Caftan to Dress Refashion

New Look, Old awesome!

Hello Spoonies and Non-Spoonies Alike!

Welcome to the reincarnation of what was once my sewing blog Mikelina Makes. It was impossible for me to keep my blog going consistently with my health so I left on a very long hiatus about a year ago. In that time I have moved many times, gotten better control over my health, had my second beautiful baby boy Wildeman's little brother [bog-named] Roo. Roo is almost four months old now and I missed my sewing machine so badly but more than anything I missed my blog. Funnily I've been taking picture to post the whole time I've been gone so I'm so excited to get going and post some sewing projects, refashions and ootds:

So, to answer a few questions:

 

What is a spoonie?

A spoonie is a person living with a chronic illness. 96% of chronic illness are invisible to the naked eye. I am the 96%. I live with fibromyalgia, depression, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and am recovering from EDNOS (eating disorder not otherwise specified). All of these things have major impacts on my life and I don't try to hide or downplay them. I ask people to accept them as a part of me without pity. They are just one of many parts of my life. Many of my posts and YouTube videos will be about chronic illness, chronic pain etc but I will also continue to sew and refashion and I hope to share all of that with you!

Who is Mikelina? (of Mikelina Makes)

Well, I am, sort of... Mikelina is a nickname that my mother used to call me. When I first started this blog I was not entirely comfortable using my real name, however, the more time I spend online, at my blog, on Facebook etc the more I want to be my whole self here just as much as I am in the "real world". So, my name is Mikal (pronounced Michael) I really like the sound of Mikelina though so I'll keep it for now and go by Mikal Mikelina. That has a nice ring to it doesn't it?

Words

I believe that words have power and so there are a couple that I will be using here that many people avoid. I am using them in their original sense as simple adjectives. For me they don't have positive or negative connotations. I will use the word "fat" a lot because I am and I don't think there is anything wrong with that. I will also be using words like "chubby" and "big". I will not be using words like "overweight" or "rubenesque" that negate the beauty of fat women or idiomatically try to hide our existence from the world.

The Low Pain Diet

The Low Pain Diet started out for me as an experiment in natural pain management for fibromyalgia. I had cut out sugar and caffeine years ago (Ive had FMS for 6 years now) but I decided to cut out a few more things to see if I was able to get better control of my pain. The main focus has been anti-inflammatories but I also avoid stimulants. I have cut out grain, animal products, sugar, syrups, starches and processed food. I eat fruits, vegetables, oils (coconut and olive) nuts and seeds. My aim was to make my body work as little as possible so that assimilating and dealing with the effects of chronic pain were all it had to do.

I need make a vitally important clarification:

I am not suggesting that this diet will cure anything. I don't advise others to take it up and I don't know whether or not it will help you if you do. I only that it has made a considerable difference for me personally. I still take a number of medications, exercise, rest regularly and still experience chronic pain.

My average pain level on a daily basis went from 9ish when I was first diagnosed, to around 7 on a tricyclic anti-depressant, then down to 4 on an anti-convulsant now it averages around 2-3 but if I push myself it gets back up pretty fast. I haven't, however, had a flare up in months.

This diet has had such a profound effect on my life and my ability to manage my disease that I wanted the opportunity to share it with others and see if it works for them. It also a diet that is incredibly daunting to take up and I want to share tips and tricks that I have learned that make that a less Herculean task. I will be updating you on the diet if/when it changes, on recipes and on my pain and medications. Hopefully this will be beneficial to at least a few of you.

Topics

My goal is to post every day even if I'm only posting a smoothie from the Low Pain Diet. If you only want to see the kinds of things I would have posted before as Mikelina Makes I will be posting sewing, fashion and beauty stuff on Tuesdays and Fridays so come back then!

Also be aware that my children are beyond adorable and you will see them a lot. I mean look how cute:



Thanks guys for reading all the way to the bottom of the post! I love it when that happens!

Pinspiraton: Sunburst Miniskirt

My Pinsiration:

Happy Summer Crafty Ladies and Gentlemen!

I have had my eye on this pin for at least a year now. I fell in love with it right away and knew that it would be so easy to do but couldn't quite bring myself to wear a mini-skirt until I had lost more of the baby weight (which is not something I'm happy about btw. I have to work on that. Miniskirts look great on big girls!) . And now this oh so easy, oh so cute refashion is mine!

I unfortunately don;t have a source for this as the pin clicks to through to a 404 but I pinned it to my very overdue Spring 2012/2013 board. 3 down, 16 to go.

Miley Cyrus, "We Can't Stop" Inspiration

Hello Crafty Craftersons

I think that Miley Cyrus may have won me over this week. I'm not sure why yet but I was equally disturbed and entertained by her latest video "We Can't Stop". Disturbed by the blatant over sexualisation of young girls (I just want to specify here that I am 23, therefore a "young girl" and I have nothing at all against healthy, personal, meaningful, expressions of our sexuality) and generally entertained by the song, art deco style of the video and giant teddy bear backpacks.

