Going with the Denim theme, I’m starting with this pair of jeans from Scope in Lewisham (£4). They are a nice dark, even colour with a little bit of stretch.

I’m planning on making  a denim skirt. Not your ordinary, run of the mill denim skirt, but something a bit more fancy. A sectioned pencil skirt with mini-peplums at the sides.

Here’s a brief description of how to draft this flattering shape.

If you don’t have a skirt block, you may find this video helpful.

Note that my darts point slightly outwards whereas on the video they point straight down. Not really a big deal, but if you want your skirt to match mine exactly, better make them point out a bit like in the picture below. Also, this block has no ease, because I want a tight fitting skirt and my denim is a little stretchy.

Next thing to do was to take a little off the hem to give us a tight fitting shape. I took off 2cm at the hem from both sides and redrew my side curves.

Then, divide your skirt into sections (red lines below), using the dart legs as a guide but making a nice curve.

Then you can rub out your construction lines to reveal your four sections. Cut them out, or trace them off if you want to add seam allowances at this stage.

To draw the mini-peplum, take your side back and side front pieces and line them up along the waistline so that the curves match up. Then spread them apart by a few centimetres, depending on how much you want your peplum to stick out (how exaggerated a shape do you want?). I only want a slight flare, so I separated mine around 3cm, but you could easily separate more for a peplum that sticks out more. You can then trace off your peplum shape, making it as long as you want (mine is 18cm). Note that your peplum piece is probably not symmetrical.

Of course you also need a waistband; because it’s just a rectangle I didn’t bother drawing a pattern for that, just cut it out.

When I placed my pieces on my jeans, it soon became clear that there wasn’t going to be enough denim to make the whole thing. So I had to enlist some rather lovely African wax print fabric with prints of leaves on it in a co-ordinating colour. I am rather fond of this material, but it’s quite thin. I therefore underlined all the non-denim pieces with leftover black cotton sateen from last week’s stripes project.

Here are my pieces. The side panels are wax print fabric, the front and back are denim. There was only one part of the jeans that was big enough for the entire front panel, so cutting was a little tricky!

There wasn’t much left of the jeans but I may make the scraps into a matching top of some sort at some point.

The mini-peplums are lined with the wax print fabric. Sew the long curved line first, then turn and press, pulling the lining a couple of millimetres to the inside so it doesn’t show. You can then treat these lined pieces as normal.

Here it is during assembly.

The centre back has an invisible zip which was salvaged from an old garment. The tape is dark blue/purple, but when sewn in I noticed the pull is black. Grr!

I didn’t draft a vent, just left a slit in the back for walking purposes. I actually topstitched around it, and around the hem, sadly no photo of that though.

The final step is attaching the waistband. Mine is denim on the outside, wax fabric on the inside.

I left long tabs at the end of the waistband so they would overlap.

Because I don’t like the look of my home made buttonholes (I am not very good at them), I put the buttonhole on the inside tab, and the button on the inside of the outside tab, so it buttons up towards the inside. A little tricky to get in and out of, but it’s pretty much hidden from the outside.

Here’s how it looks on. It’s intended to be a summer skirt, but the weather here in London is not co-operating AT ALL. So I only have indoor pictures right now… sorry.

Don’t forget to head over to Refashion Runway and vote! Thanks in advance!

It’s amazing what you can get in a charity shop for £1.

This enormous trench coat had potential, but had clearly seen better days. The size, obviously, was completely wrong for me and made me look like a spy from the 1980s and/or Inspector Gadget.

There was a white paint stain on the back, as though the previous owner had leant on a newly-painted railing. Probably the biggest problem though, was that the belt was missing. A trench coat without a belt? Now that really is a challenge.  Although the belt was missing, it came complete with the spare buttons.

My initial thoughts were to make this into something totally different – I was going to go for a halter-neck dress. On mulling it over though, on what possible occasion would one wear a sleeveless halter-neck dress made from really thick waterproof fabric? Final decision was that it would have to stay as a coat, but I wanted to make it look as different as possible from the original, with as many feminine features as possible.

