When Portia first told the group that the challenge was going to be jeans, I was really nervous. The last thing I wanted was to end up with a garment that really looked like it had been cobbled together from old pairs of jeans. I went through the grungy 90s and I was not eager to return.

My first thought was to make a Nita Wrap Skirt, thinking the panels of the wrap skirt would lend itself well to recycled fabric. I did a bunch of research on what’s happening with denim this season and for a while even thought about trying to make overalls (denim jacket cut away for the top and a pair of jeans for the bottom). But it was too hard to find a jacket and pants that perfectly matched.

Somewhere in my research I stumbled upon skirts that had lighter denim in the front and darker in the back. So I found two pairs of jeans and set to work.

Initially  I was going to do a button front pencil skirt but decided that the button placket would use too much fabric so I went for a zip front instead.

I cut apart my jeans and laid my skirt pattern pieces on top. Annnnnnd, they did not fit. So, I took my basic one dart block and adapted it for princess seams, eliminating the darts. More patterns pieces meant I could get one skirt panel out of each pant leg piece (8 skirt panels, 2 jeans=8 pant pieces). And no darts is ideal for a heavier fabric like denim.

I also added some curved front pockets for an extra bit of interest. I did try reusing the pockets from the jeans on the back of the skirt but it didn’t look great so I left it clean.

I ended up taking in the skirt quite a bit to get the fitted look I was going for. By the way, princess seams are quite nice for getting just the right fit. A princess seam shift dress was actually one of my first sewing projects way back in high school. It was so satisfying to be ale to take in all those seams in just the right places to create the perfect fit.

To attach the zipper, I applied interfacing to the seam allowance of the center front and pressed it to the wrong side. Then I basted and stitched the zipper to the center front. I took my time with it and it went in pretty easily. Be aware, that when your denim has stretch, this is a place where the fabric could warp and your zipper can look warped. I think mine probably did warp a bit actually. This zipper is a 24 inch metal separating zipper. So if I want to get undressed really fast, I can just unzip all the way. 😉

The light colored jeans came with a precut, frayed hem that I reused for the front center panel. I had to give it a couple tries to get the frayed edge even but I really like the stair step look.

To finish the waistband, I made a simple facing again to save on fabric. The only fabric I used that did not come from the jeans was a cotton I used for the pocket bags and the waistband facing.

And the final touch, to give it a little extra RTW polish, was to add rivets to the pockets. I’ve only installed rivets one time before when I made a pair of Birkin Flares. I definitely feel like I have not mastered it yet. Hopefully, with a little more practice I’ll be able to attach a rivet without smashing it. You really can’t see the bit of smashing unless you look very closely though.

During the refashioning I thought of a few tips that might be helpful as you start your own jeans refashioning adventures.

Tips for refashioning jeans

1. If you’re buying, try to buy the biggest size you can, more fabric same amount of money. Also look for straight or wide legs as opposed to boot or skinny cut
2. Look for jeans with little to no stretch. I’ve had unfortunate experiences, even with premium denim, stretching in unfortunate ways and refusing to go back into shape.
3. Look for jeans without any fading. As you cut them up and rearrange the denim, the fading could look unnatural in its new incarnation.
4. Most jeans have at least one seam that is constructed with a chain stitch. If the threads are not too meshed together from years of washing, you can clip the thread and pull to unravel the entire seam. It will only pull going one direction so try both ends of the seam.

This was a really fun project and I’m so thrilled that Portia asked me to participate. I really love the design of this skirt and I’m already thinking about playing around with it more.

I’m a lover of simplicity of design combined with little details and, even as a trouserphile non skirt wearer, this is really floating my boat! Love the separating zip. LOVE the stepped and frayed front hem and the contrast of light and dark denim between the front and back. AND the princess seam tip is a great one. Both in terms of fit AND creating multiple narrower pattern pieces that fit onto narrow jeans legs 🙂 Thank you so much Beth!!

You can find Beth here or here. And if you’re inspired to get your refashion on and enter the Community Challenge and be in with a chance of winning some epic prizes…DO IT! Deadline for entries is 30th Sept. Midnight GMT.

