There’s a few thing I’m hoping to check before publishing the second post about our garden, so for now here’s another project that came out of my wardrobe cull.

As soon as I saw this post on the Recycled Fashion blog I thought straight away of two wrap skirts that I’d culled that were perfect candidates for refashioning into wrap tops. Here’s one of them:

I made the skirts a few years back. I’d worn them quite a bit, but was a little tired of them and I have plenty of summer skirts after last year’s refashioning. They’re essentially a rectangle with some darts, and ties. So is the wrap top. The skirts used a little more fabric than required for the top, and the longer tie could be reused. Less tie sewing = good thing.

About an hour and a half unpicking and sewing later…

The main change I made to the ‘pattern’ was to use a ‘T’ style neck opening instead of a round one with two ‘v’ splits.

When I tried it on I found that the shoulders were a bit too perky and sticky-outy, so I made a seam across them. I also found the outside ties were too low, causing indecorous gaping at the underarms, so I unpicked and raised them.

The back wound up shorter than the front. I don’t mind this, but for the second wrap top I adjusted for it by placing the neck opening 10 cm or so closer to the front hem. I didn’t bother trying to seam around a hole in the middle. Instead I cut the top in two at the shoulder line then sewed it back together with a gap, to form a boatneck opening.

I didn’t bother with the inner ties on the second top. While the front wrapping around to the back seems sufficient to hold everything together, the ties do make it easier to keep the back in place while you’re tying the ouside ties.

The outer ties are long enough to go around the back, cross over, then around to the front again.

The second top only took about 30 – 45 minutes to make.

The fabric from the second skirt, which had bit more drape worked best. I’m tempted to try some cheesecloth next, or go op shop hunting for two square scarves. I also reckon you could makea dress by simply using a longer piece of fabric, too. Or use an oversized tshirt.