As my inspiration I’m looking at this Burberry trench coat worn by pre-pregnancy Kate Middleton – not my usual fashion icon but I love this coat! The flounce at the bottom really makes it.

I started by cutting off rather a lot at the hem, 40.5cm less seam allowance, just below the bottom button. I cut through the coat and the lining in one go.

I then cut off the sleeves quickly, as close to the seams as possible.

I also trimmed a reasonable amount from the sides, about 6cm less seam allowance, cutting through all the layers. I pinned to check the fit before restitching the side seams in their new location. I followed the rough shape of the old coat for my new side seams, that is, ever so slightly flared out at the hips. I also sewed the new side seams for the lining.

At this stage, I fixed two of the buttons at the front that were hanging off.

Here’s what I was left with; a good solid base for putting the whole lot back together.

First, the most exciting part – the flounce! In order to draw my pattern, I needed to know how much material I had to play with. I folded the offcuts from the bottom of the coat in half, and drew around it on tissue paper. I then folded it in half again, so I’m working with a quarter of the finished flounce.

Then, working within the lines, I drew a rough circular arc. It was looking too tight, so I redrew it going slightly outside the lines on one side and was much happier. I made my flounce about 20cm deep, and it ended up having a corner pieced together.

Because the rest of the flounce has seams through it from the original coat, the pieced-on part looks perfectly fine.

Here’s the shape of the whole thing.

I did a very tiny hem at the bottom. I was going to do a rolled hem, but turning under once seemed to be enough so I left it like that.

After attaching the flounce, the coat was starting to take shape:

Here’s a close up, taken before I finished the straight edges of the flounce.

Now, to tackle the belt. I used the slightly curved sections I cut off the sides – I basically added some interfacing, sewed them together, turned the loop and added some rows of topstitching.

The resulting belt is so short!

It just about fits around my waist. Obviously I haven’t got a belt buckle, but I worked out that if I tie it twice it takes on a bow shape, rather unexpectedly adding another feminine feature. I rather like it!

Final task was to tackle the sleeves. This was a big job. I had to psyche myself up with a cup of tea.

First, I removed the sleeve seams and all the seams holding the sleeve head. Here’s what the deconstructed sleeve head contained – a shoulder pad, some sewn-in interfacing and some stabilisation (the white fleecy strip).

The shoulders were much too wide for me, so I had to trim a good bit off the armscyes. This meant losing the belt loops from the epaulettes.

My new sleeves were going to be bracelet length – another new feminine feature. I wanted to keep the cuffs with the button detail on, so that meant cutting some off the top. I marked 8cm down from the highest point and the lowest point (less seam allowance) and joined the two points with a curve, following the rough shape of the original curve. I did the same on the back, but separately as the curves are different.

I basted on the reclaimed sewn-in interfacing, trimming it to the new shape where necessary.

I used gathering stitches on about the top third of my sleeves in order to set them in. My new sleeve shape was far too big for the armscye curves, so the gathered section forms a nice little puff sleeve effect – yes, another feminine detail.

I added the stabiliser and the shoulder pad afterwards.

The epaulettes were now too long, as the shoulder had come in about an inch. I moved the button in by a suitable amount then refolded the strips. I added a stitch at the new fold point to help keep it in place. I didn’t bother with re-adding the old belt loops as it was rather fiddly.

Last thing to do was to make the lining match up. I pinned the sleeve lining to the body lining, incorporating small pleats around the sleeve head to take up the excess fabric.

Then I patiently hand-stitched it together.

Here’s the final coat, which I am rather happy with! As a result of taking it in at the sides, the white paint stain has been vastly reduced but is still visible; I don’t think it’s all that noticeable though. My flounce is a bit bigger than the inspiration picture but I like it!

Overall, I really enjoyed this challenge! I was very excited to see what Portia had sent me and delighted when it arrived. It was great to be pushed out of my comfort zone a little by not having full control over the original garment. To be honest, I don’t think I would have chosen this coat if I found it myself – the paint stain and the lack of belt would probably have been deal-breakers – but that said, I am really pleased with how it turned out. Trench coats, after all, never go out of style.

