49 Days to Go: Eleanor's NDAD Creation

OK, I'm utterly and totally obsessed with Eleanor's creation today.  I've used different fabrics and tied them into tops, but this is just brilliant!

I recently moved to South Africa from the UK and my sewing machine was sitting in a box being shipped for the last two months until I was reunited with it last week! I was so excited that I got to work straight away!  Sadly South Africa isn't really known for its charity shops (not that I've discovered yet anyway), but as I was unpacking boxes, I realised that I have a lot of things that I don't really wear as they are. One of them was a pashmina I was given as a gift from some girls I tutored, which they brought back from a trip to Pakistan. I LOVED the pashmina exactly as it was, but for some reason just never seemed to wear it.

New Dress A Day - DIY - E's Pashmina - 49

So I decided now was the time to set to work on it.

Let's see what Eleanor did!!

I cut it in half length-ways (the other half is still large enough to wear as a scarf, so even if this went horribly wrong I wouldn't have burnt my bridges entirely), folded the piece in half with right sides facing, sewed about half way up each side from the open end, hemmed, and then just sort of wrapped the top part round my neck.

New Dress A Day - DIY - Upcycled Pashmina - 49

After adding a couple of poppers at the neck and playing with the back to get the drape right, I'm really happy with the result!  I love that the neck still has a scarf-y kind of look to it so that you can tell that that's what it used to be.

New Dress A Day - DIY - Upcycled Pashmina - Back View - 49

The only problem were the tiny studs that were dotted all over the patterned part of the material – they broke 2 of my needles before I realised I needed to tackle it a bit more carefully!

New Dress A Day - DIY - Studs That Broke Eleanor's Needles - 49

I've been reading your blog for ages but have only just got round to attempting something - thanks for your creativity and inspiration!

Thank you for sharing your awesome piece Eleanor!  So perfect for the hot weather, but it would look rockin' underneath a fitted tux or blazer in the fall too.  I can't wait to rethink some of the pashminas in my collection now, thanks to you Miss E!!