Tshirt DIY: Boxy to Foxy!

Today is a t-shirt refashion!

(Can you tell I'm doing the simple stuff right now? It's TOO HOT to be stuck in front of the sewing machine for hours!)

I started with this old tshirt from college.

Regular old tshirt!

But its got a cool design on it - it should be cooler, to match!

I started by chopping the sleeves off, right next to the hem.

Snip carefully!

Then I turned it inside out, layed a shirt that fits well over top, and pinned up the sides.

So much easier than trying to pin it while you're wearing it. I seriously need a mannequin.

Yay, pins!

And ran it through the machine!

I just reverse-stitched at each end, so I didn't bother to tie the strings. Laaazy....

The neck is where I wanted to get fancy. I started by chopping off the original collar.

Bye-bye, annoying tag!

And then I took inspiration from a pinterest tutorial (which I can't find right now - sorry!!), and began to make incisions!

All the way around the neck!

My holes started off too small, actually, and I had to resnip them to about 1-1.5" long before it worked well.

We're faux-braiding the collar!

You start by taking the second strip,

This one here

And pulling it through the first hole, like so.

Puuuull!

Then you take the next one and put it through your new loop, and continue to do that all the way around! I decided I liked the look, and made more cuts along the back of the shirt.

Bigger, this time! This length works MUCH better!

Now when you're done hooking loops together, you've got a faux-braid around your collar! But how to finish it off? This is what I did;

This is the last strip I had, right on the seam.

I snipped the tiny bits attaching it, so it was a separate strip

I pulled it through the last remaining loop. . .

And here I'm indicating the start of the whole braid, the very first hole. I stuck it through that.

Once it was through that last hole, I just hand-sewed it in place with a few quick loops.

And that's it!

Ta-dah!

Now I've got a cute, sleeveless/cap-sleeve shirt with a braided collar! And the faux-braiding did some gathering/ruching all on its own, which I think looks rather lovely.

And I like that I left the bottom a little more flowy. Comfy!

And if you're liking the dragon on that shirt, you should know it was designed by my old roommate! She's a graphic designer and webcomic artist; go check out her webcomic, Wake The Sleepers!

That's all for today - time for me to go sit in front of the fan again!

<3

Refashion your work space!

You may have noticed from reading this blog that I'm not a perfectionist. Not even a little bit. 

I can tend towards being a bit slap-dash.

My motto is "It'll be fiiiiine!"

Unfortunately, this seeps over into our living and work space. Oops.

This is fine . . . right? Right, honey?

My sewing table (and scraps, sewing box, stuff to refashion, etc.) is all stuffed in the corner of our bedroom. My incredibly patient husband has not said ONE WORD about cleaning or organizing any of this mess!

I tend to organize in piles. I know where it is, so that's what matters, right?

But this nonsense has gone on long enough. If you look closely at that picture, you can see that I've actually got three (yes, three) projects all piled by the sewing machine. That box is absolutely overflowing with clothes to refashion, and it's stacked right on top of all my scraps, which are stacked on top of the sewing machine's box.

AAAAGH.

Well, blessings upon blessings, we were picking up a bookcase someone was giving away, and she also had some other things free for the taking. There was a . . . what do you call a bookcase for CDs? A CDcase? Tower de CDs?

There was one of those. And I thought, "YES! I can finally organize all that junk!"

It didn't fit in the car. But then Fabulous Husband made it work by rolling down the window and sticking it partially out, so it could juuust fit! Yay!

So today I turned several fans on, all pointing in my direction (we haven't turned on our AC yet.... >_>), and got to work. And here is the end result!

Yessss!

I feel like I can breathe now! The extra projects are hanging neatly in the closet (and the box to be refashioned is stacked in there). I'm going to try to only work on one thing at a time until it's FINISHED. I hear that's a popular way to do things . . .

Phew!

. . . Now I just have to keep it this way. :P

<3

HopeCycle Refashions: Why Bother?

HopeCycle Refashions has been in operation for about 4 months now (woohoo! Go us!), with a bunch of items in the etsy store ready to be sold, and plenty more items in the creation stage!

Items like this fabulous skirt and string scarf!

But there's a problem. I'm not creating these to make money for myself. I'm creating them so that their profit can be donated to charities, for a very worthy cause! So there's two sides to HopeCycle; mine and yours!

