May 28, 2010

What is Fugly Upcycling you ask?

It's really, really ugly (anything with an F in front of it is baaaaad ;) turned hopefully great. :) That was the goal of the upcyclers challenge a few friends and I put on. We picked names from a hat, sent our ugliest knits to the person who drew our name, and wait for the mail lady to come with something upcycled brilliantly for our kiddos!

So it seems I understood the challenge quite well. Oh did I pick ugly. Look what Olivia (of recent etsy shop fame Olivia's Ultimate, plus a photographer extraordinaire) received in my Fugly Mailing:

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Yup, that's REALLY fugly. So much so that I really don't want Finley wearing anything made from it, HA!

Now Lisa, of Ellebows, is the one who was supposed to supply me with fugly knits. I had to send her back to the drawing board 3 times because everything she gave me was too cute!! We finally settled on this:

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Now, it wasn't so much fugly, but a challenge. The brown stripes is a very stretchy ribbed hoodie, and the other piece is a heavily embroidered knit skirt.

I knew I couldn't turn it into a typical SLD because of all the embroidery, so I decided to go totally out of character and make her a shabby chic two piece halter and matching capris :)

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I took a panel of the skirt with some plain pink tee and turned that into a halter top, incorporating the brown stripes of course into the straps.

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Then I turned the hoodie into super casual capris and turned an embroidered patch into oversize pockets.

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I managed to use the fugly knits as 90% of my upcycling, which was really cool!!

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Now, if you're inspired to upcycle some fugly....then get in on the action at Lil Blue Boo, where she is hosting The Great Ugly Knit Upcycle Contest! Your ugliest things hiding in the back of your closet may magically transform into something cool. Plus you may win a sewing machine for doing it. :)

Now that is upcycling at its best :)

xo,
shari

7 comments:

  1. Comedienne Ellen Cleghorne once said that MacGyver could "make a bomb out of some tampons and a bottle of handcream" and I do believe that you, my dear Shari, are the MacGyver of sewing...you can make a dress out of anything! Well done! (And yes, I know I’m dating myself with the MacGyver reference!)

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  2. WOW!!! That's stinking adorable!!! YOu ROCKED this challenge Shari!!!

    (oh, and I just have to say, I'm only 26 and I watched MacGyver all the time so it doesn't really date us THAT much does it?!?! ;)

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  3. that is an awesome set!!! I really, really love the embroidered fabric. The brown...ewwww!! LOL
    I'll have to go hunting. I know that I have ugly stuff that *feels* nice, and kind of pretty stuff that feels like crap. Maybe I can blend the two! haha

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  4. Wow. This turned out fantastic!! I love it, you have done a brilliant job. @Button Chick Hahahah.

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  5. Shame shame shame we all know too much about Macgyver ;) Thanks you guys!! I hope Lisa's daughter Elle likes it :) AND, I hope if you sew you are entering the LBB contest :)
    shari

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  7. You REALLY did an AWESOME job!! I am truly impressed!!!! You need to sell that style on Etsy too!!!

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