….I think you’ve got the idea now right? Essentially we want you to refashion some jeans! (You can find the full details/small print of the brief here). BUT, if you want to be in with a chance of winning one of these amazing prize packages you need to SHARE that refashion with us in one of the following ways:

• On Instagram: Share a pic using the hashtags #therefashioners2016  and #jeanius
• On Pinterest: There is a community board here where you can pin your makes. (You will need to request an invite to join)
• On Facebook: There is a community board here where you can post your makes (You will need to request an invite to join)

Only entries shared via the above 3 methods will be entered into the competition. Closing date for entries is 30th September 2016 Midnight GMT. Good luck!!

Hurrah!!! Another edition of The Refashioners challenge is here and I’m beyond excited to see what everyone makes. I’m thrilled that Portia has asked me to take part for another year, and I hope that my contribution will provide some inspiration for sewers who like to make stuff for kids.

After giving my approach some thought, I decided to use this year’s challenge theme to explore different types of denim. I wanted to try a few refashioning projects using jeans that varied in thickness and stretchiness.

Matching projects and patterns to the properties of different fabrics is an element of sewing that is often tricky; add to that the extra challenges thrown up by reusing existing garments rather than sewing from a flat piece of new fabric, and you’ve got some sewing fun to be had!

Everyone knows, three is the magic number. So I sourced three very different pairs of jeans to hack into. The first pair was a fairly wide legged hipster style (the kind I would have ADORED in the early 2000’s) made from lightweight denim with no stretch that a friend of mine ended up with at a recent clothes swap. The second was a pair of ‘dad jeans’ (thick, sturdy denim but pretty loose and shapeless in style) my husband owned but hated actually wearing. The final pair was the tight, stretchy, skinny variety donated to me by another friend. What is genius about this year’s installment of The Refashioners is that the source material is so easy to come by. If you asked around everyone you know, I think you’d be hard pushed not to find someone with a pair of jeans (or ten) that they no longer want. On to my creations…

I couldn’t think of many options for refashioning the skinny, stretchy jeans, particularly with this pair, as they originally belonged to a very petite friend of mine. I decided not to break my brain over it, and to simply make a toddler pair of jeggings from the adult pair. Although my daughter has recently begun to insist on wearing a dress every day, I can often sneak a pair of leggings or trousers on her underneath, which I feel is particularly important for chilly and/or very outside-y days, so I know these will be useful in the future if she doesn’t close that loop-hole!

So the first thing I did was make a fairly sizeable mistake. Just so others would be able to avoid doing so themselves of course! I started out by cutting the jeans up along the outside leg seams so I could preserve the lapped seam and nice topstitching on the inside leg. Sounds like a good idea, no?!

I opted to use a tried and tested kids skinny trousers/jeggings pattern, the Hosh pants pattern by Lou Bee Clothing , for this project (size 3 but length 4 because I think this pattern comes up a bit short). As you can see in the above image, when I positioned the main pattern piece on the prepared jeans, it is too wide for the amount of denim I was left with. GAH!

I couldn’t figure out a way to rectify to situation, so I took the coward’s route out and found another pair of skinny jeans made from a denim with a similar weight and stretch and started again, this time cutting up the INSIDE legs (see above). This time I could fit the main pattern piece on fine whilst also incorporating the original hem so that was a construction step for my toddler jeggings that I could skip. As you may have noticed, the Hosh pants pattern has no outside leg seam, but to fit that pattern piece on an existing pair of jeans, you have to include the original outside leg seam, which I feel gives a nice little nod to the source material.

The rest of the pattern consists of a pair of front waistband pieces, and a pair of back waistband pieces. I squeezed out one of each from the top of the legs and the final front waistband piece from the centre of what left just under the fly front of the original jeans. The second back waistband piece was cut from a scrap of flamingo print quilting cotton that I had found in a scraps bin a while ago.

The Hosh pants pattern features an adjustable elasticated section at the back, and I think that two layers of denim would have been too stiff to gather sufficiently anyhow.

I recently made a few of these sun hats in quilting weight cotton, and at the time felt that the pattern could easily cope with being made in a thicker fabric so the hats would keep their shape better. Now was my chance to test that theory. The Dad-jeans were unleashed (well, cut up the outside leg seams and laid out flat). I printed out two copies of the Oliver + S free bucket hat pattern, trimmed one set to the size small pattern pieces and another for a set of size medium.

