I seriously cannot overstate just HOW difficult it has been to arrive at this decision! There has been so much creativity and ingenuity that I wish I had a multitude of prize packages to give away! There is a caveat to this. Which you’ll come to further down. But for now…without further ado…meet this years winner of The Refashioners 2015 “Get Shirty” Community Challenge….

Mirjam Liechti

When I first saw these trousers my jaw literally dropped. When you have lots of fabric to work with there’s a degree of flexibility in what you can do. Margin for error too. But to eek a pair of trousers out of a shirt; with all the fitting nuances we all know are involved? Well that requires gutsy vision, precision and a whole different kind of creativity…

The way in which Mirjam has retained the original essence of this shirt and her use of practically every last piece in details like the ankle cuffs (the original shirt cuffs) and the matching braces and button tabs is super clever. But it’s subtle too. What’s more, I get the sense that this really is a reflection of her style and personal aesthetic; which surely is one of the best kinds of motivation for refashioning and sewing our own clothes!

This was Mirjam’s first make for The Refashioners. Again, clever but subtle reuse of the cuffs at the waistband. And here’s the kicker…Mirjam is a beginner sewer! Having taken up sewing little more than a year ago Mirjam says she has discovered her passion. So much so that she has given up a career as a qualified teacher (!) to work part time in sales so she can attend the Swiss College of Textiles where she started a month ago and will be training for the next two years. All of which ramps up just how impressive this is and for me, is indicative of someone who has a natural talent for creative sewing that should surely be encouraged. She has pretty much promised me that she is going to start a blog in the not too distant future (I for one shall be following that with interest! One to watch I’d say. You know when you get the sense you could be witnessing the start of something awesome?  That’s what my gut tells me about this lady!) But in the meantime…you can keep up with Mirjam here 🙂

And now for that caveat!

Lisa Poblenz

Lisa blogs over at Pattern & Branch and for a long time I literally could not decide between these two. This make by Lisa is SERIOUSLY awesome, involved a lot of work on her part and is deserving of some recognition. You should go check out the process. Seriously!

I promoted this community challenge as having one prize package and one winner. And I felt I should honour that. But had I had two prize packages to award, this would have been it. So with Mirjam’s permission I peeled off a little something from that immense prize package for Lisa; and she will be receiving the trio of Megan Nielsen patterns. Seriously. Awesome. Skills.

So that’s that. All of these awesome prizes (bar the caveat above) will be winging their way to Mirjam very shortly…..

And that rounds up this years series of The Refashioners. It’s been so amazing. The blogger challenge was phenomenal and just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, in comes the community challenge and blows us all away again! The community challenge will now become a permanent element of The Refashioners series, and yes, I’m already putting together the bones of next year’s series! ( we’re gonna need more prize packages). I think it’s fair to say that men’s wardrobes/closets are a little less safe today than they were a few weeks ago…sorry chaps! (Not!) Please please please keep refashioning and looking at the fabric that you have at your fingertips before consigning it to landfill or abandonment 😉 Until next year people, this is The Refashioners 2015….signing off.