Floral Dress – Project Judy

Challenge Five – Bright & Black Floral Dress

I was surprised how quick and simple it was to transform this funny looking old blouse. I chopped off the sleeves and then I cut them in half along the length. This gave me enough to add to the end to create a skirt then I sewed the old sleeve sections on to the end. Initially, I had planned to turn this floral long sleeved blouse into Ingrid (a bodice) and Twiggy (a mini skirt) but I liked the wrap over, kimono style at the front so decided to keep it as it was.

Posted: 29-04-11 | Category: Blog, Project Judy

Rose Bag – Project Judy

Challenge Four

I had plenty of the red Chinese scene print fabric left and realized I’d need a bag to go with the dress for our friends’ most special day. It would need to be quite sizable as I have a terrible habit for needing everything at such important and special occasions! Luckily I had some bright red velvet fabric left over from a long evening gown I had a taken up a few years ago so utilized that. I started with a basic envelope shape in the velvet and trimmed the front edge with the Chinese print and added the roses. The roses are just simple cut out flower shapes layered on top of one another and stitched on. I also added a thick strap in the Chinese print and lined the inside of the bag with a blue and white tweed which adds strength to the bag carrying my many things and a jolly contrast to the bright red.

Posted: 28-04-11 | Category: Blog, Project Judy

Occassion Dress – Project Judy

Challenge Three

My mum picked up these two lovely fabrics from a charity shop. Aren’t I lucky Chris and Sandra, our friends from uni in Lampeter are getting married (Congratulations!) and they’ve invited us to the Wedding at the end of May. We are very excited. For this wonderful occasion I’d like to wear something smart and quite lovely for them… The two panels of fabric were not so large that I could go mad with the shape and volume of skirt etc… In fact even the blue was not wide enough to go round my hips (damn cakes and chocolate) so the strip of red was a must. I felt it would look most in place at the front. It was at that stage incredibly short (not a wise choice at all) so there was no other alternative then to add another red strip and I felt this would look rather fetching around the waist in a wide sash. So it was to this extent a design of necessity. I added a subtle dip at the chest and darts from bust to waist and from waist to hip. I stitched in a zip of the right length and hey presto.

Posted: 27-04-11 | Category: Blog, Project Judy

Black Rose Dress – Project Judy

Challenge Two – Black Rose Dress

My next victim shall be a black with pink rose print Laura Ashley dress that was picked up for me in a charity shop by my Mum’s husband Richard. Thank you Richard! I had no initial ideas for this in my original plan. I thought I would turn it in to long length pencil skirt with a bodice style top, much like the Ingrid bodice and Rita skirt in my Bobbins & Robbins Made-to-Measure collection. I considered harems but thought better of it realizing I could make good use of the zip already in place at the back. It became a full length dress with an interesting bikini style top.

I set to work cutting off the sleeves, then cut across the tops of the shoulders and pulled the dress down over Scarlet to just below the chest. I utilized the sleeves in to cups for the bust. Doing so had allowed for a lovely long length. I also liked the sneaky if rather daring peep hole created at the chest. I darted down from the chest and through to the hips to hug the body. After trying the dress on I found that the dress would need more support to the bust as there was no boning or elastic in place. I decided to add straps out of a black vesty bit in one of the other Project Judy items. The straps, slightly gathered and pulled down on to the shoulders balanced out my figure in the hip hugging dress and gave me the much needed piece of mind that my dress would not fall down whilst celebrating my boyfriend’s birthday at our local Italian restaurant! I have not used Bobbins & Robbins patterns for this piece but I’m glad to have worked and manipulated the original garment to create something unique.

Posted: 25-04-11 | Category: Blog, Project Judy

Yellow blouse upcycled to dress – Project Judy

Challenge One – Yellow Patterned Dress

My first victim shall be the yellow ‘Elvi’ blouse. I put in my initial plan that I should turn this in to Brigette (a button at the back blouse) and Emmeline (a twelve dart skirt) from my Bobbins & Robbins collection. However I changed my mind and decided I could make it up as a dress.

First of all I cut the blouse in half so I had a big square of fabric. I popped this over Scarlet (my dressmakers dummy) and realized I would need very deep darts to fit so I put in twelve 3” darts all 4” long to shape waist. I realized I could use the buttons and buttonholes already in place on the existing item so I hoodwinked them. After stitching the darts I realized there were a couple all too daring slits up the length of the former blouse so stitched these up instantly to uphold some modesty.

Next for the top half, which I threw over Scarlet’s head wondering what would become of it. I put it on back to front so the buttons matched. I liked the natural cowl neck that appeared at the front and realized I could make an interesting back to the dress if I left it this way round. I gathered the top half in at the waistband, cut off the all too baggy sleeves, hemmed up the back and tucked it in. After this was all stitched I realized a little more shape was in order, so placed darts at the back and at the bust. I tried it on and saw that a few poppers would be necessary for security reasons in the length of the skirt. And that was that.

Posted: 11-04-11 | Category: Blog, Project Judy

Project Judy

My Grandmother, Judy told me she was shocked she had so many old clothes and was clearing out her wardrobe. Grandad could no longer abide the mountains of clothes piling up around the house so I should come up to see them and hopefully deplete the old clothing mountain range and that possibly I might have a use for them. So it is thanks to Gran and also to my mum with her charity shop finds, that Project Judy has come about. My aim is to create unique yet fashionable pieces out of the old clothes Gran gave me and bits and bobs Mum’s picked up. Let the up-cycling begin!

Here is a plan of some initial ideas I had using the discarded items. The majority of them are using patterns from the Bobbins & Robbins Made-to-Measure collection. I may alter these slightly as I go along to suit the fabric and style. I may also change my mind entirely : D

Posted: 04-04-11 | Category: Blog, Project Judy