Upcycle Living

I have to wear an access tag to work but I've never understood why the tag holders have to be designed the way they are. The lanyard that the office provides has a clip with sharp edges (red arrow), and my arms often get caught on it as I'm a naturally clumsy person. Also, the fabric based lanyard absorbs sweat and dirt so easily in this hot weather, it looks manky and disgusting. Not to mention that it is a plain ugly sight! I tried looking for a commercially made tag holder but they are expensive yet not very user-friendly; and they don't last. After a few scratches and losing some skin on my arms, I had to do something about it. I dug out some fabric scraps I've been keeping for a while, and picked this one - a family member brought some really nice materials back from a trip to India and got some clothes made out of, and I kept the access fabric. No more scratching my poor arms :) The process is really simple - as shown here:

I love aprons: the design, the look, wearing it. But let's face it, aprons are not cheap. And to think that it's something that I wear to block off oil stains and dirt from cooking, it just doesn't make sense to spend money on it. Oh I'm such a stingy hag 😈 This was a sundress I had but worn off over time, and I'd ripped a whole somewhere on the back. Can't give it to charity, didn't want to cut it off into cleaning cloth (not yet), so I had to do something about it, and with it. Since my old apron has become so manky, it deserves a retirement. This old spaghetti strap dress came ready handy as it came ready with 2 attached belts for back tie bow, so all I needed to do was to separate the front and the back (keep the spaghetti straps and belt attached to the front portion), hem the edges to tidy up any loose edge and threads. Only took me one afternoon (hand stitching). Introducing my new apron, formerly called sundress 😎 ...

Here's one of those tasks that I get given by my husband from time to time: fix it! He loves these trousers so much that he wears them again as soon as they get cleaned. And look what happened? The cloth at the waist band is all ripped. There is such a big hole that can't just be sewn back with threads. Also, the print is a very specific camouflage pattern which means that I can't just take any excess cloth and patch it on. But since the back pockets are mainly for decoration purposes, the rescue is here! I took the left back pocket out stitch by stitch very carefully so that I don't leave yet another hole behind. After a little ironing to get rid of the creases, I now have enough material to patch the waist band back. (It's like how they take a bit of the buttock skin to patch scars on the face in plastic surgery) Here comes another problem: the waist band is elasticated and sewing can be tricky. So I've used a hanger and some pegs to stretch it out. The actual...

I don't wear T-shirts. Just don't like the look of them on me, full stop. They are often too big or loose, or just unflattering. Although I don't buy them myself, I can't stop anyone from giving them to me, especially when it is a Depeche Mode T-shirt. I was given this Depeche Mode T-shirt months ago, but can't bring myself to wearing it as it is still too big although it is an S. Wearing it to bed is completely out of the question because that would have been a blasphemy! I've been wanting to do some alteration so that I can enjoy wearing it and finally found the time to do so last week. And here's what I did: outline the shape of my desired outcome, cut away the unwanted part of the material then hem the sides up (all hand-stitched, no cheating). And this is what I can finally put on and walk out the door, proud :)