Thanks for organising, Portia!

I’m starting with this tiny, tiny skirt from the Cancer Research shop in Lewisham (£4). There’s nothing wrong with it, other than it’s far, far too short. Bottom of the waistband to the hem is just 35cm! On me (5’8″) this is practically indecent.

In order to add some stripes, I bought some cotton sateen in black which has roughly the same amount of sheen as the skirt and is roughly the same weight. The plan is to insert some stripes to make the skirt longer. I’m going for very thick stripes as these are the fashion right now (and it’s less work!).

After some quick calculations on the back of an envelope, I decided on inserting three black stripes, each 7cm wide. That leaves me with three blue stripes at 7cm plus the waistband part at 8cm. Total length of the skirt below the waistband would then be a much more acceptable 50cm.

First step was to cut off the bottom stripe at 7cm + 1cm seam allowance.

Before cutting off the second stripe I had to remove the in-seam pockets. Don’t worry; I’ll put them back!

To cut off the third stripe I had to unpick the bottom half of the zip, and cut the stitches between the lining and the zip.

Here’s a quick snap of how the second blue stripe looks laid out flat: curved! It was slightly surprising that the curvature was that pronounced (it’s folded in half in this pic), but not a deal breaker.

I considered cutting curved black sections for about five minutes before cutting square ones. The reason is that if the black sections were curved, it would be difficult to make all the sections join up in a smooth line at the side seams without cutting off a significant amount. The black cotton sateen has a little bit of stretch to it, making it easy to fit straight stripes to the curved pieces of skirt.

The front went together quite easily… the only thing to remember was to match the centres of the blue stripes so the side seams would still line up.

For the first black stripe at the back, I made a seam at centre back, leaving about half of it open for the zip.

Once the bottom stripes had been joined on, it was looking messy as the front and back were still joined together on these pieces. I carefully trimmed the black sections so they roughly matched the side seam line.

Next I tackled the pockets. Rather than unpick all the stitching and overlocking, I just cut it off. So my new pockets are a bit smaller than the old ones, but no big deal.

I used the same method to insert the pockets as I did for the ‘Dior’ skirt, being careful to try and match the stripes. It almost matches…

Last but not least, I finished the zip off. The result is actually not bad!

Here’s me modelling my new, longer length stripy skirt.

What do you think? If you liked this project, why not head over to Refashion Runway and vote for me to appear in next week’s challenges! Thanks!

Very similar looks from the same collection have also been worn by Anna Wintour and Natalia Vodianova. My favourite I think here is Wintour’s – I love her necklace – though I must say I prefer Debicki’s black shoes.

To make my own version of this look I’m using… a pair of curtains (to be accurate, I’m only going to use one, actually). I got these flowery numbers from the Mind shop in Whitby and I paid £4.50.

I will also need a black t-shirt. This basic men’s shirt is size medium and cost £3.50 from the British Red Cross shop in Lewisham.

I started cutting the side hems of the curtains before giving up and just cutting the whole of the hems off at the sides, bottom and top. I was left with a large rectangle which I cut in half. Happily, the length of the original curtain was such that it was still long enough to reach my ankles, but if it hadn’t have been, I could have used the other curtain.

Next, I ran down to my local fabric shop and bought 2 metres of orange synthetic organza, very cheaply. It frays like… a very frayed thing.

I cut two rectangles of organza that were just a little bit bigger than my fabric rectangles and basted them together on all sides.

Next, I took an offcut from my stash (part of an old sheet, I think) and folded it in four. Then I drew a rough pocket shape.

I’m not going to go through the details of how to make inseam pockets because Tasia has an excellent, very clear tutorial here. I essentially followed all her steps, which culminate in sewing both side seams.

For the waistband, I cut a piece of black elastic just long enough to go around my waist when stretched, and I sewed the ends together. I totally should have used black thread.

Along the top of the skirt, I gently pulled the top thread of the basting stitch until the waist had reduced in size by about half. Thankfully the thread didn’t break.

