Upcycling BDUs

This is the story of a very sad pair of pants that no one loved anymore. The pants sat in a pile with other unwanted clothing for a very long time, wishing that it could become useful again, until one day...

I cut the pants apart into useful pieces...

...and sewed them back together. Clever huh? Actually I can't take all the credit. I used a pattern specifically designed for this purpose: Simplicity 2597 Accessories, Bags Go Green Collection

My wishlist

I must say I really like the Reconstructing History pattern line. So far I've gotten a lot of use out of the ones I have. I think they are particularly good if you are going for historical accuracy and authenticity. As soon as I saw these, I thought "must have":

Pennsic Sewing

Well, I did get some sewing done. Made a gomlek (top) and salvar (bottom) for Stef for Pennsic out of linen that he picked out at Pennsic last year. I used ReconstructingHistory.com pattern #405 - Ottoman Turkish Man.


I don't really need anything for myself, but I did already make some new harem pants. You can't have enough pants at Pennsic.

A friend of ours who wants to check out Pennsic this year (only for a day or two), is interested in the Greco-Roman look, so that should be easy to throw together. Otherwise, I would just point him toward Tigr's Toggs, which I highly recommend as comfortable and reasonably priced garb for Pennsic.

I have put aside the Star Wars Imperial Officer uniform for now, even though I have made some progress on it. I don't think we are going to DragonCon this year so I don't have an immediate place to wear it, anyway.

I'm getting a lot of requests for kilts made of camo fabric, and I might actually get paid, so I should put some effort into that.

Current Sewing Project: US Army Roundabout, 1812

I'm working for my black powder/Rev. war reenactor friend again. He's been doing War of 1812 stuff lately, so this is an army jacket of that period, based on http://www.pastpatterns.com/041.html. It only includes sizes 38-44, and I had to scale and adjust the pattern up for a size 54 - a non-trivial task, but my fitting skills just get better. I did a muslin fitting and cut out all the pieces, and so far have the welt pocket on the right front sewn. I'm working on it little by little, as I find the time. The design and construction of the back is not too different from the 1870s Robe Anglaise that I did last year.