Refashion: Resize A Sweater

Awhile back I had a friend of mine give me a bunch of clothes. In that bag there were a lot of sweaters and cardigans. I never really liked the color, but my younger sister LOVED it and begged me to sew it down to fit her. So I did! :)

 

As you can see here the sweater fit's her really well...and as you can see below the sweater started out much too big:

 

I will warn you that the tutorial I'm about to show you would be pretty hard, or probably impossible, to do yourself...unless you added a lot more steps and worked slower. Either way, this tutorial was made to help you get through the steps of refashioning a sweater for someone else. Possibly your daughter. :)

 

 

1. Have the person who the sweater is being resized for try on the sweater inside out. Pin along the arms and sides of the sweater. Try not to twist the sweater while you're pinning it.

2. Sew along the pins through the sweater to create the new seam.

3. Now your sweater will look fairly funky as you can see in photo 3.

4. Use a good zigzag stitch multiple times. Sweaters unravel easily and after you go to all this work you won't want to have it fall apart.

5. Trim along the new edge of the sweater. Be very careful not to cut into any of the stitching since this will cause the stitches to eventually bust and the sweater will fall apart.

6. Now all the edges are fixed!

 

This was a V-neck sweater which was much too low for my sister to be wearing so I took the scraps from the edges of the sweater to build a piece that went in the V-neck to make it higher. If you're interested in doing this yourself please check out the original tutorial for this sweater refashion!

 

Helen @ Blue Eyed Beauty Blog

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Refashion: Jeans to Long Skirt

When I first wrote here at Refashion co-op I shared a tutorial for a knee-length denim skirt. Today I will share with you a link for a detailed tutorial to make your own long denim skirt. I usually use two pairs of jeans to make these. The first pair has to fit you well in the rear/thigh area. The second needs to be similar in color to the first pair of jeans. You will only use the legs of these jeans to fill in the middle of the first pair to create the skirt. Here's what your skirt will look like when you get it done:

 

I would share the full tutorial for making this skirt here on Refashion Co-op, but it's really long and detailed and it would just be easier to send you in the direction to get the tutorial. So, if you're interested in sewing a Long Denim Skirt head on over to my blog! :)

 

I have to say that personally I LOVE my long skirts! I have 5. All of which I made myself with these same directions. If you ever have questions about sewing one of these skirts please feel free to email me and I'll do my best to help you out.

 

P.S. I'm getting married today!!! I cannot wait to share details on my blog!

 

Helen @ Blue Eyed Beauty Blog

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Refashion: Tank with Ruffled Front

Today I'm gonna show you how I made a tank with a ruffled front which is perfect for any outfit combo, but especially outfits with cardigans and sweaters! I made this tank back in October and wear it multiple times a month!

 

As you can see here I usually wear this tank with a cardigan. :)

 

 

1. Cut both the sleeves off the shirt.

2. Cut the sewn edge off one of the sleeves.

3. Lay the now open sleeve out flat. Trim off the excess fabric.

4. Now your sleeve should look like this.

5. Cut the rectangle into two even pieces.

6. Pin the ends of the two pieces together.

 

 

7. Make sure to zigzag the ends together so there will be no fraying.

8. Ruffle one edge of the now long piece of fabric.

9. Ruffle the other edge.

10. Pin the ruffle onto the shirt. Start with the top.

11. Sew down the top of the ruffle and then work on each side. Make sure to sew them starting at the top of the shirt working towards them hem so the ruffle won't have any problems.

12. There you have it! See the original post here.

 

See how I've worn this tank here, here, here, and here!

 

Helen @ Blue Eyed Beauty Blog

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Refashion: Grey & Black Floral Skirt

After a long break of not posting much I think I'm back ladies & gents! :) Today I'm sharing the simple 'refashion' of adding length to a casual cotton skirt that I felt was too short on me. To solve this problem I picked out two different cotton shirts that no longer fit me and cut them into strips that were the same width. I ruffled the pieces, attached them to the bottom of the skirt, sewed them in place and now it's done and fits me perfect. :)

There you have it! View the original post about this refashion here!

