Category Archives: Sewing


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DIY: The More Feminine Sweatshirt/ Кружевная Толстовка


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Hi, everyone! Today I am going to share my sweatshirt refashion. This is a great way to up-cycle your old or stained item of clothing! I started off with a $2.99 sweatshirt from Savers, that I bought back in November. The idea that I was going to use for it, was an idea that failed me back in the summer when I was refashioning a T-shirt. But since I never give up, I decided to try it again! And this time it worked!

The method: simply cut out a piece (any shape and size) anywhere on the sweatshirt and replace it with lace or any other fabric. Since I am lace obsessed, and somehow have lots of it, we are using lace!

You want to start by laying the sweatshirt out flat, and cutting out the material that is to be replaced:

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I was originally going to do a pocket shaped piece, but cut it out too far to the left, so that’s what I replaced it with instead!

Now you are going to cut out a piece of lace to go over this “hole” and don’t forget some pretty trim (all of the lace and trim came from an Old Navy shirt, that I freecycled a while back), and pin it all together:

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Then simply sew it all together using your machine! As you can see some lace is sticking out past the trim. Don’t worry, once everything is sewn together, cut the excess fabric off with your scissors.

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I hope you enjoyed the refashion and the pictures :) And you might have noticed that it’s the same lace I used for my wall art DIY! Don’t forget to check it out, if you haven’t yet!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Cheers,

Z

Всем привет! Сегодня мы будем перешивать толстовку! Таким способом вы сможете с лекгостью обновить потрепанную или испорченную вещь! Эта толстовка стоила всего лишь $2.99 в магазине Savers (наш местный секонд!), и куплена была еще в Ноябре. Задумка для этой переделки была испробована на одной футболке прошлым летом, и провалилась с треском! Но я никогда не сдаюсь, поэтому решила попробовать осуществить ее еще раз – и у меня получилось!

Способ: Вырезаем кусок ткани толстовки (желаемого размера и формы) там, где хотим, и заменяем кружевом или любой другой тканью! У меня небольшой сдвиг на кружево, может потому, что у меня его много? В общем, используем сегодня его!

Начнем с того, что разложим нашу толстовку на плоской поверхности, и вырезаем ту часть, которую планируем заменить.

Изначально, я сделала вырез в форме кармана, но он заходил слишком далеко в лево, и пришлось вырезать такой прямоугольник!

Теперь отрезаем кусок кружева нужного размера, чтобы закрыть нашу “дыру”. Не забудьте добавить красивую тесьму (кружево у меня осталось от старой кофты из Old Navy, которую я когда-то раздобыла благодаря сайту freecycle.org), и прикалываем все на булавки!

Затем мы это все прошиваем на машинке! Сверху на фотографии видно, что кружево выходит за тесьму. Не волнуйтесь, все это подравнивается ножницами, после того, как мы все прострочили.

Я надеюсь вам понравилась эта переделка и фотографии к ней! Возможно вы также заметили, что я использовала это кружево, когда делала эти декоративные панно на стену! Не забудьте кликнуть на этот пост, если вы его еще не видели!

Всем отличных выходных!

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Christmas Tag!


I was tagged to do this Christmas tag by Luchessa! Thank you, dear, for tagging me! Here we go:
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1. Which  Holiday do you celebrate? Christmas, and then Russian Christmas (January 7th!), just because one Christmas is never enough! There was also a time in my life when I celebrated both Hanukkah and Christmas!

2. What are you doing for the holidays this year? Going to Wisconsin! Enough said!

3. What’s your favorite holiday drink? Anything caffeinated with peppermint in it, preferably from Starbucks ;)

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4. Candy Cane or Gingerbread men? I was going to say neither, but definitely Gingerbread men as I think more about the question. They are easier to chew :)

5. What’s your favorite Holiday/Christmas song? At work – All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth!

But the one that really get’s me in the spirit of Christmas is – Oh Come all Ye Faithful

6. What’s the weirdest gift you’ve ever received? Someone once gave Sam and me a Christmas ornament that said “Our First Christmas 2010″, we got married in 2011, and the people who gave it to us came to our wedding! So I think it was a re-gift.

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7. Have you ever made a snowman? Yes, many times! I think growing up in Russia it’s a winter MUST! I also made a miniature one last year for a girl I used to babysit!

8. What is your favorite winter fragrance? Definitely Miss Dior

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9. What is at the top of your list this Christmas? Sewing books I posted about a couple days ago!

