There’s an annual Instagram challenge that I really enjoy and I managed to get a bit carried away this year! It’s called Refebulous and it has three categories.

Participants can choose any or all of the categories, so I decided to do them all – you expect nothing less, I’m sure!

I began the challenge with a large box of scraps to be reused, a tee shirt of Mark’s to be repaired – again, a towel to refashion into a hair wrap and an old shirt to be refashioned.

I thought I’d start with the hair wrap, on the grounds that it’s easiest and I needed it urgently. The towel I chose was too small, so a hunt through the towel pile threw up one from the Port to Pub swim in 2018. I managed to get three wraps from it, so I now have hair wraps for every occasion.

I made mine from a pattern I rubbed off a ready to wear one, but My Golden Thimble has a pattern you can download, which looks almost identical. I did add a scrap of elastic to the very back so it hugs my head a little better. . I then tackled the repair section, which was fixing a large hole in Mark’s tee shirt, which I have previously repaired. I zigzagged over the tears (finding several), reinforcing behind with interfacing.

Something went terribly wrong when I sewed on the patch and I finished up with a very misshapen section. I couldn’t face unpicking it, instead cutting off the patch and resewing it. I left the original strip of sewing…

The patch came out of my box of scraps – it was basically the first piece of knit that I pulled out. There were lots of small holes and I cut some of the little animals out and sewed them over. Mark is truly delighted with this tee shirt, declaring it to be a collector’s item!

I turned to the shirt refashion next, only to discover that the shirt I had filched (from Mark’s gardening shirt stash) was too small. I had a bit of a rummage and found one given to me by a friend. It had belonged to her son and it was in pretty good shape. I removed the sleeves and unpicked the side seams and hacked the pattern so it would accommodate the yoke and the collar. It was a fiddle. I used my Pattern Union Cora Blouse pattern, which seems to work for everything.

I tried it on and decided that I couldn’t live with that big collar.

I just rounded the collar off and bound it with navy bias binding to match the other accents in the shirt.

The only thing I did to the sleeves was to reduce the length.

I left them a tad too long, but this was a happy accident as I turned up the cuffs, which looks nice.

I had surprisingly few scraps left over, including three buttons as one of the buttons was broken – perhaps that’s why the shirt was discarded?

I’m still undecided about the collar, as the collar stand is quite high, but will wear it a few times before I decide to refashion my refashion!

The shirt is worn here with my new Linear Leggings from Pattern Scissors Cloth. It goes so well with white, skinny legged trousers.

In that large box of scraps was a child’s doona cover which I decided to refashion into a toy box. I really like soft toy boxes but I wanted a biggish one. I cut the outside from one side of the cover, the inside from the other side, and used some strange floor substrate that we’d found in a neighbour’s skip for the wadding. There is a removable layer and it’s foam underneath. It really gives the toy box structure, so I’m rather pleased with it.

I cut it all out and decided to quilt the outside to the foam substrate. The quilting did not quite go to plan. It was perfect on one side, but I managed to get wrinkles on the other. Unpicking ensued.

I got it all together and decided I didn’t like the pink border from the inside, against the outside.

This meant a rethink of the design. I unpicked the inside, created a new band from a strip of the doona border with the foam inside. I sewed this to the top and folded it over. Exactly what I wanted!

This also made the toy box a bit taller, which suited me fine. It holds a lot of toys, including some my mother made for my boys. You’ll probably recognise some of these toys.

The last activity for this challenge involved learning a new skill. I did an online rug making course with Ilka White and set about making a rug or two. I fully expected to use all the fabric in that bin, but the reality is that I’ve hardly made a dent in it.

My first rug is for next to my bed in the Airstream. It’s a long, narrow space, so I tried to make a long, narrow rug, but didn’t quite make it as long as I wanted. It will still be nice to stand on in the winter though.

I also made one for the doorway of the Airstream. This one gets pretty dirty as I’m the only person who seems to take my shoes off before I go in! This photo was taken at home as it has just been washed. Very thoroughly. It stands up well to the washing machine

My last one is still a work in progress. Also for the Airstream, but this one is round. I have quite a long way to go with this one, but feel as though my technique is improving. I’m trying to weave a pattern in, but it’s pretty subtle.

So that’s Refebulous for another year. I did win a prize in week two and am very grateful to the sponsors, Beletoile.com and Verhees Textiles. Thank you also to Liesl, who hosts the challenge and does a huge amount of work in the background.