Postby BookSaver » Sat Oct 09, 2010 10:30 pm
Thanks for the bookmark idea, Harriet. I will ponder that ...
I had a playdate with a theatre friend yesterday for what I thought would be a day of costume sewing. She's one of the background singer/dancers in a live version of The Rocky Horror Show on Halloween so she needs a rather outrageous costume.
Funny enough, what I ended up doing was DEconstructing rather than constructing. She was given a red corset from someone who used it in a Mrs. Santa costume so it had long white fake fur around the the top and bottom edges. Once I trimmed all of that fake fur off, it looked as if the red corset had been edged in white velvet trim -- actually kind of pretty so we decided it didn't need any other trim on the edges.
Then she wanted to make an apron but I suggested that we go to Goodwill before going to the fabric store in case we got lucky and found one already made that we could decorate. We didn't find an adult apron, but I did spot an adorable little girl's dress, with a red sequin front bodice. The skirt was white sheer fabric with a red/white polka dot ruffle, a line of red sequins trimming the ruffle, and 2 layers white net petticoat underneath. It even had a long red/white polka dot sash.
All I had to do was unattach the sash from the dress, open up both sides of the skirt and cut across the back so all of the gathers at the waist stayed together. The fabric was the kind that doesn't fray. My friend said she could handle sewing the red/white polka dot sash to the top of the skirt -- instant costume piece that looks like a 1950s frilly hostess apron! I also suggested that she make a heart-shaped pocket from the red sequin part of the bodice.
We're both looking for a plastic toy piece of pie that she can attach to a round of plastic canvas to make a hat. That will complete her sexy diner waitress costume.
Other than that ... hmm ... was it last spring that I unraveled a royal blue sweater to reuse the yarn? Also had a red sweater with long fringe trim that was looking ratty, so I started taking off the fringe and found it wasn't cut pieces, it was just long loops. That meant I could wind that yarn into balls, too. The past couple of weeks I have used both of those recovered yarn colors on my small round knitting loom to make long skinny scarves.
This morning while watching tv, I experimented with the same small round knitting loom and some variegated purple yarn to make a fingerless mitten. Now I need to count how many rows it took so I can make the other one.
Hey, that would be another idea for quick gifts. Fingerless mittens out of fleece fabric, with knit or crochet cuffs from fancy froufrou yarns.