My Refashioned Winter T

This came out so cute & comfy that I want to make 50 more!  I've posted the "How To" on the Refashion Co-op site.

Fabulous Refashioned Winter T-shirt

Tiny Houses, Refashioned Clothing, Convertible Dresses --- It's a Movement I Totally Missed!

I admit, I'm a consumer. An 80's baby raised in a "buy it all" society. Here's the clincher that's finally made me realize I'm now mature (yes I'm a late bloomer) --- I don't need all this crap!  I've always been a pack rat. It comes from my artistic & creative nature that I can make something else from everything else - so I'd better not throw it away. The problem is that over the years, I've accumulated too much stuff! I just can't manage it all.

I'd love nothing more than to quit my day job & become a full time artist. I'm pretty sure that there's enough crap in my house that I'd never need to buy anything new ever again & make millions of pieces of art! However, that is just too scary of an idea for me right now. I'm consciously choosing to stay in corporate America & contribute to my retirement & keep my art as a hobby (for now). BUT... through my learning & growing process I'm furthering my artistic development so that when that retirement day comes & I begin my full-time artist life, I will be mature in my idea & technique.

I'm still in my starter house - a small 1960's bungalow of 1300 sq feet. I've often dreamed of having a larger place in the country, but didn't want to give up my cheap mortgage & easy commute, so I've stayed here. My husband & I bought some play property in the country, a place to camp, hunt & keep some bees. We've been touched by the tiny house movement & will build one as a cabin. However, that idea struck me close to home. Why treat my house as a has-been? I should embrace the tiny living & make my small house more efficient to our lifestyle. Although we haven't started renovations, they are in discussion.

Then the idea moved to my craft... why not start refashioning things. So I bought from thrift stores & started practicing (too scared to work from my own closet & permanently ruin something of my own - never mind that I never wear it, or it doesn't fit or whatever reason it ends up in the re-fashion pile). I now have stash of refashioned items & a bigger stash of stuff to be refashioned.

Now my obsession is convertible clothing. In order to feed my ever changing sense of style, but stop feeding my consumer, buy it all monster --- I'm moving into the world of refashioning items into convertible clothing items. I know I'm late to the transformer clothing party, but oh what fun! I've began by drafting up knock off patterns for about 6 pieces of convertible clothing. I started with the simplest pattern & sewing & moved on from there.

If you think about folks who have chosen the tiny house lifestyle, the closet is a critical component of that life. How in the world can you be a fashionista & a tiny houser at one time? Convertible clothing is the answer.