The biggest challenge I faced with this project was the faux-and-actual-wearing and distress of the original jeans. Unlike with the pair I used for the jeggings project, here I faced lots of different shades of blue, worn out sections and some holes. It would have been very little hassle to harvest enough denim with similar shading for just one hat. However, I was determined to make a pair of hats so I just had to do my best to avoid the holes and group the pattern pieces so the smaller one would be formed from the darker sections and the larger utilised the more mid-blue parts.

With the tricksome cutting out of the way, the rest of these makes were simple. I chose some red anchor print quilting cotton that had been generously offered and sent to me by IG user @craftandthrift to line the smaller one (which is going to be for the mini-dude currently growing and kicking in my belly). And for my increasingly girly little almost-three-year-old, I picked out some very pink ditsy Liberty-esque cotton lawn for a lining.

I had both red and dusty pink topstitching thread in my stash, although not as much of the pink, which is why there aren’t so many rows of stitching around the brim on that one!

I conclude this second experiment by formulating the following equation: one pair of Dad-jeans plus some stash lurkers equals two small peoples’ hats.

Finally, I used the wide leg pair of jeans, so denim was relatively abundant compared to the other two. It’s still surprising to me how it can be tricky to get a baby’s garment out of something adult sized though! With the current project ratio of 2:1 in favour of Dolores, I thought it only fair to make another garment for the mini-dude.

One of my regular students recently gave me this baby layette sewing pattern, and I thought the dungarees project would be a nice basis for some cute embellishment. I traced out the 6 month sized pattern pieces, but extended to the 9 month length as they looked pretty wide and I thought the hems could be rolled up for a while to get maximum usage from my hard work.

The wide legged style of the pattern used almost all the lower portions of the original jean’s legs. Thankfully the denim didn’t have lots of fading so there wouldn’t be too many weird patches of shading on the finished garment. With all the pieces cut out without too much of a headache, it was time to embellish them before construction could commence.

I’ve been collating applique ideas on a Pinterest board  for months now as I’m always amazed by how the simplest addition can transform a simple garment. A basic cloud image is one that has appeared on my board numerous times, and is pleasingly gender neutral. I sketched out a simple cloud shape and cut out a few in different sizes from a scrap of thin grey leather. I appliqued them by first fixing them in place with Copydex, then carefully stitched round the edges using the walking foot and my sewing machine cranked down to slooowwwww. The clouds on the legs are meant to add reinforcement to the knee areas, but I think they will probably have ended up too low to perform that function! Youtube taught me how to make French knots, which I used to hand-embroider the eyes on the main cloud, and I used a running stitch for the mouth in topstitching thread because that’s all I could find.

With the embellishment complete, it was time to construct the garment. I chose to pleat rather than gather the top of the leg pieces into the yoke as I thought the gathering looked a bit girly. I picked out some plain silver buttons for the closures, and a scrap of sweet juvenile print quilting cotton for the facings…

Everything for this project came from my stash, except for the press studs that allow the inside legs to open, as I had run out of those after a recent spate of dribble bib making.

It’s impossible to say which will be the most useful reworking of a pair of jeans, as all four items are currently too big or for someone who hasn’t even been born yet! But it’s safe to say that I get an enormous kick from making kid’s clothes from unwanted adult ones. There are soooooooo many unused and unloved garments out there in the world, and there’s few things that make me happier than giving some of them a second chance with the application of some inventive sewing.

Thanks, as always, to Portia for her truly brilliant organisation of this, the most awesome of challenges! At time of writing I have no idea what the other bloggers have produced, so it’ll be super exciting to check in each day to see what everyone has come up with. Good luck and well done to everyone who is submitting a project to the community competition. Seeing all the denim (re-)creations will no doubt be one of the creative highlights of my year so I thank you all in advance!

Oh Dolores!!! You gorgeous little lady!! I hadn’t learnt to sew “properly” when Elliott was first born. Had I had the skills then that I have now I would have DEFINITELY have been sewing little dude dungarees and hats….and everything else come to think of it!! I would probably be busy refashioning my pre pregnancy jeans in fact! Refashioning is perfect for kids clothes. Not just making adult clothes smaller of course, but adapting clothes so they can continue to be of use as they grow. One of my first memories of sewing was around the age of 7 or 8. When I outgrew a favourite dress (they were all smocky in those days:)) my mum would lop the top of the dress off and then show me how to hand sew an encased elastic waistband, so I could still wear it as a skirt. Which may just have been the seed where all this started, lol! Thank’s again to Zoe, who’s contributed to every single series of The Refashioners since it began!

