Pattern under development - The Marci Blouse

New pattern coming soon!   The Marci blouse is designed to be made using striped fabric. The blouse is intended to be very loose fitting. 

The first version I made is 3 different grays which makes the stripes stand out as the feature.  People are drawn to the subtlety of the pattern play and the fun of the circles.

  
 

The Marci Blouse side view

The Marci Blouse Back View

The Marci Blouse front view

I paired mine with this Marcy Tilton skirt pattern, also made in gray and color blocked with one fabric in front and one in back. The combination makes a surprisingly elegant outfit.   Photos of the outfit to follow. : >

Restore dignity with a little elbow grease and less than $4

Give your sweater back its dignity

 

Off to Puyallup WA for the Sewing Expo!!!

This is my first visit to Puyallup, Washington, for the nations largest Sewing Expo and I AM EXCITED!

Time to mingle, do some market research, scout out my fellow pattern makers, upcyclers, and workshop presenters.

I'd like to make more connections in the sewing community, find groups who would like to host workshops and more about presenting at this and similar venues in the future.

I'm also interested to know how much upcycling is or is not on the radar screen of the sewing community.

Hope to meet you there!

Michelle

I've just released my third upcycled blouse sewing pattern.  Yahoo! 

Click here to buy the pattern in my Etsy Shop, Paganoonoo

This particular pattern is a favorite of mine.  The draft garment was featured in Threads Magazine issue #177, published March 2015 (still on the shelves). 

  

Writing these patterns has been an exercise is using every skill I've learned in the Fashion Design Program at Canada College in Redwood City.

Writing upcycling patterns for this type of garment is different than those written for flat cloth.  There are no pattern pieces to cut out, instead there is disassembly and reassembly.  I've included detailed illustrations and instructions to set sewers up for success.

The advantage is that the garments are self scaling, based on the size of starting materials.  

Happy Upcycling!  Michelle

Darning, mending, and knit repair guru

In my Pinterest  Forays I keep running across wonderful examples of mending that link back to Tom of Holland, a man who is truly passionate about slow fashion and extending the life of clothing.

He runs Visible Mending Programmes in England and has a great blog with examples of projects and things like antique darning and mending samplers.

I love the idea of visible mending and having clothes well made enough in the first place to warrant mending. I think this is one of the reasons I'm drawn to natural fibers, they wear well and to me age well too. Similar to the difference between aged wood or aged plastic, aged wood gains character where aged plastic tends to just look awful.

The grey four-shirt cotton dress featured in Threads has a mend that is only visible up close. A stain is covered with a small square patch of the same material. One of the things Tom talks about in his blog is invisible and visible mending and when each might be appropriate.  On that grey dress, the color, pattern, and texture play between the four shirts is so subtle that a visible (noticeable) mend would have been more of a distraction than an enhancing feature.

I plan to incorporate more visible mending when I have the opportunity.  That means I'll have an eye out for rips and tears. Think I could talk some construction workers out of their old work jeans? 

Front Cover Illustrations, Peggy Pattern

I've been focusing on completing the illustrations for the Peggy blouse and have just completed the front cover of the pattern, yahoo!!

Still working on content. Plan to release by end of January. 😄

Peggy Blouse Pattern in progress

This blouse may look familiar, it was featured in Threads Magazine.  I'm in the process of writing a pattern for it which means I also need to make illustrations.

As you can see I'm testing out colors and patterns to best represent the actual garment.  I'm using Prismacolor markers which render color nicely.

Soon my drawings will improve dramatically as I am registered for Advanced Illustration at Canada College in Redwood City, CA.

Description: Develop advanced fashion rendering skills and figure styles using a variety of media and drawing techniques to create original fashion illustrations. Emphasis is on developing flair, movement, and attitude in the fashion figure. Drawing flats, specs, floats, and fabric renderings are also covered.

My instructor is Kathleen McCarney.  I took beginning illustration from Ms. McCarney a couple semesters ago and was absolutely amazed at the quality of figures I was able to draw by the end of the semester.  I'm looking for a similar level of transformation this time too.

Here is a draft drawing from last year.

Itchy tags and solution

Sticking with my commitment to not buy new retail (except undies, socks, hose, and occasional shoes) is tough when it comes to pants other than jeans. My usual haunts, Goodwill and Savers don't seem to have the brands that fit my figure and my size. I needed an alternative. 

