Saturday 27 April 2013

ootd

Sweater: Winners
Dress: Thrifted (Value Village)
Belt: Inherited
Boots: So ancient the label is rubbed off, had the sole replaced, but otherwise awesome.
Earrings + hat: Charity thrift
Glasses: Clearly Contacts
This weekend I hopped from thrift store to fabric store shopping for fabric for my first costume comission. It was incredible, I actually found everything I need for 6 children's fantasy capes at the second stop!

Tuesday 23 April 2013

Wildeman Wednesday #5

Wow, I totally thought today was Wednesday...
When I told my husband we had finally gotten pregnant at about 4:30 am on a Saturday morning his exact words were,
"I know. I have ninja sperm." followed by a fist pump and falling back to sleep.
Ever since Wildeman has been our ninja baby so when I saw this T at the thrift store I couldn't pass it up.
I forgot the before picture, but these were my pattern pieces:

Sunday 21 April 2013

T-shirt to Cheeky Garter Belt Refashion And Tutorial

Yay! More lingerie refashions! This will be lingerie tutorial #2 (#1), but there will definitely be more to come. I had been wanting to make my own lingerie for a long time but I had a hard time justifying putting that much time and energy into something I could only wear in my own house. Finally I gave up trying to justify it and just stahrted sewing. Besides, I have made a number of pieces of men's lingerie (true story), why not make my own?
I was inspired by this awesome graphic T I mined from a corporate thriftstore in my neighbourhood. Originally they were going to be panties but I decided that wasn't quite cheeky enough for this find.
As always (usually) I started by cutting the tshirt open at the seams to create flat pattern pieces.
I marked my pattern on the right side so that I wasn't having to constantly flip it back and forth to make sure I wasn't cutting through the graphic.
I folded the shirt in half to make sure my cut was symmetrical.
I did the same with the blank back of the shirt. The blank piece will be the front of the garter.
The hem on the graphic (which is the back of the garter belt) rose up much higher). The cut ends up looking like this.
I also made a liner out of the rest of the t-shirt so that the t-shirt cotton wouldn't stretch out of shape as easily. For the liner I just cut duplicates of the first two pieces. I sewed both the sets of pattern pieces together seperately.
And attatched them at the top, right sides together.
At the bottom I folded both hems in toward each other and sewed the bottom hem with a zig zag stitch.
With scraps from the t-shirt I created these four garters by cutting 1.25" widths and folding them in on eachother so no raw edges are visible. I sewed them closed with a zig zag stitch.
For lack of ready garter clips I repurposed paper clips which worked surprisingly well. So well that I doubt I'll replace them.
And voila!
May the refashion be with you.

Saturday 20 April 2013

Backwards OOTD

Check out my new LBD!
Also check out my thrifty, fashion savvy brilliance (smell myself).
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's a thrifted 4$ sweater worn backwards and a thrifted black, white and grey stars and stripes scarf for 2.50$ to cover up my bra strap. A little bit of awesome.

Tuesday 16 April 2013

Me-Made-May 2013

Challenges are the best.

 I, Mikelina of Mikelina Makes, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to document wearing one self-made garment or accesory each day for the duration of May 2013. More about it here. Flickr it here.

Monday 15 April 2013

Sweater Socks

I have definitely been experiencing blog withdrawals in the week since I last posted. Fortunately I have found some time to sew at least! My latest project:


I didn't take many during pictures. My health stuff has been acting up and this bit of sewing was a stretch so pictures weren't at the forefront of my mind. I started with this sweater, mined from my favourite charity thrift store for 2.50$
When I saw it I was immediately reminded of this pin:

http://weheartit.com/entry/25829799

I love finding things that remind me of pins! The only thing I love more (as far as pinning goes) is making something I pinned! After cutting the sleeves from the sweater I cut along the highest full stripe so the pattern would be uniform. Then I cut the body of the sweater in half and serged the seams closed so I had two more tubes of fabric. The waist band of the sweater will become the top band of the socks.
I sewed the top tube (from the body) to the bottom tube (the sleeves), round out the toes and brought the seams in until the socks fit snugly to my legs. Mine reach to just above my knees. In retrospect I would have used more of the body to make them higher. Guess I'll just have to make more...bummer ;) Shared on
Better Off Thread

Monday 8 April 2013

I Got a Job!

I was so excited to be keeping up with contest sew-alongs but a few days ago something even more exciting has come along: I got a job! A sewing comission! I have been asked to create 5 childrens fantasy capes, each one to fit the imagination of the recipient. Best of all I have been given free artistic reign, but I only have 2 months to finish them. So, the sew-alongs are getting piled into the back seat for now.

Over the course of the year and a half since I started this blog my creativity has been flowing freely, bright but shapeless. And though I love making interesting clothing for Wildeman and myself I think that right now it's creating costumes that I am most passionate about. So, I am taking a costume design approach to these childrens capes. I'll be posting updates on the projects as I go.

And, for those of you who are all about refashions I'll still be refashioning for myself and Wildeman so stay tuned!

Craft it up!

Wednesday 3 April 2013

My Pinterest Challenge Wrap Up

Hello there,

Monday was the deadline for the pinterest challenge started by Merrick, Landen and Jannsen as part of their Sisters Share it All series. I am so close to be done, Wildeman's pog mobile being not quite complete yet but 5 1/2 is not too bad!

And it went like this:

1)

 
2)
 



3)
 
 
4)
 
 
5)
 
 
6)
 
 
May the craftiness be with you!



Monday 1 April 2013

Pinterest Challenge #6 Pog Mobile

Hello Crafty Foxes!

The (almost) complete mobile:

Pinterest Challenge #6



Today is the deadline for the Pinterest Challenge and I am mostly done...yes, just mostly. But not for lack of trying. This was my pinspiration for Wildeman's much belated mobile.

Originally Wildeman's mobile was going to be made up of 1001 white paper cranes, each containing a message from either mom or dad. As poetic as the theory was we got to about 30 before the guilt of all the dead trees these cranes represented got to me. We decided to include the cranes we had already made in his nursery decor but find some way to use recycled products for his mobile.

When I saw the image below I loved how clever, simple and eco-friendly it was but if you've been following me for a while you'll know that floral cutouts aren't really my thing. So, what is? Pogs!

I love the pop art feel of my in-progress mobile. I ran out of pogs before I ran out of lantern space but I'll contine scouring thrift stores for this 90s fad that would otherwise end up in a landfill.
I started with this:
 
 
Working on it:  

 

My Pinspiration:
 

The Picnic Dress: Pinterest Challenge #5

Hello everyone!

Pinterest Challenge #5

The  Picnic Dress

 
 
 
Last week Wildeman got his Easter oufit and yesterday mommy got hers! I mentioned in my last post that we were celebrating easter with a picnic (weather permitting) so, I needed a picnic dress. This also fell beautifully in line with my (nearly done) Pinterest Challenge!

This dess was made from a large men's button down. I had originally meant to make something completely different but the shirt had this dress inside it and there was no way it was letting me tell it what to do! It's definitely a step outside my usual style (neon green and silver zebra striped pants anyone?) but I loved it more and more throughout the day.

 

 
 
My pinspiration:
 
Dress_front_large