Category Archives: clothing

Drowning in Denim

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No Boundaries Basic Flare Jeans

I found a pair of $5 Walmart jeans which were too short, but since the plan was to cut them off into denim shorts I happily handed over my fiver. When I got home and looked into my shorts drawer I saw that I already had three pair of denim shorts. Wa-wa!

Getting dressed later I was wishing for a pair of white denim shorts when it hit me – bleach ’em. One hitch though – they’re made of 31% cotton, 54% ramie, 14% polyester and 1% spandex. I wrote to Dr. Laundry over at Clorox.com – which BTW is a great resource for all kinds of cleaning and laundry dilemmas – and this is her reply:

Hi Kat;

This is a great question. Because the fabric includes a small percentage of spandex, you should not wash the shorts with Clorox Regular-Bleach since it can cause yellowing of this fiber type. You could try Rit Color Remover (available at drug stores) to strip the color (I’m assuming the shorts are blue, although denim does come in a variety of colors) but it’s difficult to know how successful you will be at getting the shorts to turn white. A lot depends on what type of dye was used, and how well it was applied. Also, denim is made by weaving colored yarns with white yarns–if the polyester portion of the yarn is colored, Rit won’t likely strip that away. Testing a hidden part of the shorts first with a few drops of the Rit solution is a good idea to see what change you might expect from the treatment. If you decide to give the Rit a try, please let me know how it turns out, and thanks for writing.

–Dr. Laundry

I then asked Dr. Laundry if bluing might help with any yellowing – and here is her answer:

Hi Again–

That’s great that you have extra fabric from the cut-off pant legs that you can experiment with. I’m not sure how effective bluing would be at masking any yellowing that may result from stripping the color. Bluing imparts a faint blue color to fabric that is perceived as white–depending on how much yellowing there is and how concentrated the bluing solution is, I suppose you could end up with a slight green tint to the fabric! This is where having all that extra fabric to experiment with will be very helpful. I can’t wait to hear how it turns out. Be sure to take some pictures, too!

–Dr. Laundry

Luckily – since these were cut offs I have plenty of fabric to do a test run – or two – or three. I’ll do what it takes to get my white denim shorts. Of course if they don’t turn out I may end up dying them, but that’s Plan B and I haven’t even started on Plan A yet. So back to the bleach bucket.

Update: I bleached the heck out of those denims and they didn’t change color one little bit. The takeaway here? If you’re buying something that’s not a natural fiber don’t  expect to be able to rely on bleaching or dying to make any significant changes. Since I also realized that these jeans are not very soft and I’ve been avoiding wearing them the other takeaway here is that no amount of refashioning is going to make a stiff fabric soft. I’m not a denim tote bag sort of gal so these denims will be donated.

 

Green Silk Babydoll Top Gets a Grown Up Makeover

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This was a too-cutesy babydoll top with ribbons that tied in the back. I’ve had it in my closet for years but was long past ever wearing it again. Because it was made of silk AND I loved the fabric I kept in my closet “just in case”. Just in case I turned twelve again!

The refashion was so simple. I removed the ties and set them aside for another refashion project. They’ll make great straps for a summer top or ties for a wrap skirt. Note, I ended up tying a knot in one of the ties and using it as an emergency hairband.

Then I cut the top horizontally across the middle of the top two inches below my bustline. Because the fabric is so lightweight it needed something to keep it from riding up every time I moved. I used a zig-zag machine stitch to attach some beaded fringe all around the bottom of the top. This also allowed me to avoid hemming the silk which is a bit beyond my skills. Silk is slippery!

I used a zig-zag stitch on the raw edge of the bottom portion of the top, which is basically a tube. Then I hand stitched five inches along the same edge using black elastic thread, pulling the thread to create a gather. I did the same on the opposite side of the tube. This gather allows me to wear this as a shawl and also around my waist. And when I want to wear it as a scarf the gathered portions don’t interfere with the drape.

I love that I ended up with a three-fer refashion.

Fixing an Uncomfortable Sandal

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I have two pairs of sandals (one in black and one in brown) that I picked up inexpensively and of course I was so happy to add them to my “collection” that I didn’t walk around in them much before deciding to buy them. The first time that I wore them I found that the beautiful beading rubbed against the top of my foot and made them into “10 minute shoes”. Not what I had in mind when I purchased these.

It took me quite awhile to figure out how to fix them but once I had the idea it was pretty easy to implement. I started by placing a piece of paper onto the top of the beading and pressing the paper around the beading to give me a pattern for the moleskin lining.

creating the pattern

I then used the paper pattern to cut a piece of moleskin the same shape as the beading.

Dr. Scholl to the rescue!

I used adhesive backed moleskin and just pressed it to the back of the beading. I carefully trimmed any bits that were visible while wearing the sandal and my sandals are now so comfortable they’re “all day long shoes”. No need for an after picture unless you want to see a picture of me walking in them, which you wouldn’t have been able to see prior to this refashion because I could barely walk in them.

 

Scarf Doodling

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I’ve been playing around with my scarf collection lately, transforming ones that I haven’t worn in awhile into new tops, ponchos, collars, belts … and I thought you all might be inspired by my latest scarf doodling.

shawl style collar

It’s a start but something needs to be done with the part hanging down in front.

 

crossed over to create a capelet style collar

 

gathered with two pins to create sleevelets and a weird thing hanging down in front

My friend G liked this one. It’s not my fave though. I think the front thingy looks like a pilgrim bib. A silk pilgrim bib, but still a bib.  So I experimented with different ways of handling that square panel hanging down in front.

 

crossed over and pinned to the shoulder area

 

pinned up the pointey thingeys to create a more rounded collar

 

used safety pins to ruffle the scarf along a line just north of the lengthwise half way point, then folded the ruffle over the pins to create a two layer ruffle

 

ruffle over just one shoulder

 

 

simple ruffle

I like this one the best I think. The idea is that this could be used to update a cardigan, either by placing it along one edge or if I had a long enough scarf do it all the way around the back of the neck and down the other side.

In the end, this scarf went back into my refashion pile, but it will sleep well knowing it performed a service to all us budding refashionistas and dream that someday it might leave the stash and become part of a fashionable ensemble once again.