Spring Cleaning

Given that this Saturday is the 1st of December and the start of summer, it's a bit late for a post titled 'spring cleaning'.  But seriously, it has taken me that long to get it all done! And I don't usually go in for the one big spring clean of the year, I prefer to clean when necessary (which with two kids seems to be all the time) but this year one thing led to another.  I had to clean the curtains in our living and dining room because Anna spilt some chocolate milk all over them while jumping on the lounge with a bottle in her hand, and then when the curtains were down I noticed how dirty the windows were.  So I cleaned the windows which took ages since we have a wall of louvred windows which means many, many panes of glass plus a massive sliding glass door.  And then when the windows were sparkling clean I noticed how dusty everything in the room was.......

And as I said in the last post, since we've decided to sell our house next spring I've been on a massive decluttering phase made easier by clearing out my husband's stuff when he's not home! He is such a hoarder - I know I have lots of stuff but at least it's properly stored and I'm (slowly) using it, but he has been hanging on to ratty college t-shirts that are 20 years old, heaps of cricket gear even though he hasn't played for years and several sets of golf clubs even though he only uses the newest ones.

So while he was at work I threw out a big pile of ratty clothes, donated a big bag of decent clothes and when he came home he even thanked me for cleaning up his wardrobe but didn't notice that he had half the amount of clothes he had previously! In fact he even joined in by culling a few suits and a stack of business shirts that we plan to donate to an organisation that assists men trying to get back into the workforce.

I decided to hang onto a few of his business shirts that were too worn around the collar and cuffs but were otherwise quality fabric (my husband loves his designer labels), so that I could refashion them.  So from one of his business shirts that is a thick cotton with a fine blue stripe I made two pairs of shorts for Toby, kept the buttons and chucked the scraps into the bin.

I used Ottobre 3/2009 #14 for one pair, but I found them to be a little too short and too wide legged for my liking.  For the other pair I used McCalls 6016 which I modified the pattern by lowering the waistline, narrowing and lengthening the leg - it is such a big sized pattern for the size marked on the envelope that I almost wonder if the envelope is a misprint.  But anyway I've now made myself a TNT pattern for Toby's shorts that I will use over and over again, because let's face it what else is there to make for little boys?

From my big box of UFOs and wadders, I turned a pair of unfinished shorts I started for myself that failed in the making because they were too tight into another pair of shorts for Toby.  Again using the McCalls pattern all I did was add patch pockets to the back cut on the bias for a bit of interest:

Also from my box of clothes to be refashioned, I remade a stretch linen skirt in navy I made pre-blogging days and have washed and worn far too many times:

Big sister Anna wasn't to be left out (not without loud protest anyway).  For her I refashioned a strapless shirred dress that someone gave to me that I've never worn because I don't have the necessary assets to keep a strapless dress up, but it is such a soft cotton with a cutesy cotton lace border that it suits a little girls dress better anyway.  All I did was to chop off 20cm from the bottom and use that to make cap sleeves with a ruffle, and take it in about 10cm down the sides:

Unfortunately all this sewing activity has made little noticeable difference to the amount of stuff in my sewing room and hasn't reduced my stash any, but I just can't bear to waste textiles knowing how energy is embodied in each piece, even the crappy bits.  So to get a bit more wear out of some fabric in a different way makes me happy!