Customize Your Glasses Frame’s Color! (Bonus Video: How to get glasses lenses back into their frames when they won’t fit!)

So I have a weirdly small face, and it's not easy for me to buy glasses at optician offices. I enjoy buying cheap glasses online from places like Zenni (click the link for $5 off) and Eyebuydirect (Click the link and enter: IFPGTPHSFC for $10 off!). You can find glasses for as little as $6.95 a pair including lenses!

(Many people complain that buying glasses online is too risky. All you need is a ruler that measures in centimeters to measure the width of your face, pupillary distance, and lense size. You also need your current prescription. Both of these websites let you virtually try on glasses before you buy.)

So...I have this thing...where I feel like I have to have everything in every color. So far, I have several pairs of glasses in several neutrals, red, blue, yellow, and purple. Then, I saw these orange ones on Eyebuydirect. On the site, they looked to be a very bold orange, but in reality they were more like a rusty brown:

You can see, they really read as brown when I wear them!

Well, that was disheartening, especially since I’d ordered two pairs!! (I work for VIPKid, and wanted orange glasses for teaching, and then one pair for wearing normally.) Well, since I’d ordered two pairs, I decided to search Pinterest for some ideas on how to change glasses frames’ colors. One blogger mentioned painting with nail polish. What a terrible idea!! The color was what I wanted, but look at all the terrible brush strokes!

Here you can see the brush strokes more clearly. Gross!

See how bad the nail polish looks on me? It just looks dirty. So annoying.

Okay, so the next part of the blog is some trial and error. If you are strapped for time, skip to the end. If you wanna see the entire thing, stick with me. (It won’t take long. Don’t worry.)

So, another blog suggested popping the lenses out and spray painting them. Okay, that is a dumb idea for several reasons: (1) I’ve spray painted things before, and it’s really hard to do in winter, because it’s cold and windy, and you can’t do it in your house because of the fumes and the potential mess. (2) Spray painting is fine for shoes and some clothing, because they are far enough away from people’s sight lines that an uneven coating isn’t too noticeable. Because glasses are on your face, the coating needs to be PERFECT or else it looks like trash and you will never wear them out of the house. Trust me. (3) There is no way to ensure that the inner ridge for your lenses stays clear of paint buildup. You need to be able to pop your lenses back in, right? You can try to tape off that inner ridge, but then your spray coating needs to be super super accurate. If you have ever spray painted anything before, you will know that this is a fool’s errand. There is a reason people use spray paint for big projects and not little ones like glasses. (4) Blog posts of glasses that have been spray painted look like crap. I know that sounds mean, but. . .I’m being honest.

Glasses are on your face, People. They need to be PERFECT. This is not time for arts and crafts!

So, what to do....

Then, I started searching synthetic dyes. I have dyed some of my clothing before with fabric dye. But I had no idea that there was such a thing as synthetic dye. I watched a few YouTube videos of guys who had dyed their frisbee golf frisbees with synthetic dye, so I thought. . .maybe that would work!

I found a dye called iDye Poly (from Amazon) in a bold orange color. The directions said to add the dye and the reactor (in the same package) to boiling water. I got an old pot (NOT USED FOR FOOD, OBVIOUSLY!!!), a packet of dye, a meat thermometer, and a small tub of cold water.

Make sure you’ve removed your lenses, before you start dying them!!

So, then I brought water and the dye to a boil.

The package said to keep the dye at 165 degrees, but a helpful YouTuber said to keep the water around 140 for thin plastic (so it won’t warp), dip it for a few seconds, rinse it in cold water, and then repeat until the color is what you want. 

I didn’t want to ruin my meat thermometer, so I measured the heat from underneath the pot.

So that’s what I did....dipping, and....

...rinsing....

I did that over and over for about 30 minutes, but the color still wasn’t where I wanted it, although, it became definitely bolder. This is probably due to the fact that I was dying on top of a translucent rust color. I should have started with a lighter orange, yellow, or even clear frames....oh well. 

Just to show you, I put the original photo underneath this one, so you could compare.

After:

Before:

And if you need to see them on my face, the first one is the before, the second is after. Even though, the color looks very different in the pictures above, you can see below that they still look brown on me (and when I wear brown, it really makes my nose stand out!!!).

Before:

After:

So....that was a frustrating waste of time. I was back at square one. I was going to give up, but then I started searching Zenni again and found these: orange and pink (because I’d been wanting some pink ones for a while too.)

