Holly of all trades: upcycle

Showing posts with label upcycle. Show all posts

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Holey Polo to Sweet Bolero!

Ever have that cute dress or top that needs a simple cover-up, but all your cardigans and boleros are either too hot, or too formal?

Then I've got the tutorial you've been waiting for ;)

I started out with this simple grey polo.

Seems fine, right? Why refashion it?

Holes galore! Eek!

Don't be too quick to throw out items that have a few holes! If they aren't reparable, you can still use the non-holey parts to make something else!

I chopped off the bottom of the shirt, right under that pocket. Holes begone!

Then I pulled out my trusty seam ripper!


Picked out all the stitches holding the button and button-hole sides together...

And then just snipped through the remaining bit of cloth!

Last thing is to finish the bottom edge.

If you pull on stretch or knit fabric while doing a zig-zag stitch over the edge, you'll get a pretty lettuce hem!

And that's it! Ta-dahhhh!

Comfy, casual bolero!

Wear it open or button it up!

So now you know! Don't throw away holey, old things you don't wear any more - keep them out of the landfill, and get something brand new to wear and use!

Thanks for reading!

Mwa!

Saturday, May 31, 2014

From Sundress to Bathing Suit! DIY Tutorial

Are you guys ready for summer yet??

I wasn't quite feeling it in this summer dress.

I'm a stretchy polyester dress!

But I knew just what I wanted to do with it!

I started by chopping off the halter part of the bodice.

Ker-snip!

And then the halter ties as well.

I'm coming to pieces!

Then I pinned down a top hem, and pinned a couple of cup forms in place.

Stolen from another refashion piece!

I hemmed the top . . .

Whirrrrr....

And then hand-stitched the cups onto the inside of the bodice.

Once that was done, I planned the bottom.

Snipped off the bottom black strip, and put down some comfy sleepwear shorts as a guide!

I matched some leftover material to the crotch section of the shorts, and cut out a piece of polyester and a piece of cotton (from an old tshirt)

Apparently cotton is good for hygiene purposes.

Then I cut a small section into the bottom, to match the crotch section in the shorts.

It's about 2-3 inches long and half an in wide.

Then I pinned the two crotch pieces together, and pinned that new double-layered piece to the slit in the skirt.

Before pinning, to show how curved the slit is

Both sides pinned, right sides together (pattern facing each other)

I did a straight seam all the way around, and then went back and sewed a zigzag on the sides of the crotch piece.

And for some reason, this picture won't turn right-side up. Sorry about that!

The last thing was hemming the bottom, sewing the sides to make it fitted, and sewing the straps on the top!

If you look closely, you can see the pins where I took it in.

And that's it!

Now, this is one refashion that won't be modeled by Yours Truly. But I can promise it's been pool-tested, and both works and fits great!

Now you can make one, too!

GUYS. I cannot tell you how stoked I am that this actually turned out! Now I don't have to spend forever searching for an affordable suit that I actually like! Woohoo!

Thanks for sticking with me! Mwa!

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

'Meh' to 'Marvelous!' t-shirt refashion!

How's your winter going? Ours is turning rather warm at the moment - no complaints here! And in honor of this spring-like weather, I bring you a summery t-shirt refashion!

I started out with this lovely donation here:

Howww shall I do eet?

Taking inspiration from Jillian over at Refashionista, I wanted to try turning a shirt into a skirt! Seems simple, yes?

I started by snipping off the collar.

Bye, itchy tag!

And then widened the opening by 1-2 inches on each side.

Eyeballing totally fine here.

I then pinned (forgot to photograph that step, sorry!!) and sewed a diagonal line up each side from an inch above the bottom up to the old shoulders.

Say "g'bye", sleeves!

I tried it on. There was actually a lot of trying on and fiddling at this point . . . and I finally gave in and realized it just wasn't going to work. Not as a skirt . . . too tight. (I'll save you the embarrassment of showing you the evidence :D)

This is why it's always good to let something rest when you're frustrated with working on it! I'm SO glad I didn't stop there and give up.

The next day I tried it back on and realized it made a really CUTE baby-doll shirt - it just needed straps!
Quick, get those sleeves you just chopped off!

Snip them free of the remains of the shirt, and then snip the sleeve open.

The original sleeve hem was going to be my strap, and the wide part the new cap-sleeve. It need hemming!

zig-zag stitch, and stretch the fabric as you go, and what do you get?

These super cute lettuce hems!

I ended up having to trim the sleeves back and needing to hem them AGAIN, but you get the idea.

I tried it on and pinned the new sleeves where they'd give me optimal coverage

And then sewed those buggers on!

Whrrrr!

The last little step was hand tacking the straps to the top of the shirt so there wouldn't be any weird floppy bits.

So that's the bottom of the sleeve/strap on the left, and I'm sewing it to the top of the shirt. Clear as mud?

And that's it! TADAHHH!

A nice long baby-doll!

Look how cute those new sleeves are!

And check out the back!

I'm rather proud of how this turned out! What do you think? Seems doable? I'd love to see your shirt refashions!

Mwa~!

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Dressy skirt to Dress-Skirt!

Happy new year, everybody!

It was my hope to have a fabulous Christmas/New Years refashion for you, but that dress is still in the works. (Maybe you'll see it by . . . St. Patrick's day.)

Today's refashion is quick and painless! I started off with this donated skirt:

Hmmm . . .

It's got a nice print, and I love the length (I'm all about the maxis!), but it needs some work before HopeCycle can have it's way with it!

If you look closely, you can see that the waistline isn't hemmed AT ALL at the top - fray city!

"help meee!"

The first thing I did was pull the stretchy inner lining out, like so;

And I cut out some arm holes!

That jaggedy edge up there . . . that's going to be an arm hole. Trust me.

The arm holes just needed a quick hemming.

With a zig zag stitch!

And the waist got itself a rolled hem to catch all those frays!

More zig-zagging!

And there you have it!

TA-DAH!

A dress with a cowl-neck!

Or a capelet!

Or a draped back!

Or pin it up into an empire-waist! (Pay no attention to my slip, there...)

The neckline options are endless! And in case you can't see the differences very well, here's some sketches to make it more clear.

These sketches use croquis from the Pocket Fashion Sketchbook (yay, Christmas presents!)

And what's great is, you still have the skirt, fully functional! Woohoo!

Thanks for sticking around guys! Mwa!

Monday, September 2, 2013

3 No-Sew Pillow Covers

Happy Labor Day!

I'm really excited about today. We aren't doing anything special (no cookouts, no parties, no chips and dip), but I actually have the day off.

The whole day off. From wake-up to bedtime. No work.

THIS NEVER HAPPENS.

So I made myself a scheduled list to get everything done! I'm already ahead, and loving it. :)

This project in particular, I'm really enjoying! What better way to fritter away your labor day than sprucing up your living room for FREE with clothes you already have, and no sewing required?

A weekend or so ago (before the hubster's semester started), we FINALLY got around to finishing painting our walls. They looked like this for the longest time;