Boot Failure

This is a project that has been stewing in the back of my mind for quite some time, but the Refashioners contest pushed me to try doing it using all refashioned materials. Unfortunately it didn't work out quite as I had hoped but I figured I may as well blog them anyway so that I know what I did for next time.

So my plan was to make a pair of warm snuggly knee high boots - I have a couple of pairs of knee high boots that I love, but generally to get boots to fit around my huge calves they tend to be very wide around the knee - I wanted to try and make a pair of fitted boots that zipped up.

I was browsing my favourite shoe brand the other day Socofy.  I love their shoes but have never bought a pair - the problem being that when I look at their size chart I need a size 5 in length but a 9 in width so I just don't know what to buy.  But anyway I was browsing one day and found this pair of boots that I loved.  So of course I decided I needed to try and made myself something similar.

The black material in these reminded me of a pair of pants that has been sitting in my "to be refashioned" bin for a while.

These black and white paisley corduroy pants.  I loved these pants but the material did not stand up to the everyday wear that they were subjected to and I ended up with a great big hole in the seat of the pants.  I tried patching it, but once it ripped a second time I gave up......  But now I could see them being reborn as a pair of knee high boots!

I would have loved to been able to find some red leather to really emulate my inspiration pair, but that was not to be, so instead - for the leather portions - I used leather (or fake leather as the case may be) reclaimed from a pair of  old knee high boots, these were cheap and after a couple of wears the heel collapsed and they were so uncomfortable to wear.

A couple of years ago I took one of them apart with the plan to remake them but never got around to it.  So the good news is I was finally able to put them to good use.

I used the studded portion from the knee as the front part of my boot and the "leather" from the leg as the heel.  I was then able to get the little bits I wanted for the top of the boot out of the scraps I had left over.

The zippers for the boots I salvaged off an old suitcase that I was throwing out.

To make the boots really cozy and warm I lined the insides with some black fuzzy material that I had left over from making myself a cardigan.

I used a small piece of the leather as the undersole but I'm not sure it this was the best idea as when I went to glue on the actual sole I had a big problem getting the bottom of the shoe to sit flat against the sole and as such I've ended up with some big unsightly gaps around the sole where you can see the glue which I'm really not happy with,

I also find that despite making the ankle as tight as I could I still get sagging and rumpling around the ankle.  I'm still not sure what I can do about that.

I'm not totally in love with these boots.  There's something about the way the front of the boot sits that just isn't quite right - and I'm still not convinced that I didn't use the left front piece on the right boot and vice versa - it would explain a lot.

So I'm going to wear these for a while and see how they go and then I may have to try again.  I'm a bit sad that I've wasted this beautiful material but maybe I can salvage it if I can ever get the pattern to work properly.

The Refashioners 2018 - Inspired By Part 2

As I alluded to in my last post I have made a second entry into the The Refashioners - Inspired By contest .  Whilst browsing through the local thrift shop I found this beautiful purple plaid shirt.

If it had been just a smidge larger I could have worn it as is, but unfortunately no - or maybe fortunately because I love this shirts second lease on life.

Once I ruled out using the purple plaid with the green plaid in my previous refashion (I still think that could have been a great pairing)  I knew that I wanted to use this fabric to make myself a new bra.   Something like this!

Inspiration photo

But I wanted to make it 100% out of upcycled clothes.  To that end I needed a some bras to cannibilise.

Luckily I have lots of those.

This old sports bra had been consigned to the recycle bin as it didn't provide anywhere near enough support for actual exercise and it would never get worn day to day is it gives me a serious monoboob.  So I took it apart and reused the black elastic around the bottom and the hook and eyes.

This is a totally unworn bra - I bought it cheap but it just didn't fit so never got worn. I've used bits and pieces of it before.  For this project I used the underwire channeling, the pink lace off the cups, the power mesh from the back band and the pink elastic  from the sides, plus the little bow.

Finally an old swimsuit bottom.  I bought this because I loved the fabric at the front, but the bottoms were always too big and the tops too small so I never got to wear them.  I finally decided I never will, so I  used the plain white spandex from the back of the bottoms to make the back band portion of the bra.

I also had to use another hook and eye from my stash taken off old bras as two hooks (from the first bra) doesn't provide enough support for me.  I prefer 3 but since they are hard to come by in cheap bras I usually just use two twos together.

I used the same pattern that I've been working on here, lining the cups with the purple plaid as well.  I didn't bother with underwires as they just aren't comfortable.  The straps have no elastic in them as I find that this makes them more supportive.  I did however use a small piece on interfacing in the straps to give them more structure - the only new materials in the whole thing.

Once the bra was made I knew I wanted to make a matching set of undies.  I wasn't quite sure how the non stretch flannel would work for undies, but it turns out they're surprisingly comfortable.

I had to add in extra panels in the side to account for the lack of stretch - and added some length to the pattern for the same reason.  As I was working from scraps I needed to put a seam down the center of the entire thing.  I used some more of the white spandex from the bikini bottoms to line the crotch but I didn't have enough reclaimed elastic so all the elastic and the black knit fabric used for the waist and leg bands are from stash.

 I'm really quite happy with my new bra and pants set.  Probably not something to wear in the middle of summer but I'm looking forward to wearing them through winter!.