Pretty Pillows

So by now you know I have been making squares for a 'Paper Doll Dress' quilt and I have used my own scraps of fabric and lace and also re-cycled fabric from a ladies blouse for one square. Well, a friend asked me if I would make something for her two granddaughters from blouses she no longer wears-so I did. I made pillows.

I used the front of the blouses for the back of the pillow and the placket became to pillow opening.

I then made the 'Paper Doll Dress' as usual.

I made piping from the left over blouse fabric and put it all together.

I think she will like the finished pillows and her granddaughters will have a lovely keepsake.

Embroidered Blouse

Like many of you, as well as being a member of SAGA, I am also a member of the Embroiderer's Guild of America (EGA). My chapter is quite large and meetings are well attended. Many of the members have been in the chapter for many years and one such lady is Holly. Holly is over 90 and still stitching. Her work is quite lovely and one thing she loves to do is stitch on greeting cards. She draws a simple design and stitches through the light card to embellish it.

Holly models her blouse and matching sweater

As well as her needlepoint and card making Holly embroiders her blouses. She takes a plain blouse that she has purchased and turns it into a one-of-a kind creation with her stitching. I have seen many of her creations and much of the time not realized that she had executed the embroidery. It was at the Annual Meeting of the chapter that my eye was caught by the blouse she was wearing and the fact she also had a sweater to match the colour of the threads! (I forgot to ask which came first, the sweater or thread colour choice! I suspect it was the sweater that dictated the thread colour). On this blouse Holly had also swapped the buttons to match the embroidery /sweater colour.

Detail of the design on the collar of the blouse

Holly's embroidery down the blouse front 

What an easy way to make a plain blouse stand out and be something unique.

Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose

Any one of the title words would describe a couple of my recent projects.

I hate to throw something out if I think I can re-use or re-purpose it, but at the same time, I do not want to hoard things! So, when, on the same day two friends from my EGA group asked if I could use the fabric from two items of clothing they no longer needed, I said yes, but only because I knew what I would do with them!

The first was a Brooks Brothers ladys blouse that was made from pima cotton. This friend thought I could make a 'paper doll dress' for one of my quilt squares from the fabric.

So I did.

But before I made the quilt square, I made a baby girl romper, using the original front button placket as part of the design.

I started by cutting the blouse apart up the side seams. Cutting the sleeves out around the armhole and then cutting up the sleeve seams. I cut the back apart from the front along the shoulders. Now I had flat pieces of fabric to work with.

I used the centre of the button placket as the centre fold of the front of the pattern piece. I cut the back of the romper from the back of the blouse and the sleeves from the sleeves of the blouse-easy peasey! The neck bias strip was cut from the lower piece of the sleeve.

I trimmed the sleeves with some lace and used the same lace to trim the neckline once the romper was completed. The romper was gifted to another EGA friend for her youngest granddaughter.

Recycled, reused, repurposed!

The second item was a cotton knit sweatshirt. The fabric had worn where the seams were bulky and had rubbed against the ribbing. The friend thought it would make linings for bibs or burp cloths, which, of course it would have, but I had other ideas!

Again, I cut the sweatshirt into pieces of fabric and set about cutting out a jacket. I cut the largest size I could from the fabric I had 'created'. I then raided my stash and found a cute fabric to make the jacket lining. Next I found a packet of pre-made bias binding (bought at a thrift shop for 50 cents). Then I found some cute buttons (some were part of a table favour at a SAGA event).

The result is a cute jacket that I gave back to the donor of the sweatshirt for her granddaughter!

Recycled, reused, repurposed!

PS. The romper pattern was Drew and Erin's Bubble by Sew Beautiful magazine.
      The jacket pattern was from Sew Cute Couture by Gail Doane (but I removed the back pleat so I could make the size 3 jacket from the 'created' fabric).