A few weeks ago I found Poshmark, a site for selling second hand clothes and thought I'd try my luck as I can filter their inventory by size, color, and brand. I bought some NYDJ capris and leggings/pants. Not a bad fit and $25 each. 

The way Poshmark works is that you buy directly from someone else's closet and you can sell from your own closet. I haven't tried selling yet but I like the idea. Anything that gets idle clothes back in circulation is great. Shopping this kind of site has a big advantage over thrift stores in that the inventory can be filtered, making it easier to find something specific. 

I hemmed up my new-to-me legging/pants hybrids and satisfied with the fit and length planned to wear them to a party. Ughhhh, seriously itchy tag, and time to leave. I grabbed my scissors ready to cut the tags only to find them so well sewn in I would need a seam ripper instead. 

Arrgh!  Not wanting to be late or irritated the whole afternoon, I thought of a solution. I tucked one of my cloth hankies half in and half out of the back of my pants. Instant relief. My only concern was that I not accidently drop the hankie in the toilet at my host's house (all good on that account.)

I occurred to me as I headed to the party that instead of cutting out itchy tags I could sew a cloth patch over them. It would help retain the value as clothes generally can't be sold on commission without the tags intact. I normally wouldn't bother doing this with my thrift store finds, but sometimes I do buy from consignment shops and pay a much higher price. 

I do seem to remember a time when tags were silky, not scratchy or itchy. Probably when they still had the IGWU labels. 

New Upcycle Sewing Pattern released by Paganoonoo on December 31, 2014. Happy New Year!

Another upcycle sewing pattern released on Etsy!  Check out the Ashlee Blouse Pattern, flattering on just about every figure type and oh so comfortable to wear.  Perfect with jeans, or make a dressy version. 

Coming soon, The Ashlee Blouse

I've been finalizing my next digital pattern, The Ashlee Blouse, and plan to publish within the week on my Etsy Store. The process of writing a pattern involves making up multiple versions of the garment, perfecting the techniques and steps needed to reproduce the design and then translating that information into illustrations and instructions. 

Upcycling doesn't involve using paper pattern pieces, as in sewing from flat fold fabric, instead it is is built on deconstruction and reconstruction of existing garments. 

One of the biggest advantages of this method is that sizing is self scaling, based on the starting garments.  Anyone that can find a collared dress shirt that fits the upper torso well can successfully make these patterns. 

A pet peeve of sewers the world over is inadequate pattern instructions coupled with confusing & sparse diagrams. Paganoonoo patterns include detailed instructions and step-by-step illustrations to support newer and experienced sewers. Illustrations are on the left, so those with experience can skip right past the written instructions. 

Let's exercise our creativity and start a green sewing movement! 

Happy Upcycling,  

Michelle

Coming Soon:

The Ashlee Blouse completed design

Published in Threads Magazine!

My Threads Magazine article on upcycling is published! The digital copy is available only with a Threads insider membership. Print should be on the shelf or in your mailbox soon. It's the February/March 2015 edition.

Yahoo! 

Upcycled Christmas Skirt with Snowflakes

This year I made a new Christmas tree skirt from two pieces of velvet from my fabric stash.  As I was working on it I thought about my collection of vintage doilies and how much they look like snowflakes - ah ha!  Finally I knew what to do with the doilies - I made them snowflakes on the tree skirt : > .

Before next year I will make a pad to go underneath it so my "snowflakes" are not balancing on the sharp corners of the stand.   Merry Christmas!

Custom Blouse based on Paganoonoo Upcycling Sewing Pattern, #20 The Patti Blouse

 

 This blouse is a variation on the newly released upcycling pattern, The Patti Blouse by Paganoonoo on Etsy.  

The pattern covers every aspect of making this upcycled blouse, from making design decisions, sizing choices, selecting starting materials, with step-by-step instructions and illustrations for disassembly and reassembly of the ready to wear garments.

A flower adds extra interest to the decorative front band.

The new owner of this blouse is over 6 feet tall so the lower back section was made especially long.

The back was modified from the pattern to include an origami-like arrangement featuring a man's tie and on the left a collar point (sans button).

Happy Upcycling!  Michelle

P.S. - Buy currently released patterns here

90th birthday card pouch for Mrs. Glickfeld

Mrs. Glickfeld, mother of my dear friend Sandy, just celebrated her 90th birthday.

I made her a zippered card pouch for her birthday cards.  It was a great way to use scraps leftover from upcycling men's dress shirts. 

