Pullover make-over

This pullover certainly came close to disposal. I bought it at Value Village (where else, right?) for about $7-$8. It was the start of winter and I was looking for something warm to wear around the house, and the orange colour (my favourite!) immediately caught my eye. Unfortunately I discovered I'm not a big fan of pullovers; cardigans are more my thing so I contemplated donating it back to VV. Fortunately, I found a tutorial on how to turn an old pullover into a cardigan over at Happiness is...creating and, well, suffice it to say that this orange number is back in my closet.

I started with the tutorial and added my own embellishments. Instead of seam binding, I used twill tape, which I feel are a little strudier and suited to something I'm going to wear a lot. Since the material is thick cotton wool blend, I would suggest using a tape or ribbon that's at least 1" wide. I also added pockets (for practical reasons!) cut out from an old bed sheet and a heart appliqué (why not, right?) from some left over fabric. The result was a slouchy cardigan I can quickly throw on when I'm curling up on the sofa and take off when I'm doing dishes.

Check out the tutorial and see if you can do this to one of your old sweaters!

Onesie dresses - make your own with onesies and fat quarters!

As usual, this DIY is a marriage between some plain items and some unused materials. My mom and I were looking for some baby gifts and we settled on these cute little onesies to make into dresses. Then my mom remembered the set of fat quarters that she never got around to making into a quilt. So I decided try this refashion DIY project and turn the plain onesies into adorable little onesie dresses with the fat quarters.

Fat quarters are 18"x22" precut quilting fabric pieces. If you don't have any fat quarters, you can simply cut any fabric of your choice to size. You can also adjust the width and length of the fabric to fit the size of your onesies. I used 9-month for this project.

Read on after the jump for the full photo tutorial.

Whimsy-fy a vintage blouse (with a ruffled hem!)

I love simple designs with little whimsical embelishments.I was online window shopping a few weeks ago when I stumbled upon this dainty little number and instantly fell in love.

I won't say where I found it or how much it cost (hint: somewhere around an arm and a leg) but suffice it to say that my reaction was, "Hey, I can make that for SO much less!" And so I did. I happened to have a Victorian-esque blouse with sumptuously puffed sleeves that I bought for an absolute bargain at a local vintage store, Netty Vintage. I can't remember the exact price but I'm 100% sure it wasn't more than $15. Then I simply headed over to my local crafts store to get a matching fabric for the ruffle and voila!

Vintage blouse whimsy-fied!

This is the first major refashion project I've done and I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.The stitching is a bit messy because I'm still a newbie on the sewing machine but you can hardly tell from afar. What's important was that the ruffled hem was in place, my blouse now has the whimsical touch I was aiming for, my wardrobe has something new, so I'm happy!

Full tutorial (with pictures!) after the jump.