Upcycled Fashion: Flash & Trash Fashion Show

At school, we have a show called "Flash & Trash" during the fall semester.
The goal is to use unconventional materials to make clothes. For me, the whole goal of this was to reuse material, to up-cycle them.
I went for one of the most obvious one. The shopping bags. I don't know how people do in other states, but here in Texas, they still give us plastic or paper bags when we go grocery shopping. Coming from France where they stopped doing so to lower the amount of trash, I usually either bring mines or reuse them as trash bags. But I always have plenty of them.
So it fits perfectly with my vision of this show.
Here is the dress I made:

All the white are plastic bags, while the purple are dyed paper bags. I also used cardboards from cereals boxes to make the under-structure (petticoat and boning) as well as muslin for the lining of the bustier. Actually, even the muslin is recycled as those are pieces of gingham previously used for draping.
For the techniques used, I waived plastic bags, hand and machine sewed and stapled (petticoat).

And I love the final result.
The model is my friend Faye. She was really gorgeous and awesome.
Faye, thank you sooo much!

Well, if I could change something, I would remove the bows on the skirt. I added them at the last minute 'cause I was afraid it would not be "enough" for this show. But I'm not fond of them.
On the other hand, I love the bolero and the purse!

A tiny mosaic of all the looks for the show:

Let's finish with some pictures of the steps.
Here is the drying of the dyed papers, as well as the bustier and its lining:

And there, the waiving of the plastic bags for the hand bag. It was fun but soooo long to do.
Only the hand sewing of everyplastic square of the bolero was as long as the waiving. I'm glad I could do both watching TV!
But hey, they both really worth it!

Capri pants & Bolero jacket

For the class I love to call "sewing 2", after the shorts we had to make capri pants.
I decided to use a plaid fabric I bought at the school fabric sale.
Since I didn't like the cut of the previously made short (it was ridiculously big for a size 8 and the waist was sooo high!), I changed this one. I lowered the waist under the natural waist, made it smaller and adjusted it for me.

It fits me perfectly. I'm so proud for that! It wasn't that easy and matching the plaid at the same time was kind of a pain in the a**. Well, that was the 1st time, so I guess I had to expect it, but I love challenges!
I love it and my colleagues even told me it looks like a Vivienne Westwood piece (yeah, plaid....)

The bolero jacket was for the same class. It's fully lined. I used a linen I dyed - yes, again trying to dye in black and I'm getting better!

It doesn't look bad with the capri pants, but it's boring. I'm not sure I'm ever gonna wear that... and my friends know I love boring clothes!

Turtleneck

After the legging, we had to make a turtleneck. The teacher gave us a pattern but we had to change the neck. So here is what I did:

The fabric is the same I used for the legging.

It's a really nice sweater to stay comfy at home or, assorted with the legging, to go to the gym.
I love how simple it is and all the possible changes I could make for the next ones: silhouette, neckline, pockets...
I still have plenty of this fabric (about 6 yards I think... or maybe 10!) so I will have to do some more and try to dye it again!

Legging: my 1st time with knits

This legging was the first project for the knitwear class. The goal was to start threading and using a serger (a merrow machine, if you will), play with elastic and elastic thread and see which stiches were working on the sewing machine for knits.

The fabric was initially the light blue of the side tuxedo stripe. But I wanted black! So I unsuccessfully dyed it. I'm still not good with the amount of dye I need to use, as you can see it's not even a navy blue! But well, I like the color and both blues look great together IMO.
I'm gonna wear this legging for yoga!