Stockton Haute Couture Workshop - upcycled "Patti" blouse pattern, 01Nov14

A week ago I had the privilege of leading a workshop on upcycling men's shirts with ladies from the Stockton Haute Couture Societe

Our talented group selected coordinating shirts, chose color blocking schemes and began the process of disassembling and reassembling the shirts into a woman's blouse. As participants mail in photos of their completed work I will share them. 

Thank you to the Societie  for inviting me in to give a talk on upcycling and conduct a workshop! 

Mending, Boro and Katha

I've been pinning of pictures mending on Pinterest and am drawn to the beautiful texture created when holes and tears are mended.

Japanese "Boro" repaired kimonos

This evening I started worked on mending a pair of pants for a friend of mine.  She had not sewn in years and a couple months ago we made a date to go to fabric stores in San Francisco where she picked out a lovely textured two-layer black and cream silk at Britex (read $$$$.) She was ready to make her favorite pants pattern.

After wearing the pants several times my friend was very upset to find the fabric was shredding.  I asked her to bring them over so we could take a look at what was going on.  She had carefully hand washed the pants so it was not that.  We looked at the wear pattern which was mostly on the left "cheek" of the pants and a little further down that leg.

I remembered that my friend has a mesh seat with back support in her car.  The mesh was the culprit! When she twisted on that mesh to get out of the car the fabric was being abraded.

So... we had a conversation about mending the pants.  How she could consider the fabric in those pants as an evolving fabric, since given the delicate nature of the fabric it was likely to show more wear over time (even with the mesh seat covered for future car trips.) I mended the most abraded area with DMC embroidery floss using a running stitch in a manner similar to recycled Indian saris "Kantha" quilts and Japanese "Boro" mended kimonos (as pictured above.)  I also inherited the car seat : >.

Ladybug coat, Wearable Art Exhibit, Santa Clara California Oct 17,18,19

This morning I went to the Pacific International Quilt festival in Santa Clara, California.  In addition to outstanding quilts there is a small wearable art exhibit and one of the garments was so beautifully embellished I'm sharing it with you. 

I bought a scissors head band for Halloween which you 
can almost see if you look closely.
This jacket has great balance in the design 
and is stunning in person.  The detail work is meticulous.

 

In this one you can almost see that the red beads are all ladybugs, 2,000 ladybugs hand sewn on.

 Here is the artist.  Thank you Bayo Agbelekale for sharing your timelessly classic and beautiful work of art!

Write up in the paper "Top US Designer's Tips on New Clothes For Old"

While in England last month I had a chance to speak on Upcycling.  The lovely lady in the photo with me is Helen Silver, owner of Kaye's Textiles in Westcliff On Sea. She arranged for two sessions and we had a full house in both.  It seems the Brit's are keen on upcycling too!  We even got a writeup in the local paper.  

Helen and Roz took us for chips
by the sea between sessions. 

George enjoying some of Helen's humor,
or is it the other way around?

We discovered chip forks, a brilliant way
to eat hot chips without burning your fingers.
They remind me of wooden ice cream paddles
with sharp bits on the end. 

Thank you for everything Helen and family!  

Thank you to my dear friend Sandy
(Helen and Roz's cousin) for connecting us. 

Radiant Orchid shirt in progress

Here are the shirts I collected  with, or harmonizing with, Radiant Orchid. 

What combination to use for my next up cycle shirt?

Here are some in-progress shots.  

The final version may look different.    : >

Radiant Orchid and Alex

Alex at Goodwill in Campbell California

 I'm about to start on the third upcycled  shirt for the Threads Magazine article. 

 Since the article is coming out in January I want to have colors that look fresh, not Christmas or Fall colors.

 I checked, but the Pantone color for 2015 has not been announced, yet luckily there is a 2015 palette posted.
 

 I looked through my stash of 77+ shirts and was excited to find some Radiant Orchid, the color of the year for 2014 and still included in the 2015 palette.

The glitch is that Threads requested a small shirt and all of mine were XL.  Off to Goodwill Campbell CA.  I found 4 more shirts in Radiant Orchid!!  2 smalls! 

I was talking with Alex, the cashier, about upcycling because he commented on my upcycled jeans tote bag. He asked if I was an artist, I said yes I am, and I mentioned I was buying the shirts to use for my upcoming article.  Alex was ready to pose for the article and although he looks great in his Halloween costume we decided inclusion in a blog post was more of a sure thing.

Thank you Alex!