Whew! I took a week to slowly work on this Repurpose…more of a creative endeavor than a sewing project, actually. And, did you see? Gabrielle of Design Mom gave Project Repurpose the Wardrobe a thumbs up! She has fantastic taste and balances her many endeavors with being a mom of six. Pretty cool.
Enter the ten-year-old, oh-so-comfy, grey zippie. I bought this baby my first year of university and within a month it had a hole in it. Who knows from where. Well, I was industrious back then, and snipped a crocheted flower from an old sweater of my moms to sew on over the hole. I used a little of the sweater trim to detail one of the pockets so the flower looked intentional -however oddly placed!!
The size and fit are perfect, and I actually love the long sleeves (though not to wear today in DC!) In the last few years however, I’ve opted for a little more updated looks to throw over a t-shirt or with a casual skirt. So, I thought I’d do a little modern embellishment repurpose on this old favorite.
And, what more modern than a bird? A peacock to be specific! I thought I could curve the bird’s neck to just cover that hole, without it looking like I was covering anything!
For the back? Well, a peacock isn’t a peacock without her (okay, actually his) tail feathers!
I used dupioni silk for all of the applique. It gives it the rich coloring and ever-so-slight shimmer of peacock feathers. There are a couple hours of ironing pellon to silk, cutting feathers, ironing silk to jersey, then stitching around and up the middle of each feather invested in this zippie. Worth the time? I don’t know. But fine feathers make fine birds…and shirts;)
More of Project Repurpose Here.
5 Comments
My favorite so far! I LOVE IT!
We think your shout out is cool! We are having so much fun with Aldon. He is so cute and so sweet! Melanie, Kate, and Eric
I stumbled upon your blog thanks to Design Mom and I have to say, you are so creative! I love all of your repurposed clothing. So cool!! I'm following your blog now. It seems a bit stalker-ish, but I promise I'm not a creep. Just like your creativity, that's all. Maybe I'll even, someday, maybe be able to do something like this with the mounds of old stuff in my closet. We'll see. Oh, and I clicked on one of the "you might want to check this out, too" boxes and saw that you're an Indigo Girls fan. Rock on IG fans!!
Oh my goodness. That was a ton of work! All those thread changes that match perfectly!? wow. It looks awesome.
Beautiful