Fun with altering a mans shirt

Recently whilst browsing Pinterest, "How to alter a mans shirt "was posted by www.moldesedicasmoda.blogspot.pt, pinned by Patchwork Fundamentals, my mind went into overdrive and I thought how great it looked. As if I, have not enough to do, in the midst of organising a quilt show as a fundraiser for Staffy Rescue, I set out alter a shirt that my son was tossing out.

My sons shirt, before the alteration

Sleeves cut off to a 3/4 length and lace sleeves added.

Pockets and tabs removed to re relocated.

Shirt front buttonhole tabs removed, 

A piece of decorative fabric inserted for pin tucks .

Pin tucks need to be inserted to help align the neckline.

Front of shirt.

Cut of the bottom of the shirt, leave the buttonhole tabs.

After shirt bottom fabric has been removed, with buttonhole tabs left intact. 

Front of shirt after bottom removed.

Coordinating fabric gathered and sewn to bottom of shirt, finishing off behind the button tabs.

Next the collar removed to form the neckline 

Collar removed

Zigzag around the rough edges of neckline.

Pin tucks inserted at top near neckline.

A decorative lace for an attractive collar.

What I have achieved so far.

Pockets relocated to waistline.

? Decorative button placement, love this fabric and kitty's.

Buttons removed

And glass buttons from my button collection sewn onto shirt.

The finished product, only one kitty button used and relocated, as the large buttons dragged down the pockets, kitty button relocated to lace motif.

Relocation of kitty button.

All in all this alteration took a few days to complete, I am not sure if I will attempt another one, but will enjoy wearing my creation.

We only have 1 weeks to go before Heathton Creations Quilt show, hope to see you all at our event and we raise some well needed funds for our furry friends.

Our banner is on display

Gardens mulched and now for the rain to stop.

See you all soon.

Time Flies, when you are having fun.

Time is moving on we have under 4 weeks to go for our Quilts on the Down show. Signs will be displayed shortly, flyers have been circulating for months, Council sorted, menu sorted, wires hung to display the quilts, trade tables sorted. Quilt entry forms are rolling in and thank you to my blogger friends for advertising Quilts on the Downs. Staffy Rescue have also advertised on Facebook. 

 It has been 7 weeks since our return from overseas, since then it has been head down and bum up. I have purged, sorted and culled like a mad woman, it is time to move unused items onto a good home. This has been the perfect opportunity for me to get my act together to sort through my fabric stash and unused notions. The thing I love most about quilt shows are the  trade table, where you can buy fabric scrap bags and little handmade treasures.  In amongst the scraps there is always a gorgeous bit of fabric that can be used for the centre of a table runner, fussy cutting and or hexagons.

With this in mind I am attempting to make some items that will be for sale at our Quilts on the Downs days in September, being close to Xmas, hopefully we will be able to buy some handmade Xmas gifts.

Boxes of fabric for sale, their will be  a $ 1, $2, $3, $ 4 and a $5 

Quilts for sale!

Handmade goods, have been donated for sale, profits to Staffy rescue as well.

Patterns and stitchery's will also be for sale.

I have made some diary covers, and recipe Xmas notebook covers, which would make great Xmas gifts , just buy a diary/ A 5 book, insert into cover and give as a gift for Xmas. 

Also some Xmas decorations!

Great to include with a wrapped Xmas gift or to hang on the tree.

Plenty more on sale, we have six other trade tables as well, with lots of goodies, a great time to stock up on Xmas gifts.

On another note, what have I been up to besides sorting and organising a quilt show, the start of a new quilt, a peek preview! time to move away from reproduction fabric and play with Kaffe !

My occasional dabble into jewellery making! What do you think Chris Jurd?

Next holiday is planned.....

DH and I are booked for the Houston Quilt show, a great year to visit as 2014 is the 40th year anniversary and we plan to visit Dallas, San Antonio, Fredericksburg and Houston, this will be my second visit to the Houston Quilt show and I plan to do some classes this time, cannot wait.

Time is getting close, hope to see you all at this event, there will be at least 50 quilts on display from the quilters of Windsor Downs, as well as 20 quilts from our guest quilter, Chris Jurd

See you on the 6th and 7th September!

Quilt Guild conference: 20th Anniversary

On the Sunday 6th July and Monday 7 th July, I had the  pleasure of attending the 20th anniversary of the quilt study group of Australia. I might add this was my first time at a quilting conference after spending years attending nursing conferences it was quite a pleasant change.

The event was held at the Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour, a gorgeous location with ready access to the city. All the guests speakers were introduced by Karen Fail, who kept the audience entertained with her dry sense of humour.

The first guest speaker was none other than Di ford, who delighted the audience with her story of her remarkable quilting journey.

Below are some of Di's quilts on display ( Permission for photos has been granted by Di Ford)

Next was Gail Chalker from Gatton QLD, who spoke about the Greenmount Cemetery and also showed us her Completed M Smith Baltimore quilt.

Nonie Fisher shared her personal quilting journey and showed us some of her quilts. ( permission was given by Nonie for photos to be used on this blog) happy retirement Nonie!

We all need instructions on how to care for our quilts and this was delivered nicely by Jennnifer Palmer.

In the afternoon we were all given a modern approach to quilting by Jessica Wheelahan, Jessica's quilts are just fun, arty and breaks all the rules of quilting, but what wonderful designs and creativity.

Permission has been granted by Jessica to post photos on this blog)

In the evening we had dinner at The Novatel, as well as a silent auction and sale of goods.

Monday was the uncovering of quilts, these quilts are in the private collection of Trish Bloomfield, Melinda Smith, Caroline Sullivan and Brigette Giblin, lots of eye candy and a fun couple of days was had by all.

I have dedicated the month of July to clear out all my unwanted fabrics and craft items, phew !!!! what a task, all items will be sold at a discount rate for maximum clearance. These items will be available in September at our community quilt Show " Quilts on the Downs"

Until next time!