You can find  Zoe here or here. And if you’re inspired to get your refashion on and enter the Community Challenge and be in with a chance of winning some epic prizes…DO IT! Deadline for entries is 30th Sept. Midnight GMT.

….I think you’ve got the idea now right? Essentially we want you to refashion some jeans! (You can find the full details/small print of the brief here). BUT, if you want to be in with a chance of winning one of these amazing prize packages you need to SHARE that refashion with us in one of the following ways:

• On Instagram: Share a pic using the hashtags #therefashioners2016  and #jeanius
• On Pinterest: There is a community board here where you can pin your makes. (You will need to request an invite to join)
• On Facebook: There is a community board here where you can post your makes (You will need to request an invite to join)

Only entries shared via the above 3 methods will be entered into the competition. Closing date for entries is 30th September 2016 Midnight GMT. Good luck!!

Hey, Refashioners!  Let’s talk jeans refashions!

I want to talk specifically about my creative process for refashioning rather than focusing on details of sewing the specific pattern I used.  I’ll talk about those details more on my blog, but since the goal of these posts is to inspire you to create whatever you want to create, I want to focus on my way of working and thinking about the project, rather than on the specifics of how I followed the pattern directions.

When I first got my brief from Portia outlining the parameters for this year’s Refashioners challenge, I got really excited.  The thing I have loved about participating in this challenge for the past two years is that I think about it differently than I do my everyday sewing.  Refashioning is a problem-solving challenge in the materials department as much as it is a sewing challenge.  When I heard from Portia, I did two things:  start a secret Denim Pinterest board (now public) and head out to my local fabric store to look through the patterns.

The Pinterest board was a place to collect any creative surface designs, fabric manipulation, style lines, and construction that caught my eye.  In searching for a pattern, I looked for garment designs made up of multiple smaller pieces (especially vertical ones) since I would be cutting the pieces out of the legs of jeans.

And after that?  It was off to the thrift store!  I had already gone through any jeans that weren’t being worn in my personal stash, so I went to the thrift store with the hope of finding some colorful denim that was different than the traditional indigo I already had.

I struck gold in the men’s department with two large pairs of jeans, one ivory and one yellow.  I also found a pair with a cute heart design in the kids’ section that I planned to use initially, but changed my mind on in the end.

In creating a project like this, there is often as much time spent in the thinking and planning phase as there is in actual construction.  After all the mental preparation and ruminating, this is what I finally came up with:  I would create a skirt using Vogue 8750, View A.  This skirt has numerous panels for color-blocking, so it seemed like a good choice.

Before I even got started, I washed my jeans in hot water and then dried them on hot so that any shrinkage and dye bleeding would happen before I made my garment.  I used dye magnet sheets to see how much bleeding was happening.  It wasn’t much of a problem with the jeans from my stash or the kids’ jeans since they were older and had been washed often.  Obviously the ivory wasn’t going to bleed.  Where I did run into potential problems was with the yellow jeans.  I think they may have been brand new, and I had to wash them several times to get all the excess dye out.  My last step before declaring them ready to go was to do one wash with all the jeans together on hot, so that if there was any chance they might bleed on one another, it would happen before I started and I could regroup and come up with a new plan.  Luckily, it didn’t happen.  What a relief!

Another thing I did after getting my pattern and my jeans was to scan the line drawing from the back of the pattern envelope and then, using a program called Picasa (free from Google), I repeated the image on a sheet of paper and printed it out.  Then I used colored pencils to do little mock-ups of my thoughts so I could get an idea of what I liked.  This was a technique I used to plan my project last year, and it was immensely helpful.

When I was finally ready with all my planning, I made two test versions of my skirt using scrap fabric, some of which stretched (like my indigo denim) and some of which didn’t (like my ivory and yellow denim).  The combination of stretch and non-stretch fabric turned out to be a great choice as it really adds to the comfort level of the skirt.

