Upcycling Denim Jeans to Sew a Guitar Strap

After upcycling a shirt to a child's sailor dress for last years Refashioners series (on the Makery blog), I had no intention of sewing along this year. Of course life has a habit of getting in the way, especially when we make plans!

 

 

My unintentional participation this year is all due to my 16 year old son. He decided in January to learn the guitar and with patience & perseverance (and a couple of online classes) did exactly that. He has since encouraged and motivated his younger brother to enthusiastically learn.

Guitar straps are not generally expensive, but when my older boy then asked me to sew one for him, there was no way I could refuse!

He wanted a very long strap, but really had no other specific requests or requirements. After doing some research (specifically checking out the guitar straps used by the Beatles) I realised that straps didn't need to be as wide as many are nowdays.

 

 

 

This year's Refashioners series 2016 is all about denim jeans, and there are some fascinating and detailed sewing projects on the Makery blog that are worth checking out.

 

I decided to sew the guitar strap from denim for strength and chose a pair of jeans that were long past their sell-by date!

 

The white plastic slide buckles or strap adjustors were taken from an old baby sling, these determined the width of the guitar strap. An old leather belt was cut up to attach the strap to the guitar.

 

 

I measured the strap that my son wanted and added more to allow for lengthening. The denim was cut in two pieces, each on a fold and sewn inside out, with leather pieces sewn into the ends.

 

This may not have been the best approach as I spent hours trying to turn the right side out for the long strap. The only reason that I didn't rip/unpick my stitching is because I thought it would weaken the join with the leather. The effort was worth it as the strap which was really only a prototype is looking like it will last a while!

 

 

 

Even after managing to turn the strap, the structure still took some figuring out. I was determined to make the strap as strong as possible, as I has joined two pieces of denim in the middle of the strap. I was worried that the join would be a weakness so sewed one long piece of ribbon along the full length of the strap. I picked a red denim style Jane Means ribbon to sew on the inside of the strap as per my son's request (though I would have secretly preferred it on the outside).

The plastic strap adjustors were more straightforward to attach after all the difficulty turning the strap.

 

 

 

All that was left was to cut a hole in the leather strap ends so that the strap would fit on the guitar. It is very comfortable for my son to wear so the shoulder padding piece which I have also cut from the denim jeans has yet to be finished.

 

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Upcycled Shirt/Apron and an Ergonomic Oven Glove!

Having large selection of Japanese Pattern Books means that there are quite a few that I haven't sewn from.

 

'Cotton Friend' is a more unusual Japanese Pattern Book in that it resembles a magazine rather than book format. I would have loved to subscribe to a Japanese pattern magazine like this, but I can safely say that won't happen unless I get around to doing a Japanese language course!

 

 

 

Sometimes, patterns stand out & are put on the mental, never-ending to-do list. This apron pattern from 2010 is one that I always thought was a clever use of fabric. It came to mind when I found the perfect shirt fabric for an apron and oven glove set that I wanted to gift to a friend. Lack of understanding Japanese is usually no barrier to sewing from Japanese patterns and this magazine is exactly the same with excellent diagrams.

 

 

 

I cut the apron from the back of the shirt, utilising the shirt yoke as a detail for the top of the apron. I adapted the pattern by using less shirt fabric than the pattern suggested because I didn't want the apron to wrap around so much.

 

 

My clever daughter came up with the simple idea of adding a button to the apron to hold the matching oven gloves as she thought it would be easier to find the oven gloves when they were needed!

 

 

 

 

When looking for a ribbon for the hanging loop, I found a perfectly coordinating (more like camouflaged) ribbon from Jane Means - the beautiful Whitby Striped Ribbon . It picks up all the colours in the paisley fabric - a design from Portabellopixie.

Perhaps I should have titled this post 'Spot the Ribbon'!!

 

 

Oven gloves always seemed badly designed and uncomfortable to use. I thought a lot about the design and having sewn the mitten pattern in the Oliver + S book 'Little Things to Sew' I decided to adapt it to create a thumb section for these double oven gloves.

 

 

The two major changes involved in using the Oliver+S pattern were lengthening the thumb portion of the pattern and adding a lining. Because of the thumb design, there is only a small amount of padding/wadding needed in the palm section of the pattern.

Adding binding helps the glove come together easily.

 

 

These oven gloves turned out very well. I could do with one of these myself and the only improvement I can think of is to move the thumb section more towards the centre so that it can fit both the right or left hand easily.

I'm not sure if a bottle of wine would have been more appreciated as a house-warming gift, but my friend seemed delighted with the set.