Next I pinned my waistband to the waist of the skirt at the front, back, left side seam and right side seam. I fed the waistband and skirt through the overlocker, stretching the elastic sufficiently that there were no puckers.

When the elastic springs back, the skirt looks even more gathered!

To finish the hem, I overlocked it….

…and then I pressed it up, catching some iron-on hem glue between the layers. I blinking love that stuff. I’m using it here because I want a clean, sharp finish with no stitching visible.

And now… for the top half. A little more work was required! Cutting off the sleeves was a no-brainer.

Then I tried the shirt on and marked with pins where the side seam should be and where the armholes should finish.

I quickly cut off the excess then overlocked the sides.

To make the armhole hems, I cut the hems off the original sleeves…

…then I overlocked them into the armholes, right sides together, stretching to fit. It works reasonably well!

Here’s how it looks on. I love the way the organza catches the light!

PS. I entered the Cosmopolitan Fashion blog awards, in the craft blog category. It would be really great if you could spare a moment to head over to their site and nominate me!

This jumper may be lumpy and synthetic but I blinking love it.

In my mind it’s reminiscent of the checkerboard fabrics from Louis Vuitton’s Spring collection, which have been worn by everyone from Kirsten Dunst to Jessica Alba. I think the acidic-bright colours are just as important as the checks and this jumper ticks both boxes nicely.

I liked this so much I paid £6 for it in the Trinity Hospice Shop in Streatham.

I’m wearing this in the spring sunshine with my white sequin skirt and big heels. What do you think?

Not sure if this equation balances exactly, but I think it’s pretty close.

Kylie is wearing Stella McCartney and looking fabulous! Anne Hathaway has also worn a version of this look, but not as flattering. Kylie’s version has big and small, black and white squares and some see-through sections.

I’m going to be making a Kylie-inspired shirt, not an exact copycat this time. I’m starting with this shirt, which fits well enough but could do with livening up a bit.

I paid £3 for this in the Trinity House Hospice Shop in Streatham (reduced from £4!).

I started by thread tracing the style lines onto my blouse in red thread. I redid these a couple of times until I was happy with them (Click to enlarge pics below, you can just about see the red thread).

I separated it into three main sections. The body of the shirt is the first, up to the top button. Next is the area with big squares, which includes the entire neckline; it has a sweeping curve under the bust on the left. The third area is Kylie’s see through shoulder – which I am making in white. My version is a bit simpler than Kylie’s; I decided against a second see through section below the big squares.

What I did next was to place the shirt onto some tissue paper and draw around the whole thing. I then had to trace my red thread lines onto the paper as well. I used a combination of pins, tracing wheel and guesswork. Then I checked all the pieces to make sure they were symmetrical, that the curves were the same length etc., and added the button placket and seam allowances. The hardest part was the dart on the big squares section.

Next step was to make a quick toile. I am using a yellow sheet here!

Happily it all fit together reasonably well so I went ahead and cut out my pieces. I used some thick black and white cotton I bought locally as well as some thinner white cotton muslin-type stuff.

Here’s the inside. I’m using the same white cotton, cut on the grain, as an underlining for the bias-cut big squares.

Assembly at this point looked reasonably good…

…so I went ahead and cut off the top of the original shirt, leaving a 1.5cm seam allowance…

…and sewed the whole thing together.

At this point, I tried the whole thing on in front of the mirror. It didn’t fit. The button placket at the front was overlapping by about 2″ at the neckline. Argh! Not sure how this got through the toile stage as it was a fairly big error. After umming and ahhing about it for a while, I ended up unpicking my plackets and taking a 1″ triangular wedge out of the centre front (both sides). This meant the plackets were no longer at 45 degrees to the stripes/squares, so the pattern didn’t match up as nicely. I also mis-cut the button side, so ended up with no placket there at all. Measure twice, cut once, people!

I added bias strips around the neck and armholes for the full Peggy Olson effect.

The result is not perfect, but I’m happy! I think it’s pretty wearable. I think this can be dressed down as well as up, but here are a few shots of me wearing this as part of a fairly smart outfit.