This is what they looked like on me. I mean....they are okay, but...the color is so light that they kinda wash me out and age me.

So....third time’s the charm, right? I ordered some RIT DyeMore Synthetic dye (also from Amazon) in pink and orange.

I repeated the whole “dip and rinse” method that I had done above. The pink ones took about fifteen dips. The orange ones I dipped twice!

FINALLY! Colors I like!! And so professional looking! Also, notice that my face looks so much more proportional and in focus! Colors are important!

Before: (so you can compare)

And because sometimes, the dying process can shrink your frames a tiny bit, and your lenses may no longer fit.....

Bonus: Video on how to get lenses back into frames when they won’t fit!

The End!

De-Fashioning: Updating a Moto Jacket DIY

I haven't done a post in a while. This doesn't mean I have been sewing. It just means that I don't think to take pictures as I'm sewing!

So...I made sure to document this one.

Anyways....

You know how moto jackets used to look like this a few years ago? The double collar was huge. Not so much any more. Especially on this red jacket. I have small shoulders and the points and angles were just way too overwhelming.

So decided that I would tone it down a bit by taking out the neck part of the collar. I just went into the seam and ripped the whole seam out along the neck.

I took the neck collar out.

Then, I just pinned the neck seam back together and sewed it down.

Because the front flaps were top-stitched, I went ahead and top-stitched around the whole neck seam to make it uniform.

And, there you go! Really easy. I have to say the collar lays a lot better now, besides the fact that this is a more modern silhouette. 

Try this on that jacket that you have in your "give away" pile and see if it works for you! (Depending on how your jacket is constructed, you may be able to just cut the neck part out without taking the whole thing apart and resewing it!)

The End!

Re-fashioning: How to Integrate a Non-Stretchy Collar onto a Stretchy Dress

So...I'm not a huge fan of "swing" dresses (Think: Lularoe) because I am pear-shaped and they tend to make me look frumpy. However, I found one this past Christmas that fits me really well.

It gave me a silhouette idea to make a dress I'd had in my mind for awhile: To incorporate the collar of this dress tunic below into a different garment. It is one of those "cold shoulder" tunic/top/dresses that can't make up its mind as to what it is. Anyways, I really only ever bought it because of its collar. I hated the rest of it, and I wore it with white pants once, and it DESTROYED my pants! 

The dye came off!!! So annoying!

....Anyways, I digress...

Let's get to the actual project...

So I had this really cool graphic fabric based on the comic strip "Blondie." It is actually supposed to be for making stretchy book covers, but. . .I found it at a thrift store a few years ago, and I've been wanting to make a dress out of it for awhile.

So what I did was to fold the swing dress in half, fold the fabric in half (matching up the pattern on both sides with pins as I folded it in half--you'll find out why later), and laid the dress on top, smoothing all the wrinkles out.

I knew I didn't want the dress to be too long, but I wasn't sure how long it should be, so I cut the bottom hem out quite a bit longer than the swing dress. You can always take away later. You can NEVER add back!

Then, I cut around the rest of the dress with about 1/2" seam allowance.

Then, I did the same thing for the sleeves.

Okay, so my pieces are cut out here. The first order of "bid-ness" was to sew the shoulders together--But! As I have pointed out before from studying the inner workings of my other clothing: When fabric is particularly stretchy, clothing makers add a bit of elastic to the shoulders. This is to keep the shoulders from stretching way out of shape as the garment hangs off your body. REALLY IMPORTANT!!

So, I cut out pieces of elastic to fit the shoulder seams

And I went ahead and pinned the shoulders together along with the elastic so I could sew them together--as Marie Kondo would say--"in one fell swoop." (NOTE: Don't stretch the elastic here. Just sew it straight onto the shoulders.)

Go slowly. You really need to keep your wits about you when you sew stretchy fabric. Make sure your foot pressure is not too heavy, and imagine you are pushing the fabric through slightly. DON'T PULL ON THE FABRIC OR YOU WILL BE SO SO MAD WITH YOURSELF!!! 

(Use a blanket stitch if you don't have a serger.)

This is with the shoulders sewn together.

Okay, so this part I had to really think about...how was I going to integrate a not-so-stretchy collar onto an EXTREMELY stretchy dress.

Well...there is always more than one way to skin a cat, but...my motto is "Work smarter, not harder!"

So the first thing I did was to fold the collared dress in half--or at least the collar and zipper part. Now...it was REALLY IMPORTANT to keep the zipper intact with the collar b/c, while the dress was stretchy enough to pull on over my head, the collar opening was not! So...I would need the zipper intact to get in and out of the dress properly.