One thing I learned during my final version was that I should have considered how I was going to finish my seams at the beginning.  Of course this isn’t something I did on my muslins, but I really wanted to make everything nice on the inside for the final skirt.  You can see that some of my bias tape finishing stops short of the intersecting seam.  This is because I didn’t think through my finishing beforehand.  I learned my lesson, though, and finished all my other seams as I went along.  I LOVE how it looks.  If you have wide seam allowances, this is a great finishing option, and you can learn from my mistake!

Another small detail that had a big impact on my finished garment was choosing to topstitch many of the seams with red topstitching thread.  It helped to make everything look crisp and it gave the skirt a nice detail.  Small details can go a long way with this project.

I was really happy with the finished look of my skirt.  Now I have a jean skirt as part of my wardrobe, but not just any jean skirt—one that is completely unique and made from formerly unloved jeans!

I can’t wait to see what everyone else makes and how each person puts their own unique stamp on their project. 

Thanks for the opportunity to be a part of this challenge, Portia!

Love that idea of scanning in the line drawing and using it to plan your colour blocking! Such alot of thought, planning and preparation gone into this. And it shows in the finished garment! Lisa to me, has a very distinct and precise approach to refashioning evidenced again in this post which very nearly won her the challenge last year and prompted me to create a second prize this year! To my mind there are two quite distinct approaches to refashioning. This one where you view the base garment(s ) as a source of fabric from which to cut your pattern; and the other….a free wheeling approach…where you tweak, reconfigure, and reshape an existing garment and let it evolve. (And of course there are a million shades of  grey inbetween!) Both, IMHO, are equally valid in the context of refashioning. Both can yield amazing results. To refashion something is to “give new form to something”. How you get there,  is a matter of personal choice and preference and what suits your creative style  😉  

You can find Lisa here. And if you’re inspired to get your refashion on and enter the Community Challenge and be in with a chance of winning some epic prizes…DO IT! Deadline for entries is 30th Sept. Midnight GMT.

….I think you’ve got the idea now right? Essentially we want you to refashion some jeans! (You can find the full details/small print of the brief here). BUT, if you want to be in with a chance of winning one of these amazing prize packages you need to SHARE that refashion with us in one of the following ways:

• On Instagram: Share a pic using the hashtags #therefashioners2016  and #jeanius
• On Pinterest: There is a community board here where you can pin your makes. (You will need to request an invite to join)
• On Facebook: There is a community board here where you can post your makes (You will need to request an invite to join)

Only entries shared via the above 3 methods will be entered into the competition. Closing date for entries is 30th September 2016 Midnight GMT. Good luck!!

We’re really excited to be part of the refashioners this year, after squabbling over who got to take on this challenge with Rachel (rock, paper, scissors sorts out everything!) I won. I’ve been wanting to make a cropped denim jacket for ages to wear with dresses and I felt like this was the perfect project to make this happen. I started off with one pair of my old jeans and one pair from my other half.

I didn’t have a pattern that I wanted to use so I decided to use the bodice part of a Vogue jumpsuit pattern (V9075) that I love and have already spent a long time making sure fit. I used the back panels and then modified the front so that it was one piece. I then started hunting through the tissue paper looking for the sleeve pattern piece only to discover that I had lost it! After a few choice words not to be repeated I had to draft my own.

Once I had all the pattern pieces it was time to cut out. What I really enjoyed about this part is that I took the sewing rule book and promptly threw it out of the window. Because of the limitations on the size of fabric and the look I wanted to get I had to ignore the grainline (I know gasp!) I wanted to make a feature of the flat felled double stitch line on the inside leg of both pairs, I unpicked the outside hem and started to lay out my pattern pieces.

I used my jeans for the arms because they had some stretch and I thought it they’d be best suited for that and the rest of the came out of other pair. Here are all my pieces ready to be overlocked.

Sewing together this jacket was an absolute breeze, the denim was lovely to work with and I started by sewing together the bodice section of the jacket.

Once this was done and pressed I need to to attach the facing, I had made one continuous piece that went up the front of the jacket and around the neckline. I pinned it onto the bodice, lining everything up at the seams. Once I had sewn this I turned it out and gave it a really good press. I then sewed the facing to the jacket bodice at the shoulder seams to hold it all in place.

I then added the sleeves and tried it on. I was really pleased with the fit and decided on a turn up cuff. I started to pin the pocket pieces onto the jacket (I’d taken them off one of the pairs of jeans) I had wanted to have them on the outside of the jacket, but because its so cropped they looked  really weird and decided on a sneaky inside pocket instead.