The pictures were taken in the vicinity of the Olympic Park. I have seen the Orbit so many times but it’s still very impressive.

Here’s a little refresher for you:

This has been such a useful piece in my wardrobe! Like the dip dye shirt, it’s great for layering. In fact, I’d say it’s better than the dip dye one because it can be dressed up or down. Today’s outfit pairs it with my new nautical themed top. It’s intended to be a dress I think, but I haven’t worn it that way yet.

The dress I chose was Betty’s cream and green shirt dress. I couldn’t find any references to which episode this is from, but I’ve seen it so many times online that I think it must actually be a promo shot for the first series. It’s more late fifties than early sixties and embodies Betty’s conservative housewife look from the first half of that series. If you know which episode this is from, leave me a comment and let me know.

I’m starting with a sheet that I got from Oxfam in Streatham. I paid £4.99 for the single sheet and two matching pillowcases, which have green ruffles all the way around!

It’s made of actual linen, the thin refined sort (none of your thick slubby stuff) and handles beautifully.

The sheet had a couple of labels with numbers on glued onto it. Anyone know what these might have been for?

Let’s take a closer look at Betty’s dress. The top half is like a blouse, buttoning one side over the other. There are small, dark buttons. The stripy fabric has been tucked several times to bring the stripes closer together on the bodice front. The bodice darts are pointing inwards – towards each other – which is unusual! They are cutting off the tucked section. The collar has a horizontal stripe. There’s a bit of green visible around the arms. No sleeves. The skirt is very full and is box pleated, rather than gathered, with the green stripes on the top. There is a matching green belt with a small buckle.

I drafted a very basic pattern for this using my block. A little dart manipulation here, add a placket there, grow on a facing… hey presto! I copied the collar and collar stand from a blouse that I already own. I just used my basic back block for the back.

Next… the stripes! The wider green stripes were about 2.5 cm and the thin stripes were about 0.5 cm. The plan was to add these together using tucks to create a solid green area on the front bodice. The green area couldn’t be wider than 9 cm, which was the horizontal distance between the dart tip and the edge of my button area (2 cm from centre front)…

…so I figured that three big stripes plus two small stripes would make 8.5 cm total, and be about right. I tore off a length of sheet long enough for both left and right fronts and started tucking.

Because I overlapped the green stripes ever so slightly when taking my tucks (to make sure no white was showing), I ended up with a green section of around 8 cm.

I folded my tucked material in half lengthways, making sure the stripes matched all the way up, and cut out my fronts.

I placed the collar along a thick green stripe and the collar stand on a white stripe (thin stripe below is in seam allowance).

Here’s a quick in-progress shot of the bodice. A happy coincidence has left a thin green stripe up the inside of each button placket. I love it! The original plan was to have the buttons go all the way to the neck, like Betty does, but I decided this thin green stripe was too good to lose.

Another in-progress shot. You can see below I’ve added the skirt. I made box pleats around the thick green stripes but unfortunately there wasn’t enough material to make it all green at the waist! It was only a single sheet, after all. The result is not the fullest of full skirts, but still has a fifties vibe about it. The hem of the skirt is the bottom of the sheet.

There’s a long zip up one side which unfortunately isn’t visible.

I also added bias binding around the armholes. FYI, you have to make one piece of binding inside out in order to get a pair that are symmetrical.

The final steps were to add five small green buttons, and to make a belt. I interfaced a long thick green stripe and folded the edges back, using iron on glue rather than risk any topstitching. I had to buy a belt buckle but it wasn’t expensive and adds a great finishing touch.

Before you say it – there was no room for a petticoat or crinoline under this dress! I did try it with a full petticoat and it looked silly, because the skirt isn’t full enough, you get a kind of bell-shape. Without the petticoat it doesn’t quite have the full-on fifties shape but I think I did reasonably well considering I only had a single sheet. Given that I’ll likely wear this on hot summer days, I won’t be layering up the skirt then anyway.

I’m delighted with it, in case you can’t tell from these pictures. The linen is beautifully soft and very comfortable to wear.

