re-fashion for lil' girls

I’ve been keeping myself occupied these past few days with sewing garments for my adorable little nieces. Fadz and I both have younger sisters with two daughters each; making a total of four nieces whom we could cherish and shower with lovely dressy girly stuff as we don’t have daughters of our own. Due to this, I’d usually hunt down girls’ clothes for sales at our local carboot sales so I could have a rough idea on the size of little girls. My aim is to complete at least four sets of outfits, one for each of the girls before the end of Ramadhan and post them home so they could all dressed up for the Eid. At the moment, I've finished sewing a skirt, long-sleeves T, a night dress and sun dress. Here are snippets of the completed ones.

Another summery skirt

Before this year’s summer come to an end, I should showcase this summery skirt I made sometimes in June. It’s actually my first completed sewing project and also my first time refashioning a piece from my wardrobe. It was initially pyjama trousers. I decided to breathe new life into it when I found the material very itchy and scratchy when worn. The silvery glittering thread woven onto the fabric convinced me more that it’d look better in the form of skirt than pants.

Due to the nature of its initial cut, I had to patch the fabric to fill up the length and width needed for a skirt. This was the tricky part, making sure that the pattern on each patch flows seamlessly from one to another. As you can see the shape of the skirt is somewhat assymetrical, a form inspired by a designer's skirt on display at our local fashion outlet. I intentially left the hem undone cause I wanted to create the fringe effect around the edges of the skirt. Despite my satisfaction of how well the skirt turned, I must confess I was at first a little worried of wearing to work and in public.
On the following day, I told my colleague that I'd just finished sewing my very first garment. She somehow managed to talk me into wearing it to work. She quite liked it and her positive reaction boost my confidence in sewing thus, I no longer have the fear of wearing garments that I made to work.

Selamat Menyambut Ramadhan

Tahun ini merupakan tahun ketiga aku berpuasa di perantauan. Tiap kali mengenangkan juadah berpuasa istemewa yang Mak hidangkan, hati pasti rasa sedikit pilu.

Summer skirt

Lately I've been on the look out for a new skirt for this hot flaming summer. I already have a picture of the skirt that I want in my mind. With the sewing machine available at hand, the thought of buying a new one never appeal to me. Instead, I kept thinking of sewing one with my own unique design applied to it. My hunt for some fabrics begun at the nearby car boot sales. I first came across a white beautifully embroidered table cloth. I thought to myself, "Wow, this fabric is perfect as a summer skirt". Other than some patches of stain, the table cloth was in good condition. Overwhelmed by my anxiety for a new summer skirt, I quickly put some bleach to get rid of the stain. I did the silliest thing while washing the cloth, I put in some coloured garments together with the bleached cloth. When the machine was done, I was devastated to find that the colours have run into the cloth. Hence, this project had to be delayed because the material's been ruined.

I was yet again on material hunt at the carboot sales. This time around, I found floral printed white dress which the flower I thought is of similar colour to the table cloth. As soon as I got home, I took out the dress and put the table cloth (I'd alreay cut off the embroidered part) over the dress to see if they look seamless together. The two are of different fabric, one a linen and the other polyester. I then decided these two could not go together.
The following week I came across a tiny white linen tiered skirt. I was more than convinced that I'd finally found the winner. I quickly knew then what to do with them all. At first, I took off the top tier and sewed crochet from the table cloth onto it. I then resewed the tiered back on, and finally the embroidered piece as the last tier. A week after, I decided to restyle the printed white dress into a shirred baby-doll dress. Note: This entry was drafted sometimes in June. Only after wearing these completed projects for a couple of times did I finally manage to snap pictures of them and post them here.