 

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How to Add Ribbon Bookmarks to Any Hardback Book

Coeliac diagnoses for most of the family last Sept/Oct has meant a lot less sewing and much more cooking and baking. Of course blogging also took a backseat.

 

Information on the Internet about Coeliac disease is very helpful, with lots of advice and suitable recipes. However I found I also needed to buy some new cookery & baking books as most of our food now needs to be cooked from scratch. Tearing bits of paper to mark and keep track of recipes quickly became futile as well as being very untidy. So I wanted a neater way to bookmark recipes that wouldn't fall out of a book when it was opened!

 

ThIs idea for adding ribbon bookmarks was one of those 'lightbulb' moments and is a perfect solution when a book doesn't include a bookmark.

 

What you need: book length measurement, narrow ribbons (0.5 to 0.7 cm), wide ribbon (1.5 cm), sewing machine (could also be hand sewn, or even glued)

-This method of adding ribbons to a book will work for any hardback book which has a spine.

-Measure the length of the book and add 10cm.

-Cut ribbon lengths in suitable colours. I selected 3 narrow ribbons (janemeans narrow stitched ribbon, Janemeans narrow gingham ribbon and a yellow ribbon from my stash).

Overlap the ribbons making sure they will fit neatly inside the width of the wider ribbon.

 

 

-Cut a 12cm length of 1.5 cm wide ribbon, making sure that the ribbon will fit inside the spine of the book. I chose a teal wired ribbon from Jane Means. This ribbon will be placed inside the spine of the book, so the colour will not be seen.

-Fold the wide ribbon in half lengthwise over the bundle of narrow ribbons, making sure the ends are tucked under. Sew around the ribbon as in the picture. This reinforces the ribbon and makes it easier to push into the spine of the book.

 

-Open the book and carefully push the sewn ribbon down into the spine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now just safely bookmark all the fantastic recipes that you want to try.

As a book like this can get a lot of wear and tear, the ends of the ribbons should be sealed by holding them carefully over a lighted candle.

 

 

I predict a lot more of these in my future, especially once I check my sewing books & see which need bookmarks!

 

 

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From Refashioned Men's Shirts to Children's Clothes

 

Sewing during summer holidays needs to be in short bursts, so refashioning fits in with what little sewing time I have. Previous shirt refashions that I've blogged are a dress & waistcoat, a sailor dress, a denim dress, waistcoat and a knit top & skirt, all children's clothes.

 

The inspiration for these recent remakes is The Refashioner 2015 series by Portia at the Makery blog.

 

 

I started with this shirt as I loved the fabric. This is the only shirt I've upcycled for an adult to wear!

The pattern is 'pattern k' a lovely fitted blouse from Sato Watanabe's Basic Black by Tuttle Books. I previously sewed this asymmetrical top from the book.

 

 

 

I removed the collar, and stitched the collar stand, so it looks like the stand-up collar in the book. I cut the sleeves off at the armhole, shortened them, reshaped the armholes and the sides and added front and back darts for shaping. It still needs hemming, but is a now a perfect shirt for Autumn.

 

 

There's no 'before' picture for this one, and no pattern was used, but a mans polo shirt was recut to use as a school top for my daughter. I kept the collar as it wasn't too big and resized the rest of the shirt using another top as a guide.The little pocket was added to hide a logo of a sailing ship - not part of the school uniform policy!

 

 

 

Then I got a bit more creative. It seemed that there should be enough fabric in a shirt to sew a boys pyjamas, but I needed to find a way of avoiding buttons, so it would be comfortable to wear.

 

 

 

 

This is what worked - After cutting off the sleeves, I folded the shirt in half, half the front and half the back and turned it upside down. The pattern I used was the Oliver&S Bedtime Story Pajamas / Pyjamas pattern because it has a one-piece leg pattern. The pattern fit easily on the shirt fabric.

 

Cutting a shirt this way would also provide plenty fabric even for some adult-sized shorts.

 

 

The waistband was cut from the yoke, though not on a fold, so it had to be pieced.

 

The legs were cut from the sleeves without I picking the seam and using the lower part of the leg pattern as a guide only, to get the length correct.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I sewed the pyjamas, mostly following the pattern instructions.

The leg had to be pieced together and I didn't want that inside seam to be uncomfortable. The simple solution was to sew the seam on the outside and cover it with ribbon. The ribbon is a vintage blue stitched ribbon from janemeans, which was a perfect match for the shirt fabric.

Not a perfect pair of pyjamas by any means, but not bad for zero fabric cost and a quick sew. There's also a 10 yr old boy who loves that these were sewn especially for him!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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