Seriously, how was I meant to choose a winner this year?! SO many entries this year have blown my mind and given me the heart eyes. In the end though, there was one make that I just could not get out of my head. And when I sought feedback from those involved in this years series, the consensus confirmed my gut. I am beyond excited to present to you the overall winner of The Refashioners 2018. Ben…
This stunning gown inspired by House of Worth has been fashioned from a musky pair of curtains found in Oxfam. Self drafted and meticulous detail and hand sewing. Hours and hours have gone into this and I thoroughly encourage you to head over to Ben’s instagram account to see more gorgeous detail like this…
Of course, as always, it’s impossible to pick just one entry and leave it at that. And this entry from Charlotte is our second place winner for this year. A stunning recreation of the iconic Dior Bar suit. Made from a thrifted suit and skirt and….a fruit bowl!!
A portion of the main prize package has been separated for Charlotte to recognise this phenomenal creation. You can see more details here.
The sheer variety on display this year, both in terms of skill and creativity, has been phenomenal. So as a side from the main competition, I really wanted to recognise these two entries as well….
Naii Costura and Mouselline Patterns have shown such creativity and skill in these two makes that I wanted to recognise that too. So I have a little package of goodies courtesy of Mettler Threads and Fiskars UK to send to them.
So that’s it. The end of this year’s series! And…. it’s very likely, that this will be the last series of The Refashioners. It’s alot to organise, and part of me feels like we’ve achieved what we set out to do; and also that some things are best finished on a high….rather than milking the life out it until it becomes something….well…not so awesome as it is now. It’s possible The Refashioners may appear in a different guise. But, for now, I’m signing it off, and hoping…that over the past few years we’ve encouraged you to see refashioning in a new light and see old clothes as a sustainable resource for your sewing adventures!!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank every blogger that helped spread this message, every business that helped promote the cause through sponsoring prizes and most of all, every one of you that embraced this challenge and shared you skill and creativity with the wider sewing community.
Big love to you all!!
With thanks to our fabulous 2018 official sponsors below Keep Refashioning, kay?!!
Oh, thank you !!! I have no words! There were many fantastic entries and worthy to be here as well. Thank you very much for organizing this event this last year.
Gosh thank you for taking part!! I will be in touch shortly!
I can imagine how hard it must have been to select a winner and i totally agree that the ones you chose deserve their prizes! And I can also understand that you want to stop here while there have been amazing entries to various challenges.
I have the feeling that there is a change in the refashioning world. When I started exploring it, there was a big thing going on with many inspiring posts per day on sites like refashion-coop. Nowadays, there are only a few contributors left and what they are showing does mostly nothing to inspire me. Many bloggers turned from making as many things a s possible to curating their closets to achieve capsule wardrobes; sustainability and environment-friendly thinking seems more important than another thrift-store hack. Also I suppose that as sewers get more experienced, they are no longer happy with wonky seams and other compromises that you have to make sometimes during refashioning. This year, I entered a garment made out of leftovers (which might not have met the guidelines for the competition, but I didn’t expect to win anyway) instead of buying things especially for the challenge of which I would only have used a small portion, leaving the rest to catch dust in my sewing space.
So maybe there’s a new challenge in order: sew sustainable fashion which really makes sense. But it must not necessarily be you who hosts it – you can just as well lean back and relax, having achieved a lot with your competitions in the last years. Kudos to that!
Thanks for your thoughts. Really interesting and agree with much of it. This is partly the reason for me “retiring” The Refashioners in it’s current guise. Things are evolving and so are my own interests and motivations. Put it this way….I am not done with this subject…more feeling the need to approach it from a new angle and perspective. 😉
It’s been really inspiring. Thanks so much for all they love and time and effort you’ve put into this.
So inspiring lovely to see. thank you for your time and effort
Thank you for your kind words 🙂
Portia, the last few years of refashioners have been truly epic and the quality of the entries has been high – your denim coat still blows me away. I love to see Heather from Closet Case regularly wearing her sleeveless blazer in her outfit-of-the-day photos.
Bravo!
Ah, that’s lovely to hear! Thank you so much Naomi 🙂
Yours was the first blog that opened my eyes to using unworn or cast off clothing to make something new. So thanks for being so informative and inspirational. It’s been great fun to follow the Refashioners the last few years!
That’s so lovely to hear Janice. Thank you so much!