Remember this shirt? It’s from the not too distant past.  I started with a white shirt and dip-dyed it in flamingo pink. Here’s a quick before and after to refresh your memory.

I thought it would be timely to feature this shirt again since Cloth magazine has a feature on an identical shirt in this month’s issue. I am not terribly keen on their styling, though.

I added a big granny-knit jumper to this which has hints of pink in the knit. It co-ordinates perfectly and makes for a cheerful, colourful spring outfit, even though it’s still pretty chilly around these parts.

Here are a rather gratuitous amount of pictures — continuing the seaside theme from the original set of photos for this shirt.

We decided to try a few shots with the film camera – I have a Canon Av-1 film camera which I would say is about 30 years old (it came from a charity shop!) – and though we are still learning how to use it, it’s great to get some different and slightly less predictable results than using the normal Lumix-G2 digital SLR. I think these are possibly a little over exposed, it was a really bright day, but I love the graininess. See what you think below.

This is Olivia Munn wearing Peter Pilotto at the Courage in Journalism Awards 2012. The dress originally retailed for USD $1845.

I’m making my version out of… this:

Yes, it’s horrible, isn’t it?

This is a kind of house-dress made out of teal/green velour. There are variations in the nap to give it a slight crushed velvet thing going on – not quite the same as Olivia’s textured velvet look, but it will do.

I bought it in the Shelter shop in Bolton and I paid £3.

First thing to do was to draft a pattern for this stretchy knit Peter Pilotto-inspired dress. I started with my trusty jersey block:

Then I drew on the style lines. This was pretty easy actually:

The dress has seams at centre front and centre back as well as both sides. The front side parts at the waist (in between the bars of the X, left and right) were added onto the back sections so there isn’t a side seam at waist level. The back style lines meet the relevant front lines at the side seams.

The penultimate step was to approximate the hem – you can see below what I did. It’s only a rough approximation – I haven’t quite got it spot on. I just drew the hemline I wanted and extended the style lines down. I didn’t bother with the sleeves.

The final step in drafting this was to cut all the pieces apart and laboriously add the relevant seam allowances.

For the stripy sections, after many, many weeks searching for the right quantity of stripy jersey fabric (it needed to be a lot for the diagonal stripes after all), I gave in and bought some stripy jersey in a reasonably complementary colour. The stripes are around 1.5cm.

Cutting into the green velvet wasn’t really a big deal. I just cut around my paper pieces carefully; there was quite a lot left over.

Cutting the stripy sections was really, really hard by comparison. The stripes are directional – they have to form the required V shape in the middle. I used my patternmaster (it has a set square) to align the centre back (straight edge) of the pattern piece at 45 degrees to the stripes. I had to cut each piece out twice as they are not symmetrical (stripes have to go in the other direction).

Now, I thought I had laid out my material very carefully without stretching it on the floor, but either it’s stretched, or the stripes are really badly printed. Either way I was left with this mess:

Not good! I’m ashamed to say that I just cut the two ends level – since the stripes matched and all – and it was the longer piece that was wrong.

For the other pieces I used the first piece that had already been cut, to make sure the stripes matched up, by laying it on the fabric right side down (above).

Here’s the sum total of my pieces.

There isn’t really much to note on the construction of this one, I just overlocked the pieces together with the stripes matching where necessary. I left the neck and armholes unhemmed – I liked the slight overhang of the velvet shoulder piece at the armscye too much to cut it off. I trimmed the hem with scissors where necessary to even it up.

It looks terrible on the dressform, but you get the idea. Part of the problem is the stripy jersey is cut on the bias, which is doing weird things to the direction of stretch. But where does one buy jersey printed with 45-degree stripes?!

You can see looking at the side view below that I made a mistake with my drafting – at the front, below the X, the stripy section shouldn’t meet the side seam at a point. The velvet section below should extend all the way up to the X (compare with side pic of Olivia above) but I don’t think it’s a catastrophe.

I’m reasonably happy with the finished dress – it is certainly a lot of fun to wear. I’ve worn it with black tights and black (textured!) velvet platforms.