong I was.

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My sewing machine HATED this fabric, even remembering to put on a fine needle didn't help.  The thread kept getting snarled up, the fabric tore at the drop of a hat and an accident with the iron left one of the bottom lace panels a bit frazzled and holey.

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Font credit

When I finally turned it right ways out, I realised that there were several gaping holes and the hems were misaligned.  By this time I was too frustrated to continue so I threw it back into the pile of clothes to refashion (a sizeable pile) and swore loudly at the dog.  Since then I haven't got the courage to pull it out again, it might have to be a bin job because every time I catch a glimpse of that lovely green fabric I feel this knot of burning frustration in my stomach and I'm forced (FORCED I tell you) to pour myself a large glass of wine.  I hate throwing away fabric, even fabric scraps make me feel guilty since they'll just sit in a landfill site and rot away for the next thousand years.  But it's even worse to throw away useable fabric, just because it upsets you so much to look at it.

Any suggestions folks?  I'm going to hang onto it for a while and see if inspiratio strikes but I think this little guy's days as an item of clothing are numbered...


2 comments:

Lainey said...

You could separate the panels down so it just looks like scrap fabric instead of a constant reminder of a problematic project. It might help with visualising the fabric being used somewhere else. Plus, destroying a pain-in-the-backside project is therapeutic!

You could use the material for cards? You can get some nice effects sewing fabric onto card.

Unknown said...

I think separating the panels to make it look like scrap fabric is a good idea, less depressing every time I look at it! I know it's all a learning process but sometimes it's so frustrating!