Refashioning: Making Clothing More Functional - Dress into a Skirt (Method 3)

I have done two "Dresses into Skirts" blogs using two different methods. (You can find them here and a NO SEW method here.) Today, I am going to show you a third method. 

I did it with the sleeveless dress below. This dress makes me think of the Portlandia sketch, "Put a Bird on It!"

Okay, so up close we can see a waste band that is similar to the "No Sew" waistband from my prior blog post, with one significant difference. The "finished" portion, instead of being at the top of the waistband, is actually at the bottom of the waist band. That means if we want a finished edge, we will have to cut off the skirt portion and wear the bodice as a top. Well, the bodice is the part that I'm not thrilled about, so this post is about how to make a dress with this particular waistband situation into a skirt.

I got out my trusty pinking shears and cut above the waistband and into the bodice about 2 inches or so. I wasn't careful, because this part doesn't matter. I just needed to remove most of the bodice.

So then, what I did was to fold the 2" portion to the inside. This is looking at it from the front. . .

. . .and this is looking at it from the back.

With the 2" seam folded to the back, I tacked the waistband down with the needle sticking into the fabric. I used a straight stitch.

Then, I gently pulled the elastic flat and continued stitching in the ditch just under the elastic.

When, I was done, my stitches were almost invisible. . .to the untrained eye. . .

I didn't bother trimming the excess off, but you can if you want. I suggest using pinking shears so you don't have to worry about the fabric fraying.

The End!

Refashioning: Making Clothing More Functional - Fixing a Weird Trend

Sometimes, you find an item at the thrift store and you go, "Now that trend must've lasted about five minutes!" That's how I felt about this dress. From the front it's super Minnie Mouse cute. . .

. . .but from the back, it makes you go, "Crap!" and put it back on the rack, because. . .you can't wear a bra with it!

Fortunately, it's a simple fix.

The first step was to cut the twisted part down the center. To do this, I worked the fabric so that I could fold the bottom of the twist in half like this:

Then, I made a small cut in the fold.

Then, I worked the top part of the twist and folded it in half like this:

And I made a small cut in that fold. (I'm pointing at it).

Then, I worked the fabric so that I was looking at the untwisted band, flat, with my two cuts.

And I cut down the middle.

This cut allowed the twist to lie flat.

I sewed up the middle. Still a problem, because of that hole. If you don't mind the hole, you are done here, but I didn't want my bra to show.

I found a piece of fabric that was slightly larger than the hole.

I pinned it to the inside of the dress around the hole.

And I stitched it up. 

You may like the "before" look better than my fix. It's seriously a preference thing. Anyways, I hope it gives you an idea!

The End!

Refashioning: Fixing a Neckline

I'm pretty sure I've blogged about ways to take up necklines that are too low, but I can't seem to find them. . .Anyways, here is another way.

You might think that to shorten a neckline, you would have to either add a panel of fabric to the lowest part (too homeschool-looking), or take up the shoulder seam (which can alter the shirt too significantly). Both of those would work, but I did something different.

Look at the picture below. I like the style of the shirt, but my chest is a lot higher than the person for whom this shirt was evidently made.

You can really tell it in this picture where the "V" drops almost between the two breasts. I don't like having to wear tank tops under things like this, so I decided to fix the problem.

Disclaimer: if your arms are very wide, you may not be able to do this fix, because it does shorten the arm hole. I have scrawny arms, so it works for me.

The first thing I did was to put the shirt on my dress form inside out. Then I pinched about 3/4" from the "epaulette seam." (I don't know what to call this seam. It's not the shoulder seam because that is on the top of the shoulders. . .It's not really epaulettes, but. . .You get the idea from the picture.)

Okay, one thing to remember about this is that the top portion is going to be shorter than the bottom portion. See those vertical pins? I had to put a little pleat in the bottom portion in order for the top and bottom to meet flush. You know what. . .look at the next picture. . .

It's a lot easier to see what I'm talking about from the other side here. See those pleats running vertically from the shoulders down? The bottom portion is wider, so it needed little pleats, which is great, because that look is in style.

Then, all I did was to use a straight stitch and stitch up my pinched folds.

I could have ended here, but the sleeve looks kinda funny and I wanted it to lie flat.

So, I top-stitched the seams I made.

Then, with pinking shears, I cut off the excess from the inside.

Here, I put the new alterations next to the original pictures so you could see the difference. 

 You never knew a fix could be that simple, did you!?

The End!

Refashioning: Adding Graphics to a Sweater

You may or may not remember this post, where I merged a gorgeous tiger graphic from an old ratty crop top to the front of a dress. Anyways, I had taken the pictures with my phone and wasn't able to comment in between the pictures, so I've been kinda feeling like I needed to re-blog this method. That, and the fact that I really like this method and have done it a few times since that last post, I decided to re-show this same process using different clothing items.

Here is a black sweatshirt that I really like, but I have lots of black shirts, so I was willing to let it get embellished. (Disregard the clothing hanging behind it. These are not the droids you are looking for...)

I found this super cute sequin heart smiley face off the dollar rack, but as you can see. . .it's on a shirt I would NEVER wear.

Harvest time! (3/4" seam around it).

I ironed it on the wrong side to make sure it was flat.

Then, I folded the sweatshirt in half and put pins down the fold to delineate the middle.

Then, I lined up the points of the heart with the pins, folded one side of the heart over and sprayed the back with adhesive spray.

I repeated the spraying on the other half of the heart.

The purpose of spraying the graphic with spray adhesive is so that the graphic will stay in place. You could also use fusible iron-on backing. . .in which case, you may not even have to sew anything once the graphic has been ironed on. . .but I HAVE a sewing machine and spray adhesive, so. . .Why buy something extra?

Even though the graphic was stuck on, I still pinned it in place, because sometimes the fabric stretches funny and pins help that problem.

If you are doing the sewing method, this is where things may get tricky in your head, because if a shirt is already sewn together, how are you going to get the machine inside the shirt so the graphic can get sewn on properly? Like. . .it would be super easy if the shirt weren't sewn together yet. You would just sew the graphic onto the front piece of the shirt and then sew the shirt together. However, you can't do that when the shirt is already sewn together, unless you take it apart. 

Don't worry. . .it's going to take a little finagling. . .but don't worry. You don't have to take anything apart. This is why spray adhesive is so helpful: The graphic will stick to the clothing all during this squishing and pushing process so you don't have to worry too much.

Remember, you have two holes to work with: the neck hole and the bottom seam. 

Set your machine to a zig-zag stitch and put your machine as far back through the neck hole as you can manage. Then sew forward around your graphic, removing pins as you go, as far forward as you can. Cut your threads and remove your shirt from the machine.

Then, put your machine through the bottom hem as far back as you can go. (You should meet up with the last stitches you had made through the neck hole). Continue sewing forward until you meet up with the first stitches you made through the neck hole. Cut your threads and you're done!

You can see that all the seams of the actual sweatshirt are raw and unfinished, so I didn't even bother trimming the excess off around the heart.

Here is another project I did the same way. I took an adorable sequin heart off a nasty T-shirt and sewed it onto a nice, black sweater!

If you are worried about the graphic pillowing out from your garment (because the spray adhesive is going to wash out eventually), you can take a needle and thread and tack it down somewhere in the middle. Only one or two stitches are needed.

The seams on this sweater are all finished, so I did trim around the outer part of the heart, just to clean it up a bit.

The End!