 

Helen @ Blue Eyed Beauty Blog

 

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Refashion: DIY Lacy Cardigan

Hello readers! I hope you all had a very lovely Christmas! :) This is one of my favorite holidays and this year was just perfect since I am now engaged to my best friend, Autry. We've been dating for 1 year and 4 months. And last year we had to celebrate with hundreds of miles separating us so this year was nice to be able to be together on Christmas Eve & Christmas Day.

Enough about Christmas, on to refashioning! :) I am really excited to have finally reached this refashion in the posting line! When I was added as a contributor I decided I would start by sharing my oldest refashion posts first and work my way up to the current refashions. I still haven't reached the current ones, so if you've enjoyed what I've shared so far you may be even more interested in these here since, in my opinion, the work has become a lot better and the refashions turn out really well!

AFTER
(click photo to view tutorial!)

This Weeks Refashion: I took one of my cardigans (I say one of because I have many!) and added some lace from a thrifted curtain to the edges to 'dress it up' and 'add some life' and 'make it cute'. All of which I think I succeeded at! :) What do you think?

This was a fairly long and drawn out process for me. I will say that if I come across another cardigan that just needs a little more something I will totally be adding lace since I wear this cardigan a whole lot more now than I ever did when it was just plain and purple.

Because this was a learning experience for me I had the camera tagging along taking photos of the process so there is a really good, detailed post here @ Blue Eyed Beauty Blog which you can look through and follow to create your own or even find inspiration from!

BEFORE

This is what my cardigan looked like before I refashioned it. It was a lovely purple Merona cardigan which was thrifted! Thrift stores are THE BEST place to find clothes for refashions...but I'm sure you all already knew that. ;)

Until next time,

Helen
Blue Eyed Beauty Blog (Bloglovin, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest)
Exercise Encouragement Group Blog (Bloglovin, Facebook, Pinterest)

Refashion: Crop Those Sleeves Off!

Hello everyone! I've been quite the busy and stressed person lately so I've not paid very much attention to all the 'secondary' blogs I write for lately...and that's a terrible thing to say, but it's true. Anyway, I'm back with a new post for you today...well not new on my blog, but new here! :)

Today's Refashion: This was a much needed project for me since I HATE pushing up or rolling up the sleeves on my shirts when I'm busy doing things. It feels like a waste of time, and not only that, but it's annoying too!

Anyway, this is a really simple refashion. All you have to do is figure out how long you want the sleeves on your shirt to be, cut them off just a bit longer than that (so you have fabric to fold under for the new hem!), pin the raw edge under and sew the new hem for your shirt sleeves! All done, easy as that!

View the original post about this Refashion Project here!

Until next time,

Helen
Blue Eyed Beauty Blog (Bloglovin, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest)
Exercise Encouragement Group Blog (Bloglovin, Facebook, Pinterest)

Refashion: Khaki Trousers into Long Skirt w/Ruffled Side

Hello Refashionistas! I was SO very busy last week and I didn't have anything prewritten or scheduled ahead of time (so unlike me) that I didn't post, but I'm back!! I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! I got to do LOTS of baking and cooking -one of my favorite things to do and blog about!- so I had a blast!!


Multi-Fabric Ruffled Skirt


On to today's refashion: this is more of a show and tell since I really couldn't write a tutorial for this skirt at the time I made it (which was in August). Now that I've done so much more in the sewing world I probably could figure out a way to write an easy-to-follow tutorial, but back then this was a huge under taking for a girl who had not sewn much other than basic long denim skirts!

The original goal of this refashion: to take a pair of khaki trousers I found at a thrift store for $2.50 and turn it into a long skirt for church and other such related events.


(photo via Pieces of You)

The interruption which led to a new goal: I was inspired by searching Pinterest and stumbling upon Pieces of You and her beautiful skirt designs! I just loved the 'cut out' look and knew I wanted to try my hand at it. I also knew this would be a huge task for me (at that time) and that it wouldn't be easy, but I wanted to try, so I did.

