Thank you, J Crew, thank you, Flood

If I have something to do...like say, clean up after a major flood in my basement....

All of sudden, like out of the blue, I get a hankering for creating.

Call it odd.

I don't know.

If I HAVE to deal with something, I usually don't.

Right away.

So when our basement flooded last week, and I sank into a wet soppy ball of saturated mess...I did what I had to do.

EC did the majority of the clean up with our friend, Jeff.

32 gallons of water sucked out of the studio carpeting ALONE.

I came up stairs and began sewing.

I'm really good like that.

I like to get things done.

Sewing was on my list.

The flood was NOT.

So, I took some vintage fabric I had and started making pleated ruffles.  I didn't know what they were going to be attached to..I just made them and threw them on a heap.

Then, the flood happened.

So, I grabbed this wool J Crew sweater that I bought at the local thrift.

Cut it all curvy-like down the center.

Added some ruffles from the heap.

Made the sleeves bishop-esque and turned it into this!

It is actually still cold enough here in New York to wear this sweater...

maybe I'll grab a book and go to the park!

b i g   s m i l e s 

~K

Boiled Wool Sweater all Girlie-like!

Just for the record,

I don't really know what I'm doing here,

in a professional sense.

But I've watched and read your blogs

and 

you don't either.

(well, most of you don't!)

So I figure, I'm in good company.

We're all just wingin' it!

I have this boiled wool jacket.

A thrift store find.

The sleeves were too short.

(my usual and lengthy dilemma)

Love the navy color.

But it needed something extra.

I also have this teal linen skirt.

I never wear it.  Usually.

But I buy linen because I LOVE IT.

(whether I wear it or not, I will use the fabric somewhere I keep telling myself)

The banana bread has nothing to do with this.

But the true color of the linen skirt is what I wanted to show you.

See it down there.

 I made the rosette for my first jacket re-do out of a piece of the linen skirt.

After I cut the skirt apart,

I sewed on some frilly sleeves.

But the neck area seemed too plain.

I cut the skirt in half and sewed it up just enough to fit over my head where the elastic waist band was...

See the band in the back there?

I LOVE linen, because it lays wherever you put it

and it flounces!

(flounce makes me smile)

I can wear this scarf with any top or blazer.

It's lightweight, too.

The sleeves are split.

I used the back of the skirt for this part.

It's actually the slit in the back.

No hemming.  Everything was already done!

Here's the finished product.

This project was very easy.

The hardest part was getting over cutting up the skirt!!

thanks for stopping over today

Blah-zay Blazer makes a come back

Welcome Friends.

This is the first post of my new couture blog.

I am thrilled that you stopped by

creative couture by kolein

I have longed to make my own clothes.

However,  patterns scare me.

I think it's my learning style, quite frankly.

However, I love sitting at the sewing machine,

dabbling with fabric.

So I decided after years of being nearly 6 feet tall, short waisted, with extra long arms (gosh I sound like something you might find at the zoo) I have ventured into my own personal line of clothing

by way of our local thrift stores and my VERY OWN closet,
and maybe one or two things that my husband might be throwing away.

Of course I will be the only one wearing this line of re-fashioned clothing.


Still, I wanted to share it with you to perhaps inspire you along your creative journey wherever it is now and wherever it will lead you.


I LOVE the process.
The destination, I'm finding, is pretty grand, too!

Here is my first 1920's England inspired blazer.

Here's what I started with:

On the left is an Eddie Bauer linen skirt that didn't really feel like me anymore.

On the right, a large blazer I purchased from a thrift store when I was pregnant.

It is from Spiegel.  Made of linen and lined.  I couldn't throw this back in the heap to go to the thrift.  So both items have been taking up residence in my studio for years.  Stop laughing.  That wasn't a joke.  

This here is a head band.  I LOVE the design.  I bought it from our local grocery store. I used every bit of this.

I began cutting and ruffling...and one thing lead to another...

I added a poofy collar, then some bell sleeves, then a rosette made from another thrift store skirt....then

added some accordion ruffles on the pockets, and part of the head band on the sleeve, cut the brown plastic buttons off, made new ones using the elastic from the head band...

Then my blazer became this, right before my eyes

Then I put this detail on the back

At one time this blazer fit my round belly.

Now it has been refashioned to be a spring or fall overcoat.

Thrift store

before

Creative Couture

after

JOINING THE TALENTED GALS OVER HERE TONIGHT

Please bear with me as I figure out what I'm doing here creating another blog.

The header is doing something weird and it's been a while since I worked with all the html things here in blog land.

Thank you.