I topstitched the whole of the outside of the jacket in a navy blue, I had planned on using some orange but in the end I thought it made more of a feature of the jeans original stitching. 

Not bad for an afternoon’s work I have to say!

I have to say, this cute and simple little jacket is right up my alley. You’ll probably have noticed a common theme developing in how our bloggers are overcoming the limitations of jeans. And that is, if you’re using a pattern, reducing the size of your pattern pieces so you can piece them from your jeans like a jigsaw AND  incorporating  original seams (or hems) as part of your design to open up your pattern placement options a bit! And like Kate says, you may have to throw out the sewing rule book (Grainline! What grainline?!)  from time to time with refashioning. That’s just part of the fun though!!

You can find Kate & Rachel  here or here. And if you’re inspired to get your refashion on and enter the Community Challenge and be in with a chance of winning some epic prizes…DO IT! Deadline for entries is 30th Sept. Midnight GMT.

….I think you’ve got the idea now right? Essentially we want you to refashion some jeans! (You can find the full details/small print of the brief here). BUT, if you want to be in with a chance of winning one of these amazing prize packages you need to SHARE that refashion with us in one of the following ways:

• On Instagram: Share a pic using the hashtags #therefashioners2016  and #jeanius
• On Pinterest: There is a community board here where you can pin your makes. (You will need to request an invite to join)
• On Facebook: There is a community board here where you can post your makes (You will need to request an invite to join)

Only entries shared via the above 3 methods will be entered into the competition. Closing date for entries is 30th September 2016 Midnight GMT. Good luck!!

One of the best parts of working at Colette HQ is being around people who are just as obsessed with sewing as you are. It can be a solitary activity sometimes, so having friends you can talk to every day about what you’re making, how you’re making it, and what you’re learning is a complete joy.

That’s why some of us decided to join The Refashioners project together. Because the only thing more inspiring that a good creative challenge is watching how other people tackle the same problem.

Four of us participated this year: me (I’m Sarai, the founder), Delaney (our pattern manager), Anna (our designer), and Meg (our communications manager).

Here’s what each of us made, and how. You can read more about each of our projects on the colette blog, where we’re each sharing more photos and details this week. – Sarai

Anyone who knows me (or even follows me on Instagram knows that I’m kind of obsessed with roses. I’m even a member of the Portland English Rose Society, an unofficial rose-growing club that mostly involves a bunch of ladies getting together to sip champagne, eat rose-flavored treats, and pore over garden catalogs. So when I saw these 90s floral jeans, I knew they were meant for me.

I modelled my dress off something very similar by Stella McCartney. I’ve wanted a little denim cut-out sort of dress since last summer, and I loved the interesting construction details. Of course, mine ended up quite a big shorter because I used every bit of fabric I had! I drafted the pattern using a combination of draping and flat pattern making, made a muslin, and got to work! Some pieces needed to be cut on the cross grain to get things to fit, but somehow I ended up with just the right amount of fabric. The most time consuming part was definitely taking the original garment apart.

Though in retrospect, the fun seamlines on this dress probably would have been a lot more visible in a solid denim, I can’t deny that all these big red 90s flowers make me very happy.

Read more about each of our projects on the colette blog this week .

I had no clue of what I was going to make before I went to Goodwill. I snaked through the aisles, collecting possible combinations, creating garments in my mind and subsequently rejecting them all. I finally settled upon a pair of mens size 50 black jeans, two pairs of  the same purple stretch denim, and a fabulous pair of black floral stretch denim.

The next step was to find out what I would make with them. Many years ago, I purchased a Bellville Sassoon pattern from vogue to make my junior prom dress, yet sadly, I wasn’t asked to go. I felt obligated to work this pattern into my design, and I loved the gored skirt (without the mermaid flare of course). I paired the skirt with the Madonna bodice pattern from the book Famous Frocks by Sara Alm and Hannah McDevitt, and my refashioned design was ready to be patterned.

I had to alter both patterns to make the gores from the skirt and bodice line up and blend smoothly. The Bellville Sassoon pattern didn’t have a waist seam, so I laid a different skirt pattern on top of the traced skirt pattern and marked a waistline on each gore. I then aligned the stitch line of the bodice pieces with my new waistline on the skirt and trued my seams. The process was easy, and required little alteration.

