Tutorial: Wristwarmers from socks

Looking at my stupid non-functional Raynaud hands yesterday, I was thinking that I needed to make something that I could wear to take the chill off my hands but would still allow me usable fingers. With Raynaud's, I can get the palms of my hands warmer by holding onto hot drinks but the backs of my hands are always freezing and it really does affect my total feeling of coldness. So out came the long socks... and in less than twenty minutes I looked like a total hobo. I asked Steven what he thought and he said, 'It depends, are you going to wear them out of the house?' That's the beauty of these wristwarmers: I can still give him the finger. Take that, mittens.

So here's how:

• Take your socks out. I'm using over the knee socks so I can pull them right up or slouch them for double thickness on my forearms. Cut them off just below the heel.
• Then cut them again right above the heel.
• Then cut them again right below the toe seam.
• So now you have a long sock with an open end and a smaller tube.

• Turn the band inside out and slip it over the sock (right sides facing) so the raw edges align at the top. Pin the layers together but leave one inch unpinned on both sides (so 2 inches total). This is where your thumb is going to go. If you have socks that only have a pattern on the top of the leg, well done, they sound cool. But remember that you'll need to make right and left ones so the unpinned bit should be on opposite sides.
• Sew through the layers with at least a 3/8" seam allowance. Remember to use a stretch stitch (that's the little lightning bolt to those of use lucky enough to have it) or a narrow zigzag because you don't want to lose the stretch of the sock.
• Remember to leave that two inches open (one inch to front and one inch to back)!
• At the two inch opening, fold down the raw edges and pin. This is where you'll be grateful for using a large seam allowance earlier.
• Sew this raw edge down along the length of the thumb hole. This takes a little bit of maneuvering to keep the other fabric out of the way. Remember that stretchy stitch.
• Repeat the process of folding down the seam allowance and pinning on the other side of your thumb opening and then sew that down.
• Fold the raw edge of the band back into the cuff and pin. Sew a couple of tacking stitches back and forth on both sides to secure it down. I did it this way because I want an open flap to stick heating pads in. If you don't have chronic-cold-back-of-the-hand-itis, you could probably double fold it under and stitch for a neater finish.
• You're done. Now go beg for money.
  

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I am a gypsy cowgirl

Something very strange must have happened to my body when I was having babies because although I fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes, the tops are all too short. So I did a very quick recon yesterday using a too-short sweater and a too-long gypsy skirt. This is what they looked like in all their unflattering glory:


No, I don't have filthy handprints all over my body, they're on the mirror. Don't worry, I cleaned it. And then I cut the waistband off the skirt, and cut the sweater off under the bust:


Gathered the skirt to fit the top and sewed them together:


I'm channeling my inner- backstage technician, lurking about and changing sets.

There, that's better. Believe it or not, I have this same gypsy skirt in olive green. Is it worth doing again?

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Greensleeves

The great clothing refashion is continuing. I've put a sweater on my head and now the kids have sleeves on their legs. Steven is streamlining his wardrobe and had four carrier bags of clothes for me to dig through.


For Jamie, a fleece sweatshirt became fleece sweatpants. The arm cuffs became ankle cuffs, the waistband cut off, shortened and resewn to become a waistband again. I like how the embroidery on the upper arm now sits on the upper leg.


For Maia, a zippy top became leggings. The sleeves had stripes sewn down the top of the arm so I cut the sleeves up and gave them the leggings treatment so the stripe would run down the side of the leg. Arm cuffs removed, made smaller and resewn to make leg cuffs. The ribbing at the neck stand of the zippy top was exactly the width I needed to make a waistband.


And I kinda dressed them as twins. I'm enjoying this upcycling more than I expected and it's probably the fastest sewing you can do when you can use existing seams-- both trousers took less than thirty minutes to sew! Any of you veteran upcyclers want to share links of other projects to make?

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Upcycled t-shirt dress

Back in the day, I was a prolific soccer player and competitive gymnast and collected tournament t-shirts from all over the United States and a couple from when I played in Scandanavia. Consequently, my parents harbour a ginormous plastic crate overspilling with t-shirts ripe for refashioning.

My niece's favourite outfit is an upcycled and silkscreen Courtney Courtney dress bought from Etsy. Unfortunately despite her wearing it 89% of the time, I don't have a picture of it but my sister in law kindly got one for Maia too and this is her wearing it over the summer. It's raglan sleeved, with lots of panels and with exposed serged seams to the outside. I noticed a couple of months ago that Jessica from Happy Together was making a very similar style for her daughter using The Siena Dress pattern from lilblueboo's Etsy shop so I snapped it up when I was at my folks.

I'm more than a little ashamed that I only managed to make a single solitary refashioned dress from my mound of t-shirts. They were all sorted into bundles and I had a dozen ready to cut. And I particularly have no excuse as sewing it up took less an hour. Ah, the lure of sledding...

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