So, I cut the collar and zipper off the dress/tunic/shirt thing and made sure to leave about a 2" margin around it all. Remember...I had never done this before and was kind of learning as I was going...so if you do the same, you NEED to give yourself some WIDE margins in case you have to change something.

So then I laid the collar on top of the dress on my dressform. (NOTE: The next set of steps is almost literally IMPOSSIBLE to do if you don't have a dress form! You can't do it with the dress flat on the ground, b/c you need a body to hold the shape, and you can't use a real person's body b/c you will definitely stick them with pins! If you don't have a dressform, the only other thing I can think of is to safety-pin a pillow to the shoulders of a hanger--put a bra on it if you need too--and then hang your garments over that. Then, hang the hanger at shoulder level so you can work on it. 

Still, using a dressform is really the best way.)

Here is the back....(I took this picture b/c I was stalling for time...I still wasn't sure what to do.)

Okay, so then I pulled myself together and started folding the margin of the collar up, about an inch, and pinning it to the dress.

I continued around to the back. Okay...this is another reason why you need a dressform: Stretchy fabric stretches out as it hangs on the body, so you have to hang it on a body to make sure that the non-stretchy fabric will match it. This is kind of like...draping...a little bit.

Another note: You don't just pin willy-nilly. You constantly have to make sure that things on the top and underneath are flush and even. So take your time. It's better to unpin and repin something than to rip stitches out!!! (Oh Lord...I want to make that abundantly clear!!)

Also: This process is much easier BEFORE you put sleeves on so you can reach underneath and shift things that need shifting. I have the sides of the dress pinned in this picture to help me feel out the shape of the finished dress, but the only things actually sewn at this point are the shoulders.

So here it is all pinned down.

So, if that seemed like a lot of work, it was totally worth it, b/c now all you have to do is top stitch all around it in one step! This saves a ton of time, actually. 

(If you don't sew, you have no idea what I'm talking about...)

Not bad at all. Is it perfectly even? No. I can tell you where all the mistakes are. But you know what? Who cares! It's not worth taking the stitches out to redo it. (The picture above looks like the stitching is all stretched out, but it flattened out once the dress was finished.)

Okay, so now, all you have to do is open the zipper. . .

. . .And then cut the underneath fabric down the zipper. . .

. . .And cut away all the extra margin/seam allowance from inside.

Okay, the rest of the steps are pretty standard. . .Blahblahblah. . .You pin the sleeves on. . .

. . .and sew them down. . .

Then you pin from the inside of the cuff, up to the armpit, and then down the side to the bottom hem. Sew all this in one step.

Okay, here's a little trick: Remember how I said that I made sure the pattern of the fabric matched on both sides when it was folded? That was to make sure that I was cutting both the front and back of the dress out so that the stripes would match up on the sides....(Well...these aren't really stripes. They are actually just spaces between book covers...but for my purposes, they are stripes!). 

Anyways, as you are pinning your garment, pin the stripes together perpendicularly at the top of each stripe. Look at the picture below? See how that pin is perpendicular to the seam and runs along the top of the white stripe? I'm lifting the bottom of the stripe up, so you can see how the stripes meet.

Almost done! Just need to hem! Okay...here is yet another need for a dressform. I have it set to my measurements and to my height. See how something is a little off on proportion? This happens when you have a patterned dress that is long sleeved and has no waistline. Also, the collar is very high. All these elements cause the dress to seem a little frumpy. If the sleeves were shorter, the hemline might be okay where it is, but I want the dress to have the high collar and long sleeves. That means, I need to make the dress a bit shorter to stay out of Frumpsville!

This is precisely why I don't buy a lot of Lularoe. . .

In the meantime, see how nicely the stripes match up on the sides?

And even on the sleeves!

Okay, so at this point, I tried the dress on and played with the hemline till I saw what I wanted. I noted how short I wanted it to be and then laid the dress flat to pin it. Once again, I didn't just pin willy-nilly! For one thing, I made sure the back hem was 1/2" longer than the front (for "butt rise"), and I also measured the length from the armpits to the hemline on both sides to make sure everything was even. In other words...If I had measured up from the bottom--say...4"--the finished dress would have had a wonky hemline. It's better to measure from the top down, than bottom up, when you hem.

The finished dress.

Collar looks great!

Back looks good too!

The End!