But most importantly of course by the fashion:

Miley Cyrus wore this super cute teddy in just a few short cuts from the video but I fell in love with it at first sight. Super comfy, sexy pajamas out of an awesome T? An awesome graphic T?!?

I was in heaven.

Go Canada!

Peaceful, pandering independence is the best.

 So, Canada's birthday is coming up and how am I celebrating? With plaid! Red plaid! Red plaid flannel! My kid looks like a tiny lumberjack. Speaking of which allow me to present to you:

  The Tiny Lumberjack

The shirt was made from a plaid flaneel men's buttom down, 5$, and it went like this:

A tutorial over here. Just make it bigger or smaller respectably ;)
The pants were formerly an awesomely stripey shirt. I love these pants! Definitely one of my favourite Wildeman pieces. I wish I had gotten better pictures but I will update later with more. Right now there's a pesky border and a few hundred miles in between us but soon...we will be reunited!
I messed up a bit on these pants (as much as I do love them) so I'm going to be remaking them, mistakelessly (hopefully). Tutorial forthcoming! I will be posting a tutorial for the ridiculously cute bow tie soon!

Summer Solstice Aaaaaaand She's Back!

Refashioners!
And beloved readers of other kinds!
I have returned!

Overdramatic yes? I missed you guys so much.

So, I was gone because of health stuff. Health stuff is chronic do it may happen again (scratch that: will) but when I'm here I am here baby, and right now I'm here.
And so I present to you the Wildeman Holiday Challenge 2013:
Summer Solstice: Dino Summer

Wildeman's outfit was made from a men's grey button-down that was resized for tinydom (tiny being a relative term, he weighs 25 lbs at 7 months). His pants are made of the coolest frakin' pink pteradactyl shirt, which became these super cool dropped crotch sweat pants.

Did I mention he's crawling and standing? *insert gush of mommy pride here*
So...you may have noticed there's no tutorial. Yeah, about that: I've realized I need to be more realistic about what I can and cannot achieve and tutorials for every outfit definietly fall into the cannot category. I'll still be taking in progress pictures and sharing the whole process but it will be quite a bit less detailed.
Thanks for your support everyone. I hope you stick around despite the changes. Being away from this community has made me realize how much it means to me.
See you soon!

July is Refashion Month at House Of Estrela

Hello to all the lovely crafters who make my world go round (that'd be you guys)

I am so excited about the month of July! Any guesses why?

Canada Day?

Nope.

Independence Day?

Nope.

Okay, I'll give you a hint...

The lovely and very talented Magda of House of Estrela (whose blog you will LOVE) is hosting a refashion event featuring a ton of absolutely incredible ladies.

Max California - Alida Makes - Feather's Flights - Nelesc Designs - Threading my Way - Serger Pepper - Mammy Made - Do Guincho - Sewing Mamma RaeAnna - Made with Love by Hulibug - Winter Wonderings Wanderings & Whatnot - Theresa's To do's - Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy!  - Mikelina Makes - Charity Shop Chic - Sew Chibi - Wunderbar Life - MellySews - Carissa Knits - Refashionista

I'm still getting over the shock of being in such company. I couldn't be more excited to participate or more flattered. Each and everyone one of these women is amazing. If you see any names you're not familiar with I suggest you fix that with a hop over to one of their blogs!

You won't want to miss a single day! My post will be up July 24th. And I already know exactly what I'm posting.

May the craftiness be with you!

Me Made May #1 - The Sonic Dress

Me Made May # 1
Just a quick post today fine refashioners. This dress was refashioned from a children's bedsheet I thrifted. I love the overall effect, and I'm generally terrified of fabric with no stretch so go me! Facing my non-stretch fears!
My posts will be short over the next week or so. I have some health issues (depending on how long you've been around you may know that) and I'm more or less house bound (see: indoor shot), trying to rest up and get back on my feet. I need to get out there and enjoy this beautiful, unexpected Vancouver sunshine!
See you tomorrow!

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:

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.

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.

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

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:

 

The TV Heads - PRP Sew-along #1

When I first read the theme for this season of Project Run and Play week 1 (Art Inspired) I was immediately stumped but not because I had no ideas, I had way too many. Classic? Modern? First nations? Urban? I love art in all it's incarnations amd my mind was reeling. So, I reigned myself in, what kind of art stirs my heart the most? Art that challenges something, preferably everything. Art that can make a difference. A sentence sprang to mind, "If graffitti changed anything it would be illegal." And I knew I had to emulate Banksy, and pay homage to his message. An entertained society is a docile one. "Give me liberty or give me death!" has become, "Can you pass me the remote, I don't want to get up."

Don't get me wrong, I love film, and though I don't have cable I watch tv online sometimes but entertainmemt is meant to be a diversion, it has become a passtime.

Here is Wildeman in:

"Divertissement"