10. What is most important to you about holidays? Spending DRAMA-FREE time with my family!

I am going to tag all of you my lovely readers to answer all of the questions, and I’d really like to tag the following bloggers:

Megan 

Angelica

Katherine 

Lena

Elena

Anna

Lauren

And once again, please feel free to do the tag and link your post in the comments below!

Happy “End of the World” Friday!

Z

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Country Chic 5 Minute Refashion


If you are a devoted refashionista like me, you have craft supplies laying around everywhere. My dining table has become a permanent home to a sewing machine. The living room floor is where I lay out most of my patterns and fabrics, finding a pin or stepping on one is nothing out of the ordinary in this household.

Today’s refashion was inspired by a piece of lace trim that was on my dresser, aka make up table! I was going to use it in one of my refashions, but it turned out to be a complete fail (those happen to me too!), but I am glad it came in handy, because I think it turned out super cute! So here is what we are going to refashion today:

A Liz Claiborne Petite Large shirt. It’s so comfy, I love it! And even though it’s somewhat baggy, it’ll be staying in my closet for a long while!

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And here is the stranded piece of trim, laying right there on my make up brushes case, like it belongs there:

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Here is what we do:

Trim the lace to fit the pockets:

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So it looks like this:

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And now you are going to hand sew it on. Super easy and fast, took me only 5 minutes! Here is what it’s going to look like from the inside:

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And the result:

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I hope you enjoyed this easy, super chic, super girly refashion. I am sure that my obsession with lace trim is becoming more and more obvious with every refashion!

Happy Thursday and Happy Holidays!

Z


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Sewing Books I Can’t Put Down


… but I have to return to the Library!

Today’s post is going to be about new sewing books that I’ve discovered for myself over the past couple of weeks! And I am going to immediately tell you, that I am in love, and some of those books, are making me think “Why didn’t I think of that earlier?” type of thoughts!

The first one is “DIY COUTURE” by Rosie Martin,

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My favorite part about that book is the fact that you don’t need any sewing patterns to make anything! The measurements are extremely easy, or you end up tracing the items of clothing you already have. So far I’ve only made a cape following the step-by-step instructions, but there is more in the making! And the best part is – there is more to that than just a book, there is a blog!

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The next book is STYLISH DRESS BOOK wear with freedom by Yoshiko Tsukiori,

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And I literally want to make every single dress from this book, because they are that amazing! But it’s definitely for advanced seamstresses, unlike the first book I mentioned! I have already been scouting thrift stores for fabrics to use in order to make these dresses. I don’t know what it is about her patterns, but the simple lines and the choice of fabrics really attracts me to her books!

So these are the only two that I am really enjoying right now! What sewing books do you like?

Happy Wednesday!

Z


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Sweater Love


There is one very very simple oversized sweater refashion. I got a size L Charter Club sweater at Goodwill about a month ago, thinking it would be a nice and cozy oversized sweater. And for some reason it looked good in the dressing room, but not so good when I put it on at home! So here is what I did:

1.Laid the sweater out and put my Missoni for Target dress on top, to see where it needed to be taken in:

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2. Pinned it all down, cut off the excess material:

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3. Using my crochet hook, I stitched up the sides (you can also do it if you set your sewing machine dial to the longest stitch)

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4. I also saved the sleeves to turn them into leg warmers:

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And ta-da:

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And trying it all on (don’t worry this will probably never be worn together :) ):

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Have an awesome day everyone!

Xo,

Z


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Vintage Dress Refashion


This is going to be a story of love and loss, but with a happy end, because love was more a like, and the loss was quickly recovered! But I did have a breakdown somewhere in the middle!

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I bought this vintage dress at Steeple People (thrift store in Uptown Minneapolis) last weekend, but I swear I’ve seen it there before, and that before was over a year ago. The dress then cost around $10, being 100% silk and vintage, that’s a decent price, right? But it was stained on the bottom:

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But this time it only cost $2, even “As is” written on the tag, I quickly decided I was going to chop off the stained part, and alter it, to make it shorter (it really needed it anyways!)

So here is the dress, turned inside out and all pinned, ready for the “surgery”

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Well guess what? I cut it in the wrong place! I don’t know what happened, maybe “it’s after 11 pm” did, but was supposed to only cut through the inside layer of fabric above the pins, well I cut through 2! And that’s when the whole world went black, and there was going to be no tomorrow, the Mayan’s were right, and all that jazz… Until I peeled myself off the floor, with the help of my husband of course, and went to sleep, already dreaming about how I was going to fix it all! And I did!