Apparently purple stretch denim isn’t popular here in the northwest, so I was lucky to find two pairs! Before I cut into my jeans, I laid the pattern pieces to make sure there was enough, and there was plenty. The construction process was fairly simple and the dress came together quickly. I struggled with the fit on the skirt, and was ready to just make the bodice into a top. After throwing the dress the corner of my sewing room, I went to bed frustrated and defeated. I woke up the next morning determined to make the skirt fit, and I’m glad I did.

I thoroughly enjoyed this project. It reminded me of my early sewing days when I would buy thrift store garments and hack them apart to make a pattern. I used to go into projects without any fear or hesitation of whether or not the end result was perfect. This project allowed me to let go of the rules of sewing and just have fun.

Read more about each of our projects on the Colette blog this week 

For my refashioners project I decided to copy a favorite denim jacket that I own, as far as shape and silhouette. I love wearing and sewing with denim, so when Sarai asked the office to participate in the refashioners 2016 project I very enthusiastically accepted the challenge! For my project I used 2 1/2 pairs of men’s XXL wrangler jeans from Goodwill. When at the store I was excited that I had found a few pairs of pants in the same denim wash, which can be difficult, especially as I was wanting a light blue wash denim jacket. However, when I began cutting out my pattern pieces and positioning them next to each other, I realized the denim had faded in different areas and the jacket was beginning to look a little to patchwork for my liking.

Distracting  from the varying blue colors, I decided to add some actual patches to the jacket, and lots of hardware. I have been embroidering a lot lately, and had a few patches already made up.

My favorite artist and designer is Nudie Cohn, famous for his Nudie Suits, and clothing big country acts like Gram Parsons, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Elvis, Hank Williams, and many more. The way he utilizes embroidery and hardware to decorate a garment, or full suit, is very inspiring to me and I wanted to do something similar for this jacket. Another artist I am very inspired by is Ft. Lonesome. The company is based out of Austin, Texas and is known primarily for making chain stitch embroideries and then adding them to various custom garments.

Although my embroideries do not even come close to comparison with these two artists work, I did my best to make a garment reminiscent of their work. The project was very fun to accomplish, and I am happy to now have a handmade, recycled denim jacket that fits just as well as my original favorite denim jacket.

Read more about each of our projects on the Colette blog this week 

I wear way too much denim. I really didn’t need another denim garment in my wardrobe, but I did need a new backpack for summer camping trips! So I made the Cooper bag.

I’m stoked that 100% of this bag is refashioned. I used jeans for the flap, bottom, pockets, and straps, and old denim curtains from IKEA for the contrasting fabric.

The lining is thrifted cotton from my stash. All hardware came from an old bag I had in a donate pile at home, and the snaps came from an old sweater. The patch is from my old Girl Scout sash!

I ripped the jeans apart at the sides and crotch, but I kept the legs intact at the inseam, which is why the flap and bottom have a center seam. After that, I didn’t have much jeans left, so I got creative with the rest. I used the actual back pockets from the jeans for the pockets on the outside and inside of the bag, and the waistbands from the jeans for the backpack straps. The waistbands came off the jeans nicely, and it meant I didn’t need to assemble straps. I even kept the button from the fly as a fun little detail for each strap.

From the outside, you can’t tell that it’s made from jeans, but take a peek inside, and the Levi’s pocket gives it away.

Read more about each of our projects on the Colette blog this week 

I don’t think you’ll find a better example in one post, of the massive scope of potential in refashioning unloved jeans! So interesting to see how completely different everyone’s take is on the challenge in terms of aesthetic and approach.  And Delaney’s comment particularly resonates with me….and one of the reasons I LOVE refashioning so much: “I used to go into projects without any fear or hesitation of whether or not the end result was perfect. This project allowed me to let go of the rules of sewing and just have fun.”

Thank you so much to Sarai, Delaney, Anna & Meg. Awesome job!!!

You can find  the team here or here. And if you’re inspired to get your refashion on and enter the Community Challenge and be in with a chance of winning some epic prizes…DO IT! Deadline for entries is 30th Sept. Midnight GMT.