The new goal: To make a long khaki skirt with ruffles down the side that had a wave to it in the front and back (aka not a straight line where they were sewn in, but curved lines instead). And I wanted to make this skirt in only TWO days because I knew if I didn't set a time limit for myself I may not ever finish it (because at that time, and still on occasion now, I would get into a project and usually not finish it).

The Skirt In Detail
Since I had created several long skirts before I knew the basics required to sewing a skirt like I wanted, what I didn't know is how the ruffles would work out and how I would line them up and how they would look when it was all finished.

The first thing I had to do was pick out fabrics from my too-small-to-make-anything-but-enough-to-use-for-something stash to make ruffles for the side. This part took me about 30 minutes since I already knew I wanted to use the fabrics I had with a more 'vintage' feel to them. Then I lined them up in the order I wanted them to appear on the skirt once they were finished.

The ruffles were made the same as the ones on the skirt I showed off here on Refashion Co-op in October. The tutorial for the ruffles can be found on the post from my blog: Denim Skirt w/Ruffles between steps 6-10. Here are the measurements for each of the ruffles I had on this skirt since each fabric has a different set of numbers: The top floral fabric is 5x22 (five inches by twenty-two inches); the blue floral fabric is 6x24; the yellow floral fabric is 6 1/2x26; the pink floral fabric is 8x28; and finally the bottom floral fabric is 6 1/2x32.
The End Result
I had a complete skirt in less than 15 hours!! YAY me! And it was SO much better than I ever expected. At that point I was encouraged and had a lot more confidence in my sewing skills to being trying new things I had been 'afraid' to try before because of how hard they had looked and I hadn't really been willing to risk the clothing article being ruined in a failed refashion. I think this skirt is one of the biggest steps that moved me from beginner to intermediate sewer.

Here are a few photo's for you to look at of the skirt, or you could visit the original post about this skirt on my blog My Designs | Multi-Fabric Ruffled Skirt. I have more photos of the skirt, larger photos of the ones below too actually, on my blog. So if you're interested in seeing more detail you'll have to hop over there...I didn't want to take up too much space by posting all of them on here since there's like 10 photos on the original post total lol.

Until next time,
Helen @ Blue Eyed Beauty Blog

Also Find Me: Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin, Tumblr.

Refashion: DIY Cotton Maxi Skirt

Hello Refashionistas! I am back with one of my very favorite, and probably one of the most worn refashions in my closet right now: a cotton maxi skirt that was made from a cotton jumper which was given to me by a friend!

This project was SUPER easy, and if you sew then you're in luck! I will admit that I don't see jumpers at the thrift stores I shop regularly, but perhaps you've seen them and passed over them because you didn't know they had such wonderful potential to become amazingly comfortable maxi skirts! Well, let me just tell you to skip over them no more!!!

What You Do
This really is an easy maxi skirt refashion, especially if you find a jumper without any buttons on the side, or any openings anywhere around the bottom or sides.

Step 1: Cut the top of the jumper off to create the maxi 'skirt'.

Step 2: Fold down the raw edge and tuck it under so none of it is exposed. Pin in place and sew around the base. If the waist area of the skirt is wider than your hips you may need to add some elastic and using this method here you have a perfect made casing so just leave enough space to slip the elastic in before sewing all of the raw edge down.

That's it! Told you it was easy! :) Of course this jumper had buttons down the side so I had to cut them out and sew the skirt back together so if you need direction or photos to help you through those steps you might want to check out the original tutorial. Otherwise you're good to go!!

Until next time,

Helen @ Blue Eyed Beauty Blog

Also find me at Bloglovin, Facebook, Pinterest, and Tumblr!

Refashion: Alter A Flutter Shirt

Hello fellow Refashionistas! I have a fairly simple project to share with you today! I was given this shirt by a friend, but I hated the way it looked on me...so I gave it to my sister...the only problem? It was WAY too big on her!!! So...being the refashioning person that I am I told her to put it on and I'd just sew two little spots to make it fit right and that way she could still wear it without having to pass it along to someone else. She was very happy to have the flutter shirt added to her closet once I made the little alterations to it and you can easily fix your own shirt as well!



