Here’s a look at my new favorite scrappy dress! Mostly linen with some cotton in the lace. I like to use a crazy patch-as-you-go method. I gather a pile of scraps or fabrics together and then  start sewing pieces together to create a fabric. For a visually pleasing and flattering look I like to add one long skinny piece off center. I even added some machine embroidery to “pretty” it up, but you could just use fancy machine stitching like I did with my denim dress in the last post.

I wore it last week and it was a rather hot day, but this light colored linen was cool and comfortable. I was so happy to find uses for these left over scraps and was even happier to put these together for such a fun look. Go digging in your pile of leftover scraps and see what treasures lie there!

I have to re-post this skirt blog post. Apparently, it gets “pinned” quite a bit and think that’s so cool! I made this about 5 years ago and not only do I still have this skirt, but it still fits woo hoo!! I must have spotted the original shirt too terribly so that’s gone along with the jacket that I think I might have given to my Mom? Hummm

Today I  wear this skirt with one of my t-shirt re-makes that I teach in my classes.

Or another look is to wear my linen re-make skirt with a shirt I made over from a linen skirt that I purchased from Salvation army…

Below is the original post with tutorial, enjoy and I hope it inspires you to go digging in your old linens and remake something fun!

This is my Favorite Skirt…. It’s a black, short lightweight skirt with ruffles. I wear it with tights and black boots . I just feel good in it!

Since I fixed up my jacket I was thinking about what to wear with it??  and I knew I wanted to copy that skirt!

So I dragged out an old stained linen table cloth and some other random linens to match. I wanted a vintage-y feel so Linen seemed best. My orginal thought was to make each layer a different linen color, with the table cloth being the base fabric.  As I was trying to make that work I realized the linen was a heavier fabric than the cotton sateen of the black skirt, so I abandoned that idea for now and just used the table cloth. I love this skirt so I just wanted to copy the pattern without taking anything apart. I laid tissue paper down first then placed the skirt on top and made “pin-holes” through the skirt and on to the tissue paper. Then I just connected to dots on the paper to make the pattern pieces. I am showing the pattern piece which will be placed on the fold of the fabric. I needed the waistband, top yoke and bottom underskirt pattern. For the ruffles I cut straight lengths based on the measurements of the ruffles on the original skirt. That skirt also has a neet thing, the ruffles are different lengths. SO I went with that. Again the linen table cloth fabric was heavier than the Cotton so I took out a row of ruffles to help with the weight.I made the top section first with the zipper in the side seam. (I laid out the zipper section so you could see it… it is really in the side seam.)I like to finish off the ends of zippers since I usually never ever have the shorter sizes, I just fit the zipper in and cut the remaining length. Invisible zippers are easier to put in that way too.

I worked on the bottom half all in the round so I wouldn’t have any seams showing or ruffles  sewn into the side seams. This makes for a smoother finish. The table cloth had a hemstitch accent around the border. I just incorporated that into some of the ruffles.

I then put the two parts together… and now I have a whole ensemble to wear this summer with Peggy at the    French Flea Market,  read about here… https://thethriftyneedle.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/french-flea-market/

If I make this skirt again, I would like to make it out of the lighter Cotton sateen because it lays so flat even for being ruffles.  I think because I took out of row this fabric works. I also somehow want to make a skirt with rows of different linens and maybe even lace… I just have to dream about it first….

Thread comes in all sorts of cones and spools in different shapes and sizes.  When sewing you want the thread to ‘spool off’ in an even fashion for the best sewing results.

I was taking a break from painting during a pop-up storm today. The only machines I have at the Riverhouse are two treadles.  Now, back in the day when ladies sewed on these I don’t think thread on industrial cones were available to home sewers…. The thread came on spool and fit nicely on the thread spindle, which fed nicely into all the guides for a perfect stitch.

I only had read thread on a cone… what to DO?? The cone will not fit on the spindle nor will it spool off evenly.

There is a sewing notion called the thread-pro. It is a base with with two spindles, one horizontal and one vertical. It goes behind the machine to guide the thread up and over for better threading…. I didn’ t have one with me… so let’s get creative……. I hope you can see this….. It got dark out side in that fast and quick storm. I had a spool of wiring and I removed the mini blinds turning bar. I stuck that bar in the center of the spool to hold it up right. I Then just threaded the cone thread by placing it next to the spool and up through the hole on the bar… I brought it around to the machine in front and thread as normal.

Here are some examples of what I have at home…

Here is a close up of the top if the bar … I added bent paperclips in the ones at home

Here is another one I have with an added bee’s wax ring I have used that a number of times for cording or gimp or yarn  in couching and decorative  machine work. The two I have at home are from broken mini blinds, the one at the riverhouse today was NOT broken and I didn’t want it to break, but it has a clear plastic hook on the end which hooks to the mini blinds. That hook is perfect for just hooking the thread and guiding to your machine.

It really is a simple fix. In my classes I have made emergency thread guides out of a liter soda bottle (empty) and a dowel rod or mini blind bar and it works wonders on tricky threads to run smoothly. Just insert the bar into something that will hold it upright.