Dyed and Gone to Heaven: Mottainai

There is a Japanese term - Mottainai which sort of means - Too good to waste, reuse, recycle or conveying a sense of regret concerning waste. I am very conscious of it and determined to embrace it when I can.
I have some Thai silk Jackets which have sat in my wardrobe for far too many years. Every time I went to wear them I changed my mind - the boxy shape, shoulders out to there, not this time.
But the fabric was beautiful - patchwork silk - I just couldn't throw them away. With my newfound interest in dressmaking and consciousness of reuse and recycle I decided to do something about it.

I actually have four jackets but decided to attack the blue ones first.

So out came the unpicker and they were actually quite easy to unpick.

However the problem was that the seams were all raw and very easily frayed. So I did put the project away for a while.

But I persevered and once everything was broken down into component parts I had some lovely sections of fabric but I decided the two sets of fabric didn't really go together so just decided to use one.

I didn't really leave enough in large enough pieces for the pattern requirements so I did a bit more patchwork

The pockets were fine so I unpicked them carefully

Once I had large enough pieces I fused them to Wisperweft interfacing. It is sort of knitted and quite soft and fusible and I just happened to have a bolt of it (for the last too many years) and it was perfect.

I used the Tessuti Ola Tunic pattern which I have used twice before but was very brave and decided to do a facing neckline rather than the patterns bound one. So brave aren't I?

I also had a bolt of black cotton which I bought recently for $2 per metre which was a perfect weight for the contrasting pieces.

So here is the finished tunic. I am very proud of myself (in case you hadn't noticed). You can't really see them but I also wearing the black pants made from the same $2 fabric.