….I think you’ve got the idea now right? Essentially we want you to refashion some jeans! (You can find the full details/small print of the brief here). BUT, if you want to be in with a chance of winning one of these amazing prize packages you need to SHARE that refashion with us in one of the following ways:

• On Instagram: Share a pic using the hashtags #therefashioners2016  and #jeanius
• On Pinterest: There is a community board here where you can pin your makes. (You will need to request an invite to join)
• On Facebook: There is a community board here where you can post your makes (You will need to request an invite to join)

Only entries shared via the above 3 methods will be entered into the competition. Closing date for entries is 30th September 2016 Midnight GMT. Good luck!!

First things first. I’m a nincompoop! When Portia invited me to take part in the Refashioners again, I jumped in without hesitation. The only problem was that being distracted by work and life I totally missed her very clear memo that this year’s challenge is all about jeans.

Somehow, and I genuinely don’t know how it was possible, I managed to convince myself from the very start that it was about denim in general. Despite her follow-up emails, related blog posts and blindingly obvious blog button, I didn’t twig until it was far too late.

With my head high up in the denim clouds, I sought inspiration on Pinterest and fell hard for the patchwork look. I’d also been dying to make Seamwork’s woven tee, Hayden, which seemed to lend itself perfectly to my vision.

At this point, I need to thank Portia for being SUCH a gracious host. Not only did I completely misinterpret the theme, I also didn’t refashion in the true sense of the word, opting as always to use a pattern. Yet she still humoured me with a guest blog and that’s just one of the many reasons she’s a beautiful human being.

Anyway, I digress. For my cropped tee I picked up a denim skirt and two denim chambray shirts from a local charity shop. This may seem a little wasteful, but I was desperate to get a good contrast in my patchwork. In the spirit of the challenge though, I shall use the leftover scraps as pocket facings and so on. 

    My charity shop finds were all large sizes so pattern placement was a breeze and I got everything cut out quickly. In fact, the whole make was pretty fast, which is exactly what Seamwork patterns promise.

The only slightly tricky thing were the sleeves. Even though they are sewn on flat, like you do for knits, there’s something a little off with the drafting so it’s not the smoothest process. Other than that though, it’s a satisfyingly speedy make. 

Although I think the patchwork look has tuned out really nicely and the top is pretty cute, I don’t like it on me. It’s a lot boxier than I first realised and combined with my large bust it makes me look even bigger than I am. 

I even paired it with my faux-quilted pleather skirt in an attempt to look ‘cool’, but I just don’t think this look works for me. It’s a shame, because a longer, leaner person would totally rock it.

      I may not have fully fulfilled Portia’s brief, but I had fun nonetheless and it’s always rewarding to push myself out of my comfort zone.

I cannot tell you the hand wringing poor Marie went through over the misunderstanding regarding the brief. But here’s the thing. The point of these blogger posts is to provide inspiration. (they’re not entering the competition. You are. So as long as YOU use jeans, it’s all good!) And as far as I’m concerned Marie has done that in spades, as you COULD totally adapt this to be made from old jeans. It’s the panelling and  blocking of the different shades of blue that is the takeaway here, as far as jeans refashioning is concerned. Take a closer look at the pattern pieces that this top is comprised of. Widen those darker coloured side panels slightly, which will enable you to narrow the front pattern piece. Back has a CB seam anyway so hey presto….all those pattern pieces are  then narrow enough to be cut from jeans. Job done I’d say Marie!! And for the record, whether you use a pattern or free wheel it….it still totally counts as a refashion! (IMHO)

You can find  Marie here or here. And if you’re inspired to get your refashion on and enter the Community Challenge and be in with a chance of winning some epic prizes…DO IT! Deadline for entries is 30th Sept. Midnight GMT.

….I think you’ve got the idea now right? Essentially we want you to refashion some jeans! (You can find the full details/small print of the brief here). BUT, if you want to be in with a chance of winning one of these amazing prize packages you need to SHARE that refashion with us in one of the following ways:

• On Instagram: Share a pic using the hashtags #therefashioners2016  and #jeanius
• On Pinterest: There is a community board here where you can pin your makes. (You will need to request an invite to join)
• On Facebook: There is a community board here where you can post your makes (You will need to request an invite to join)

Only entries shared via the above 3 methods will be entered into the competition. Closing date for entries is 30th September 2016 Midnight GMT. Good luck!!