This is a blouse made from the Madison pattern on Burdastyle – ok, so it wasn’t meant to be a blouse, but I didn’t have enough fabric for the whole thing… planned on buying more, but there was none, so, blouse it became! I just have to make sure I wear it with really really high waisted skirts…

Bought this blazer on Etsy, from vintAGELESSbeauty… except it looked more like this :

The sleeves made me look entirely too Pat Butcher for my liking, so chop chop, snip snip, some black bias tape et voila!

Can’t really see this one too well, but it’s the dress from BurdaStyle! Whipped it up using my serger before coming back after Christmas, only just got around to hemming it. Had a fair few issues with the jersey, and I think I cut the  top out in too big a size, but it’s wearable!

Cute pleated skirt that I made which I wear a fair bit nowadays… Has to be paired with a waistbelt though because the waistband is done really badly, especially where the top of the zipper is concerned.

You really can’t see this one that well, but it’s a maroon skirt I got from a second hand shop, shortened and paired with some vintage shoes and a belt for my flat party back in March!

So there’s my little medley post! They’re mostly projects I’ve finished but haven’t felt were really good enough to deserve their own posts or addition to BurdaStyle. Got a few things on the go at the moment, so I hope there’ll be something decent to post soon enough!

I, Len, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 2  months. I pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoted, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed Len.

Sadly I have no ‘Before’ pictures – I picked up this skirt for 3 Euros at the second hand shop because of its colour. But it was Size 12, straight up and down and meh, despite the gorgeous turquoise. So, I used a pattern from my first ever Burda Magazine (January 2010) to make it into a cute new skirt, and added a bow at the waistband for extra cuteness!

I haven’t really decided what to wear with it yet – the top I’ve pictured it with is Gray’s, and ironically she has the lace top I’m thinking of pairing with it! We’ll see what comes along in the next few weeks!

It took me quite a while because I stitched it all together, was almost done, tried it on… and realised that there was a reason the original skirt had lining. Not just VPL, but you could see the outline of the pockets. Sadly, I’d cut up the original lining for the pockets, d’oh, but managed to find some on sale at Karstadt. Had I figured this out before, I would have used the original lining and would have had scraps of fabric left over – there’s barely any left of the shell, so I’m quite proud that I used my resources well.

The bow was courtesy of a tutorial on Burdastyle, I think it added some extra cuteness! Though this does mean that my standard waistbelt skirt combo cannot be used with this skirt, but oh well, it’s still cute. Also, I noticed earlier that one pocket is bigger than the other due to the taking apart and re-piecing… oops! I don’t think it’s too noticeable, so I won’t worry. I’ll just pretend it was an exercise in asymmetry!

Come to think of it, I really want to make a blouse in the shade of blue the shirt is, they go really well together! Oh, and here’s the song for you too Gotta love a bit of Peter Fox – certainly a big part of the soundtrack for Year Abroad ‘09-‘10!

So I’ve signed myself up for a 2 month pledge over at Wardrobe Refashion…

For those of you that don’t know about Wardrobe Refashion, now’s the time to find out! Wardrobe Refashion is about giving up buying mass-manufactured clothing in favour of crafting your own clothing and refashioning preloved items.  A few of the bloggers that I follow have taken the pledge; Zoe over at So, Zo… has made a lifelong pledge, wow! Not only does she create her own clothes, nowadays she’s even making her own undies! That’s dedication for you! Then there’s Angela from Sew I Thought…, whose refashions are inspiring. I’ve never seen anyone turn a hopeless-case maternity gown into Twiggy-chic – awesome! Then there’s another lifelong pledger Megan Nielsen, who somehow has time to create her own fashion line, write helpful tutorials  and be a Mum, ALL AT THE SAME TIME! Kudos to you Megan! There are plenty more inspiring people at the Wardrobe Refashion blog, go check it out!

You might remember from this post that I began scouting out second hand shops here in Dortmund already, and I would have posted about the refashioning except IT WENT HORRIBLY WRONG. The wonderful gray skirt that I bought? I shortened it, quickly became my fave… put it in the wash, and it shrank! The label said nothing about it being handwash only, so I was really and truly put out.

