Category Archives: clothing

Eeyore Grows Up

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I fell in love with this boxy, way too big for me v-neck t-shirt because of it’s lovely shades of lavender and Eeyore’s sad eyes staring out at the world.

Once again I forgot to take a before pic, but this one is the same shape.

 

This was a simple fix to take this shirt from frumpy adult who looked as if she was hanging onto her childhood way too long and make it over into a t-shirt that is both super cute and fantastically comfy. I know, I know Stacey and Clinton from TLC’s “What Not to Wear” would roll their eyes at describing any garment as comfortable but I really think this works both ends of the spectrum, fashionable AND comfortable.

First thing was to remove the collar. I cut it just below the stitching all the way around. Then I cut off the sleeve hems and bottom hem just above the stitching.

At this point I could have just tied it in a knot at my waist and called it a day, but I wanted to take this one a bit further. I found a Spandex lavender workout shirt that I will never EVER wear again (stop snickering!) and cut a horizontal tube six inches wide leaving the bottom hem intact so I could use it for the bottom hem on my new t-shirt. I slipped the tube on around my hips and since it had fit me well before I cut into it, it now fit snugly around my hips. Perfect!

I used chalk to mark both the bottom of the t-shirt and the top of the tube at the middle front, middle back and left and right sides. After pinning the bottom of the t-shirt to the top (cut side) of the lavender tube, right sides together, stretching the tube to match the marks on the t-shirt and so that the t-shirt was gathered to fit the circumference of the tube, I stitched it all together, put it on and fell in love.

t-shirt gathered to fit tube

 

 

view from the front

view from the side

 

I did try it on with Eeyore in front but I like the surprise of Eeyore on the back and felt that it looked a little more grown-up than entering a room with Eeyore greeting everyone.

I’m so happy with how this refashion turned out that I’ve been looking for oversize tops and coordinating Spandex shirts at garage sales ever since. I’ve made a few more and each one has turned out very different. For instance, I applied the same tactic to an over-sized see-through lace blouse which I wear over all sorts of cami’s and tank tops. I love that it pairs well with either jeans or a pencil skirt.

Tanktop Topper

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I have this collection of scarves which I can’t get rid of because they’re so beautiful, however not only do I not wear most of them, many of them I’ve NEVER worn. Egads! What was I thinking? I thought I’d start wearing scarves tied into chic headbands and around a ponytail, forgetting that I rarely actually wear a ponytail and that scarf headbands slip off my head before I can even leave the house. Yet still I kept buying these beautiful scarves and now I’m determined that I’m going to find ways to use them in my wardrobe. I started with an easy one, a medium sized square scarf.

I can't let all the beautiful detail in this scarf waste away in a closet.

I measured across my shoulders to get an idea how long a slit to cut into the scarf. Then I cut a slit. Note, I said SLIT. I didn’t arc the cut downwards as this is such a sheer scarf I wanted it to cover as much of my chestal region as possible. I liked how I thought that would look.

After putting my head through the slit and determining that I had cut it as much as I wanted I stitched two short rows of zig-zag stitches on either side of the scarf to create bat wing sleeves.

To finish the edge of neck opening I used a drawstring left over from a skirt I had refashioned. It was a very light weight silk so it would go well with this scarf. I didn’t use the entire drawstring. I just zig-zag stitched the drawstring to the edge of the neck opening all the way around and cut away the excess drawstring, saving it for another refashion.

Worn over halter top as a coverup.

This is perfect worn over either a wife-beater tank or a silk cami. I’ve even worn it over a halter dress when a backless dress wasn’t quite appropriate for where I was going. Because this scarf is so sheer I didn’t think that it would provide any warmth, but it does help a bit when a day turns chilly. I’ve also worn it as a scarf by inserting my head through the opening but not putting my arms through the sleeve openings. This style of scarf is much more modern that any way that I could have worn it as a simple square scarf.

 

Sweatshirt Makeover: Olympic Style Sweatshirt Turned Cardigan

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Sweatshirt makeovers are difficult for me. I love sweatshirts. They’re soft and warm and I really don’t want them to be anything other than something comfy to throw on over my top on a day turned chilly, but then I don’t want them to look like most sweatshirts tend to look, boring and/or frumpy.

Somehow or other this white Olympic style sweatshirt turned up in my clothing stash.

Go team!

 

I really don’t know where it came from. I know the progeny of each piece of clothing in my closet and refashioning stash came from but this one is a puzzle. I know I wouldn’t have bought it new and it turned up way before I started doing any garage sale trolling for my refashioning bug. Anyway, I never wore it but I kept it because I love how if fits and adore the sleeve detail.

Gorgeous!

 

First step was to bind the top of where I wanted the zipper to end up on the new top.

Step 1: Open the zipper. Stitch a bar tack by hand or machine over the teeth on both sides of the zipper, each side separately. In other words don’t stitch the zipper closed.

over and under

and across to build up the bulk of the tack so the zipper can't run over it

 

Hint: if you have a heavy gauge thread, use that and you’ll spend a lot less time working the bar tack.

Step 2: Cut off the excess zipper just above the bar tack, in between two of the zipper teeth.

Then I used a seam ripper to take the zipper out down to the top of the cumberbund-like waist and right at the point where I had bound the zipper. Spread fray check on the zipper bar tack and the zipper tape to prevent fraying.

waist band

 

I folded the front to the inside to create a deep v-neck. Since I wanted to be able to wear it open I finished the inside of the v-neck by folding it under once and then again and top-stitching it all down – AND DONE.

 

 

 

High-waisted Shorts Made Over

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I’ve been looking for shorts for the past two months and have not been able to find any that work for me. A trip to Old Navy with a Groupon yielded two pairs of shorts which have sat in their Old Navy bag for two weeks. Note to self: if you can’t even take them out of the bag then you’re not going to wear them this summer. Back to the mall! A cruise through Wet Seal was, well, discouraging. There just doesn’t seem to be much out there that falls anywhere between Daisy Dukes (which don’t cover much more than a bikini does) and matronly looking just-above-the-knee-elastic-waist-bermudas.

Then I remembered that I had a pair of shorts that I loved – except … they were leftovers from a time when high-waisted was the only thing around and now they looked more “Sierra Club hiker” than “Summer of 2011”.

Allright, this isn't me or my shorts, but they look just like the shorts I'm refashioning.

 

 

After my two discouraging mall trips I was determined to make these shorts work for me though. I should note that they are now too small for me even if I was okay with wearing them as high-waisted shorts. The rest of the shorts fit fine, but the waist was now too tight. I started by using a seam ripper to remove the waistband and the zipper. They fit better but were still too high-waisted. So I folded the waistband down towards the outside of the shorts and sewed it down creating a casing through which I slipped a stretchy shoe lace. I left the edge of the casing raw so that it would fray a bit and look deconstructed.

stretchy shoe lace = new drawstring

 

 

I didn’t need to replace the zipper with a shorter zipper as there’s a panel similar to that in boxer shorts that prevents me from flashing my undies, so I left everything as is other than adding a small velcro tab to hold everything in place.

little piece of velcro holding it all together

 

 

Now I have a pair of shorts that will be a wardrobe staple this summer and I didn’t pay a cent for them. Wish I had thought of this before I wasted all that time shopping for summer shorts.

 

The shorts I've been living in this summer!