Michele's
Art
&
Apparel
Where talent, imagination and caring come together to help you look great.
​
​
new
New Items on this page.
Fixed UP Fashions
Sweater Fixed UP
"Art & Apparel" in my business name does tell you that I'll be bringing out different ideas in fashion.
​
Fully intending to showcase ideas on existing clothing items or to show how a repair job can look cute or intentional - FATE stepped in and a 'mouse mishap' on my plain yet fully functioning cardigan started me up on this project and this page. So here we are.
A mouse chewed holes here and there and that's why the patches are where they are.
This is the same area. As you can see why the patch had to be covering such a large area. Yep, the other side, too.
The button area just lent itself to wanting a continuation of getting all gussied up, too.
​
Scroll down to see the whole of the fixin's.
These are the patches on the sleeve of the sweater. The sleeve got chewed up by a mouse as well as the bottom of the sweater. I really got a kick out of the funkiness of the possibilities and outcome of this part. Why not be fun??
The smaller patch. I had windows in mind when I made this. And all these elements seemed to be a part of the before and after story; nature took and nature prevails.
The buttonhole and button area of the sweater (cardigan).
Here's my opportunity to be clever with the area. The little blue button is probably going to be left in this placement. It CAN BE PULLED BACK and be held back with the stitching (basically a longer shank of thread) if the cardigan needs to be buttoned up with the original (other side) buttons (the brown buttons).
The buttons on this side are
the original (white) buttons. But I flipped them over to the more colorful side which I thought is the prettier side.
(2)
(1)
(1)
(2)
This is the little blue button that I added to the cardigan's buttonhole side. They are strictly decorative AND can be moved out of the way if the cardigan would be buttoned closed with the brown button in the usual way. The little blue button stays attached to the sweater but pulled backwards as an option.
Original button that actually will still close the cardigan. The opposite side is now showing instead of the white side. The shank (longer threads) is also now longer than originally so that buttoning the cardigan is easier than before.
A trail of flowers on the edging of the cardigan on the original button side.
....
Here is a close up of the first patch and the buttons. Yes, there are buttons on both sides of the opening. IF the cardigan needed to be buttoned up the little blue buttons (with the embroidery around them) can be flipped to the inside and that allows the original buttons do their usual part. I thought this was pretty clever.
​
How: the buttons are secured to the INSIDE area of the sweater with a longer threading "shank" to hold them in place and still holds them securely to the sweater for use.
In the works...
Buttons that can be moved out, held to the back and the button holes can hold the other side as usual, too.
The holes I had to work with...
If you can see the many areas the mouse got to it makes sense of why the patches had to be this size. Yeah, I could have just used a daisy or some other idea but I took this as an opportunity to use some pretty bits of fabric I have and see how this very basic cardigan can get a whole different look.
This is the same area; the hole and the hole covered over with the stabilizing patch.
Art & Apparel = artsy fashions. I will eventually get more of these types of items added to my site. Even jewelry, dolls in clothes that I've made, more hats (one being made now is using Hair pin lace) and a lamp shade.
​
But, please understand...I do alterations for customers and they come first. I don't have the customers final work posted BECAUSE they don't send me pictures of their weddings and I won't post anything sent to me for business purposes. Privacy comes first. I'm here to serve and boy, do I help, yes. But I believe my own work shows what I do and I don't insist on anything else.
And the mouse got to this, too.
What a cute blouse, right? And the hole is in the back of it so to fix it Could be Done, yeah, but, I figured I
would rather use the cutest elements and just combine the unfortunate pieces and give a renewal to both.
​
Even the fabric and the tie of the blouse are just fabulous, if you ask me.
​
I reuse fabrics constantly. The patches background fabrics are just THAT; an upholstery fabric (the striped) and a piece of fabric from a Chindi rug (that I purposely buy simply to reuse all those gorgeous under appreciated fabrics).