Not to be outdone by a stupid old washing machine, I’ve decided to take the skirt apart and re-create a new one, the idea being that I would trace all the pieces as new pattern pieces and then grade them up a size so that it would actually fit me! Not a bad plan if you ask me… No idea when I’ll actually get the damned thing done, everything’s taking me so long to finish lately.

Just as a last boastful tidbit; I entered The Selfish Seamstress’ pattern giveaway comp for a laugh – the brief? An essay of no more than 100 words on why we deserved the patterns up for grabs.

Dirty tactics such as sucking up, snarking, backstabbing, brainwashing, flattery, and lying are strongly encouraged.

I went for flattery, natuerlich,  and I got an Honorable Mention for Unbridled Megalomania! How awesome is that?? OK, so I didn’t win, but I’m ridiculously excited that my entry got noticed – I think it brought out the writer’s pride in me! Anyway, check out my entry and the winners’ entries over here, and while you’re at it, add The Selfish Seamstress to your blogroll or else!

Also : PANCAKE DAY TODAY NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM

Time for an ARDBAAAR* pancake methinks?

*check the ‘About Me’ for explanation for that one haha…

I think any girl will recognise that feeling of dread when they approach a checkout after a mad shopping spree in their favourite clothing store. Just pick up what you want, don’t bother to check the price tag, and leave the cringing for that moment you see the total and hand over your credit card.

The best bit about second hand shops is that this feeling evaporates when your total is tallied up to a pittance of what you would normally pay in your standard high-street retailer.

“That will be two pounds and a button please!” BRILLIANT. (That quote from my friend Cat pretty much sums up the entire feeling)

So, today I went in hunt of second hand stores in Dortmund. Armed with directions courtesy of Google maps, my warmest coat and Winston (my iPod shuffle), I set off in search of the elusive Gebrauchtwarenladen dealing with Kleidung rather than Möbel.

I seem to have found far more in the way of second-hand furniture shops than clothing shops in my general wanderings around Dortmund – Germans love their second-hand furniture because when they move flats, unlike with student accommodation in the U.K, they tend to take all their furniture with them, or sell it all to the next person moving in. In my case I’m renting a room while someone is away, so I didn’t need to buy any furniture.

My mission was, on the most part, successful! The snow did not help matters. I think I was in serious danger of losing some toes.

I did find a lot of things I hadn’t meant to go looking for, such as the Volkshochschule, or Community College, where I’ll be starting my sewing classes this week!

The first place I went into was dire – picture it; completely empty save for the rails of clothing and the two shop workers sitting at the checkout just watching you the entire time while you shrink away from the ridiculously priced items… seriously, they had a jersey top for 12 Euros. It wasn’t vintage, it wasn’t anything special, in fact, it was the type of item you could get at Primark for £2. So I left that place pretty sharpish.

The next place was much, much better. You could tell that it was well-known by locals due to there being a few people in there already, and they also offered an ironing service. This was where I got most of my goodies today!

Just what I needed to be honest, a good old chunky scarf! We’re Bierbiking again this weekend, and I think I’ll sorely need this scarf! I’m thinking of sewing the ends together to make it into a Snood, if only to say, hey look, I own a Snood, isn’t that a silly word?

  The headscarf (I’ve decided it’s a headscarf anyway) was a mere 50 cent, while the bag, a similar sort would fetch at at least 15 Euros, and that’s if you were shopping in H&M, was only 3.50 Euros. I love the shape and the contrast diamond shaped black on the opening.

This one’s a definite refashion! Not normally a big fan of velvet, but this doesn’t look too tacky and, naturally as it’s floral, I love the pattern! The silhouette and length are what I’m hoping to change.

Just love the waistband on this one. It needs a good old chop at the hem, and that’s about it! Although, one thing left me completely baffled with this one – the pockets are sewn up! Initially, I thought that they must be fake pockets, but no, they’re real, usable pockets! So why have they been sewn up? I’m unpicking those stitches pronto…The belt was also a steal – I have far too many waistbelts, but I think I’ve just decided that there’s no such thing as too many waistbelts!

All in all, I’m pretty happy about my first haul – it all came to 16 Euros in the end, not too shabby! I might just take the Wardrobe Refashion pledge after all.