When 2 shirts collide upcycle them

A few years ago, I bought 2 silk shirts at a garage sale.

My plan was to upcycle them by cutting them up

for yo yo circles and also for strips for weaving.

I have been wearing them for these last few

years, thinking: Oooh frumpy!

Hmmm…. I really ought to do

something with these shirts…..

Well…

Finally….

today….

I decided that the time had come

to take scissors to them.

I decided to cut them up somewhat and to

turn them into a single shirt.

But first….

I wanted to fix Patient Zillah, so I could take a pic of the shirts on her.

Patient Zillah is my cardboard manequin.

I made her from a freezer box a few years ago,

I had a small stand for her,

that I snitched

to turn into a stand for my little video camera.

Well… recently,

I found this great stand

for Patient Zillah at a church rummage sale.

But, I couldn’t figure out quite what needed to be done.

So, it stood there, waiting for me to find a way to make it work.

Today, I had a big aha!

and decided to get brave and do some radical surgery on

Patient Zillah.

So, I got the knife out and cut her open,

removed the pipe that was inside,

and cut a new block to fit into the channel.

Glue glue glue,

laminate laminate laminate

and voila!

Patient Zillah now fits

her new stand oh so well.

Alrighty!

So, now it’s time to cut up

the shirts……

I really like using small smooth rocks as weights when cutting fabric out.

The plan is to not waste

any of the fabric from either shirt.

Okay…

so

the 2 shirts are

going to become one shirt

with fluttery bits in the front

and longer sleeves,

and no collar…..

So, after a heap of pinning,

basting, head scratching

and stitching, pressing

and twiddling -

The 2 shirts have

collided quite

nicely.

I got anxious

after I cut up

the 2 shirts-

I thought…

oh oh…

am I DOWNCYCLING

these shirts instead of

UPcycling them?

Well…

I probaby wouldn’t wear it

for going to town

but it’s going to do

quite nicely in the studio!

And,

since  my original

plan was to make

yo yo circles,

I went ahead

and made some yo yo circles…

I’m not sure

what I am

going to

use the yo yo circles

for, but that part

doesn’t matter yet.

Just making yo yo circles

is pure pleasure in itself,

and then you get to use them

in something else sometime.

Win- Win!

And, part of my

original plan for

the shirts was to

cut strips that I

could use

for weaving….

To cut scraps

into strips for weaving

go back and forth,

stopping just

before the edge,

and you’ll end up

with lovely strips to weave with.

Before I took the strips to the loom, I decided to use an old ruler to make some more of my fave shuttles.

So, off I trotted to the workshop, with a wonderfully grubby old ruler from our fave second hand store:

And made a couple of shuttles, then sat down at my loom, and had a luscious time weaving:

So, all in all,

upcycling these

2 silk shirts

has been a

totally delicious

experience.

It was a convoluted process,

and went madly off in all directions,

but, I am pleased with the way

it all turned out.

Upcycling just plain rocks.

(including upcycling rocks to use

as sewing weights)!