A Little Sprucing Up

This tunic has always been hard to wear and yet I like it for some reason.  It's not linen but it feels like it.  I forgot to take a before picture so I just turned it inside out.  I added a black flower trim, so now it has some definition.  I'm not sure about it but it can be easily removed.

This circa 2000 skirt was one that I made originally. It was ankle-length and while that was nice for early spring when you don't quite want to bare your legs just yet, I thought the thin, drapey fabric would do better as a shorter, full skirt.  Fortunately I had saved the scraps from the original cut of fabric. I cut off the top part of the skirt to use the more full bottom part, then inserted 6 additional pieces from the long, thin leftover scraps.  I re-used the same waistband but added a piece to the end to make it more comfortable since I've gained weight since I made it.

I'm also pleased that I've learned how to turn a crew neck shirt into a scoop neck shirt while still maintaining the ribbing. On this shirt, the "ribbing" was just a piece of the shirt fabric, unlike a T-shirt.  I seam-ripped it out in the front, and drew and cut a new neckline using the French curve ruler.  Then, with the U-shaped piece that I cut out, I cut a rectangle shape to add to the end of the original ribbing, sewed the ends together to make a circle, then reattached it to the shirt.  The key is just to make sure your ribbing piece is smaller than the neckline so that it has to stretch and the end result won't look rumply.  You may be able to see the small piece I inserted on this picture:

I have tons of shirts I can now fix!  I've done it to T-shirts too - but you have to find extra fabric somewhere since you don't want to use the thick ribbing that comes on the T-shirt.  So I've shortened sleeves and used that extra fabric, or taken it in on the sides and used that too.