But why should you bother to buy anything from HopeCycle? If you wanted to donate your hard-earned money to fight Sex Trafficking in America, why not just donate straight to the charities, instead of going through HopeCycle?

Well, you could do that. In fact, go ahead! More power to you!

Buuuuuuut . . . . 

Will you?

Or is it helpful to have an incentive - like getting a fun, wearable product back in return?

Like this super cute top? $20!

Or these fabulous and fierce pants? $20!

Or this incredibly classy skirt? $35!

Or maybe you don't care one way or the other about donating money right now. Maybe you just like shopping online!

So let's talk, shall we?

What would be a product you would be interested in? Would it be easier to buy a dress or other clothing item if there were exact measurements, rather than generic sizes? Are you just waiting for something actually in your size to come along?

I'd love to hear from you! Comment here or on facebook - let's work together to do our part in fighting Sex Trafficking in America! Every little bit counts!

<3

Knit sleeves: Too-tight to Just Right DIY!

Today's refashion is super quick and easy! (Seriously. Like fifteen minutes, tops.)

I started off with this long-sleeved v-neck.

Gack! My arms are being strangled! It's making the whole top fit weird!

Now the rest of the shirt fit just fine! But those sleeves HAD to go - never mind that it's 90 degrees outside, I couldn't move my arms!

That was fixed with two easy snips!

Buh-bye!

You'll notice I left little cap sleeves on there. I could've left it like that and been done! (That would've been a 1 minute refashion, ya'll.)
But I was inspired by this tutorial, and had to make those sleeves a little fancier!

All you do is use a zigzag stitch across the raw edge of the material, pulling it tight while it feeds through.

Easiest hem ever!

And ta-dah! Lettuce hems!

Look how cute we are!

And there you have it!

Cute and breathable!

Now go forth and do this to all your old long-sleeve shirts!

Simple, no?
I'd love to hear about your simple refashions! How have you saved clothes from being thrown away by refashioning?

Much love to you all! <3

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DIY Tunic Experiment #2!

Apparently I can't get away from silky tunics this summer! The first experiment was the light blue, ribbon-tied tunic. Having a taste of tunic-making, when I stumbled across this tunic pattern by Anna Maria Horner, I couldn't resist trying it!

Looks easy, right??

If I'd done exactly that, it would've been really easy, I'm sure. Let's see!

I hunted through my stash for a scrap large enough to try this with. I almost gave up until I stumbled across the bottom scrap from the Purple Roses refashion!

Which started like this...

and ended like this! But what about that bottom half of the skirt?

So the leftover skirt is what I had to work with today!

but not this side!

It's a double-sided skirt! And I wanted the thinner, darker lining.

Eggplanty!

And I chopped them apart!

Chop!

Then I picked out one of the seams so I had one long piece of material.

It was longer than I expected!

Now, I'd seen the tunic tutorial above on pinterest, and had sort of memorized it, but wasn't looking at it  while doing this . . . or I would have realized that it wasn't going to turn out the same way. Oh well! :D

I took that center seam and picked it open just in the middle, as a hole for my head.

And then it was time to put it on and pin it!

Safety pins make getting in and out of a garment you're fitting WAY easier . . . and less painful!

It was about this time that I realized my tunic would be funny-shaped, since my material was vaguely C-shaped. So I decided to gather it on one side!

We don't have a full length mirror . . . so this is me, standing on the toilet. Ya do whatcha gotta do.

I gathered both the front and the back on the same side.

See that flat bit?

Pinch and gather!

And then pin!

Once the gathering was pinned, it was time to finish my edges.

Rolled hems for the sleeves and neck!

And sew it up with a zigzag stitch in light purple thread!

So many safety pins.

The rest of the bottom/skirt-bit needed rolled hems as well!

Pinnnnnns

The gathered material needed to be hand-sewn, as it was too thick for my  machine.

Very talented one-handed seamstress.

After that it was just two quick straight-stitches for the side seams, and . . .

Voila!

This tunic is really comfy, silky, and very unique! I failed to take a good picture of the gathered side, but I'll have to do that soon!

So far, two refashions out of one dress - and there's material left still! What shall I do next? ;)

'Til next time! <3