Green to the Seam

Its been way too long!!! But after some huge events have finally ended, I am back to blogging again.
Its summer now so Audrey and I are thinking about her wardrobe for school next year. That means lots of Thrift Store shopping so we can create some new Altered Couture.

 This being the fancy new term for buying stuff from Goodwill and making it into something wearable. Apparently this is a new art form and we just thought it was a way to make due with what we could afford...who knew? But I stumbled on this wonderful magazine, also titled Altered Couture full of wonderful projects by other seamstresses and creative talents, just like me.


Here are a few of the items we created for Audrey's wardrobe. First up is her jeans jacket. This started as a basic jeans jacket for $6. I added some metal grommets down the back for a lace-up corset look and some silk ribbon. Audrey drew the little fox picture with fabric markers on a scrap of white bed sheet and we added that as an applique patch.

 This moon applique was done with a piece of vintage Flower Fairy Fabric and some glue on sequins were added with a fabric glue.

 I put some silk ribbon embroidery around the collar, fox patch, and above the pockets. The grommets along the bottom band serves as a place to run a ribbon for a pretty belt.

Another fun project is to treat skirts with some bleach, dyes and fabric paints. This skirt is currently for sale in our Etsy shop, Seamstressbythesea.

 This fun Fall Leaves skirt was sold to a customer in Australia last year. It was our first of many buyers from outside the USA and very exciting. She wrote back about how much she loved it. This was bleaches and painted with some metallic based fabric paints by Jaquard. A piece of vintage lace from a tatted doile was used for the pocket treatment.

 A length of copper chain with a charm was added at the waistline by the pocket for added interest.

 This skirt has a Pirate Theme. Because it was a Hilfinger brand, it kind of sold itself but we paid only $3 for it and found a great starting point to be the hole that was already torn on one side in the shape of a square. How sad that the original owner probably gave it up because of this rip. A patch from a Skull print brocade used in a Pirate costume provided the perfect starting point for my theme.

 Adding another patch to a round applique of the same skull print brocade along with a sew on skull applique made the front of the skirt come together in the theme. A bit of hand embroidery and some metal studs went around the pockets.

The back of the skirt got some bling with a few sequins and another applique of a skull. These are super easy to sew or iron on to a pair of jeans or skirt for an instant change. We got these in a grab bag assortment for a great price.

The next time you are thinking of getting rid of any of your denim favorites, first consider fixing them up with some fun fabrics, paints, embroidery and patches. You could add years of life to your garment.

Audrey and I will be teaching this next week at a Summer Day Camp for children and plan to teach some of these wonderful ideas to our young students. We will be posting the results here in our blog later in the week.