I added on this piece:

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And then to hide the seam, I made this out of lining:

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And ta-da:

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It actually turned out better than what I originally had in mind! So Yay! The world gained it’s colors again!

Here is a close up of the new hem (just in case some of you wanted to take a closer look:

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Have a great day everyone, and remember even if you screw something up, there is always a way to turn it around!

Zhenya


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My 50 cents Cape


Last week when I was at the library, I decided to stop by the “sewing/fashion” section and browse around! I was able to score some amazing books (great for beginners and more advanced seamstresses or DIYers like me :) )

As you may have guessed, that’s why I went thrifting for fabric last Saturday! (Haul post here)

My first project came from this book:

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There are a total of 10 different projects in this book, and each one of these projects has 8 variations! It’s a very inspiring book, even if you are not looking for any inspiration! Plus the step by step instructions are so easy to follow, that t makes sewing and designing  a lot more fun!

I chose this cape as my first project. And my 50 cents of wool were perfect for it!

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The amount of fabric was just right! I spent about 3 hours on Sunday night working on this:

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I couldn’t be more proud! But it’s not over yet! I have some nice velvet that I want to use to decorate the cape, but I want to ask your opinion, so please take a minute and vote:

I hope you are as in the mood for the new Hobbit or a re-run of The Lord of the Rings as I am ;)

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Xo,

Z


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Refashioned Vintage Coat


I have been Facebooking and Instagramming about this refashion all week long. And last night I finally finished it! So here it is, my $1.50 vintage coat refashion! As some of you may remember I got this coat at Arc Value Village right before Halloween off of a Halloween rack!

But enough about the coat, let’s see the refashion:

If you take a closer look you can see that there is a button missing, and when you take an even closer look, you’ll see that the buttons are loose…

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I started off by decorating the pockets:

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All of the appliques were finished on the machine, but hand sewn to the coat!

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Then I moved on to redesigning the collar. I started off by just making triangles to go over the ends. I had to trace the shape using saran wrap:

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Then I changed up the belt loops. The new one is on the left, old on the right!

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After showing it off to my husband, he suggested I change the collar and design an applique that would go all around. I traced the collar applique on paper, made sure it fit the original collar properly:

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Then came the most challenging part (at least for me) – altering/shortening the coat! I was even considering taking it in to get done professionally, but then I thought that since I’ve already put in so much work and effort and love into this project, I simply cannot fail! So I did it:

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I ran a zigzag stich along the bottom so that it wouldn’t fray, then pinned it up, and hand sewed it on. I know there is so much hand sewing in this project, and trust me my fingers are bruised and the skin is peeling, but it was so worth it!

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So here it is, my finished coat!

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Stay tuned for the outfit post! And don’t forget to like my Facebook page and follow me on Twitter!

Have an amazing weekend everyone! I know I will, in my new coat :)

Zhenya


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DIY Friday: Decorating a Tote Bag


Back in October, I went to a staff development day for work. It was one giant teacher conference, with a lot of classes to take, and of course a free goody bag! Unfortunately the bag had this on it:

 

Just in case you have trouble figuring out the writing, it says – Igniting your awesome! I think it’s an absolutely amazing inspirational quote, but not when it looks so sad and washed out :/

I took some nail polish remover (ACETONE is your best friend here!) to get rid of most of the writing.

 

Then I got some fabric for the new applique to go over the writing! This came off of an old T-shirt I freecycled a while back, and it’s just been sitting in my closet, waiting for it’s moment! And well, it finally came!

 

I was debating which piece to use for my refashion and whether to do both front and back, or just front, and finally decided on this:

 

The brown lace trim came off of the same shirt that I cut up last week for my wall art DIY :)

The next step was the longest and probably the most painful one, because I pricked my finger with a needle a few times! But I hand sewn it all together! And the result was just amazing!

 

Yes, it is Monopoly Star Wars edition sticking out of my newly refashioned bag!

 

I hope every single one of you had a blessed Thanksgiving! And a successful Black Friday!

Cheers,

Zhenya

PS. Don’t forget to like my FB page and follow me on Twitter!

 


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OOTD featuring my Refashioned Romper


As promised Outfit featuring my latest refashion! Check it out if you haven’t yet!

And yes, my firends, the Christmas tree is up in IDS, go check it out! And don’t forget about the Holidazzle!

Xo,

Zhenya

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