Category Archives: Refashion

“Golden Girls” T-shirt Gets Glammed Up

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love the pattern on the fabric

the fit - not so much

 

 

I picked this Golden Girls style t-shirt up at a garage sale for – you guessed it – $1! I figured that if I couldn’t turn it into a wearable top that it would make a great skirt. The fabric is super soft but very thick so perfect for a skirt. Once I tried it on though I really liked how it looked with my skin tone so I was determined to turn it into a top. I played around with it quite a bit and even considered making it into a halter but the fabric was so thick that when the weather was hot enough for a halter top I would be sweating it out in this top. Back to the drawing board – or in my case – the dress form.

This beaded collar has got to go!

 

First step – cut away the collar band. Now the top falls off me! I like an off-shoulder top but this one would fall to my knees if I let it. I made a casing by folding 3/4 of an inch of the neckline to the inside and stitched it down, leaving two small holes for inserting elastic. One hole was at my left shoulder and the other hole was a couple of inches to the left of the front center. I’m going to gather just a small portion of the neckline at the front left of the top. I inserted my elastic and tried it on before stitching the elastic into the casing.

A note about the elastic I used for this shirt. I cut strips from a pair of pantyhose that had a run and used these strips for my elastic.

Next step – cut a u-shape at the bottom of the shirt with the bottom of the U at the front and back center of the shirt. I also inserted some of my pantyhose elastic into the hem of the sleeves to gather them slightly.

Now with the elastic at the top, the slightly off-shoulder neckline and the u-shaped bottom I like how this new top looks on me. I also like that it’s a heavier fabric now that the weather here in sunny southern California is a bit cool.

love the new neckline

 

 

The rounded hemline gives it a nice drape.

Give me a nice Golden Girls top any day!

 

Black Cable Knit Crop Top

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"Blah" sweater just minutes before being decollared.

I have had this little black sweater in my closet for years. I keep it there because I need little black sweaters that I can throw on over a dress or a tank top and jeans. The thing is that I never pick this sweater. There isn’t really anything wrong with it, it’s just kind of blah. So after years of folding and refolding the same sweater over and over I decided it’s time to move it to the refashion drawing board. My refashion drawing board is really my dress form. When I have no idea what I want to do with something I put it on my dress form and stare at it for awhile. If I still have no good ideas then I leave it there and I look at it from time to time throughout the day and generally by the end of the day I’ve come up with something.

This refashion went in stages though. First I pinned the collar under and the ribbing up under the chestal area to try to get an idea of how my idea to turn this into a crew neck cropped sweater would look.

crop it in the front

 

leave it long in the back

First step is to take off the collar. I started with a seam ripper but gave that up after two minutes. I’m not very patient with seam ripping. I generally only like to do it when I’m watching a television show, otherwise I just don’t have the patience.  So I took my sweater over to the sewing machine and did a tight zig-zag stitch just inside the line where I wanted to cut the collar off, then I cut the collar off. I was a little afraid to cut the bottom of the sweater before I was sure I had the line right so I sewed a looser zig-zag stitch right along the edge of the ribbing so that the zig-zag caught both the edge of the ribbing and the edge of the sweater just under the chestal region.

juncture where new ribbing seam tapers out to the back of the sweater

 

 

Once I tried the sweater on and was sure I like the line of the crop I turned the sweater inside out and carefully cut away the excess portion of the sweater so that the bottom of the sweater could lay flat. Done! Or so I thought. After putting the sweater away I decided that I didn’t like the button or the little v-shaped opening at the top of the sweater so away they went. Done! Not so fast! It’s still a pretty blah-looking sweater. I dug through my drawer of weird and wonderful closures and found these beautiful ivory-colored crocheted frog closures. Perfect!

two frogs ...

 

 

three frogs ...

 

 

five frogs - Done! No really. It's done.

I sewed snaps to the sweater and onto the back of each toggle so that I could remove them before washing.  And BONUS – if I come across some other toggles that would work with this sweater I can interchange them.

 

Too Much Bling bebe!

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I acquired this super-soft brown top at a clothing swap. Trouble was that it was terribly outdated with white satin collar and faux-cuffs and that blingy-sparkly “bebe” logo in the chestal region. Not happening in my closet!

Check out the rhinestone logo!

 

 

I fooled around with it, desperately trying to make it work into a wearable top, because I loved the fabric – it was soooo soft and such a rich brown color. Finally I decided that trying to refashion it as a top was not going to work for me, mostly because I couldn’t get around the rhinestone “bebe” logo. So snip, snip and my refashion was done!

I turned it into an infinity scarf by cutting straight across under the arms to create a tube. I popped it over my head to take a look at my new infinity scarf and ehhhh. It was smaller than I wanted and I wanted to make this a zerio-waste refashion. So I cut the tube and each sleeve apart at one seam and stitched the sleeves to the body of the top to make a longer scarf. Then I stitched the whole thing back into a tube for a lovely long infinity scarf that can be worn long or looped around for a very thick and plush shorter scarf.

looped around twice

long loop with a button brooch

to be continued ...

And I’m saving the satin collar and cuffs as well as the rhinestone buttons for an upcoming refashion. Bling can work when done right.

Cropped T-Shirts

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The other day I dug into my t-shirt collection, eager to create something new and different. This refashion took ten minutes per t-shirt and I’m so in love with the end result that I have to restrain myself from taking the scissors to a whole pile of t-shirts!

Let me start by letting you all know that I cannot claim credit for the design inspiration for these t-shirts. For that you’ll have to turn to the Blakeney sisters’ book “99 Ways to Cut, Sew, Trim & Tie Your T-Shirt”. I’ll do my best to explain how to do these but their illustrations are much easier to follow than my verbal directions.

over-sized t-shirt about to get cropped

This t-shirt will end up being worn sideways so decide which direction you want the print to go before cutting, if it even matters, which in most cases it won’t.  Lay the shirt flat on a work surface with one sleeve at the top and the neckline to the left so that basically your shirt is sideways on your work surface. Mark your neckline with the first mark an inch or two above the armhole seam and the 2nd mark two to three inches below the bottom armhole seam. Then trace a gentle curve from Point A to Point B.

Mark your second cut at the bottom of the t-shirt roughly along the same lines as the line you marked for the neckline.

Cut out your neckline and your new waistline. Try on and make whatever adjustments you need.

I promise you that this photo doesn't do this top justice.

 

 

If you found the directions above confusing, I’m so sorry. I’ve tried my best to describe to you what I did but it does help to have the illustrations from the book.

My second try at this I used a little boys t-shirt that was much too small for me and the end result ended up being a bit dressed-up for a t-shirt. I can’t count the number of compliments that I’ve received when I wear these t-shirts. Hint: I wear a little cami-style shirt under these as the armholes are quite large and I’m not keen on flashing my belly button. Oh and now that winter is approaching I’ll be wearing these over long sleeved t-shirts for an extra layer of warmth and just because I like them 🙂

This one is my favorite!

 

 

If you happen to cut too deep or wide for your neckline – like I did – use small strips of the fabric that you cut away from your t-shirt to close one end of your neckline. See the photo below to see what I’m talking about.

easy fix for over-aggressive scissor action