You can barely see the two orange marks just below the arms on each side. This is where I did about two inches of straight stitching so that the shirt now has a new shape and would fit her better. I had her try on the shirt so I would know where to sew and so that it wouldn't be too tight for her to take off with the pins holding the shirt pieces together.

I've really told you everything you need to know about this refashion...it's more of a resizing to be honest...but if you want to see more details you can check out this post!

Until next time,

Helen
Blue Eyed Beauty Blog

Refashion: Pajama Pants to Pajama Shorts!

Hello lovelies! I am back with a new idea for you this week...although it may be in the wrong season... I don't know. I still wear shorts to bed in the cold months, so maybe there will be some of you out there who will find this refashion idea inspiring.

Today's refashion: take a pair of too short pajama pants and turn them into cute shorts!

I don't have a before photo of me wearing these pants, but everyone knows that pajama pants pretty much look the same no matter what. These were flannel and were given to me for Christmas one year. They finally got there use out of them as pants and I decided it was time for them to be given some new life.

BEFORE.

I just put a pair of my regular sleeping shorts over these pants, cut off the legs and then sewed the around the raw edges. Over all it was a really easy refashion. I would say that if I did this again in the future I'd probably make the legs of the shorts just a bit longer.

AFTER.
I really hate pictures of me in shorts, so this is the best you get! :)

Here is the link to the post where I refashioned these pajama pants.

Well, I hope you are inspired to reuse those pajama pants which are sitting in your drawer because you don't want to wear them!


Until next time!

Helen
Blue Eyed Beauty Blog

Refashion: Jeans to Denim Skirt with Ruffles!

Hello all! I am back for my final refashion post this month! In case you missed any of my previous ones: This project is one that took me a good bit of time, but it was so worth the time!

Today's Refashion: Jeans to a denim skirt with ruffles in the middle!

BEFORE.
This is the only pic I have of the jeans before I ripped them open for refashioning.

STEP 1: Find a pair of jeans that fit you well. Grab a lot of white (or other color) fabric. I used a pillow case for the base and then two different fabrics for the ruffles: eyelet and solid white.

STEP 2: Follow this tutorial, which has a lot of pics in it, to make your very own skirt!

STEP 3: Wear the life out of this adorable thing! I wear mine a lot and get compliments on it from complete strangers! Here are a few different ways I've put this skirt with other clothing articles to make a cute outfit: Dressing Up Denim (the outfit details from the photo below), White Ruffles & Lace (a summer outfit), Baby Blue & Brown (a fall outfit), and White Ruffles & Purple (a fall outfit).

AFTER.
One of my favorite skirts to wear this past summer!

Until next time!

Helen @ Blue Eyed Beauty Blog

Refashion: Capri's to Skirt

Hello Refashionistas! I am excited to share this refashion with you since Capri's are plentiful at thrift stores in all sorts of colors, sizes, and patterns! Of course I did this refashion back in July so it's more summery, but you can use any Capri's to make a skirt for any time of the year with this tutorial!

Today's refashion: turning a pair of Capri's into a skirt!



BEFORE.
I used a pair of capris and a button up dress shirt for this refashion.
And in case you can't tell...the shirt is actually a dark pink.



 

STEP 1: Find a pair of Capri's that fit you in the waist, and find some fabric for the insert for the back. I used a pillow case for the base and a pink dress shirt for the ruffles.

STEP 2: Read this tutorial I wrote to make your very own skirt!

STEP 3: Wear your skirt proudly!

AFTER

This skirt is really comfortable and I really like how it turned out! I actually have several other pairs of Capri's I'd like to turn into a similar skirt! I really should get one made up before it gets too cold so I can enjoy it in this lovely weather we are having!

Until next time!

Helen @ Blue Eyed Beauty Blog

Refashion: Easy Maxi Skirt from 2 Shorter Skirts

Hello fellow Refashionistas! I hope you all are doing well and being very creative! :) I know I've been busy with my own new creations!

Today I am going to share with you one of my favorite skirt tutorials: The Easy Maxi Skirt.



Here is what both the skirts looked like before they were refashioned into one maxi skirt.

STEP 1: Find 2 regular knee length skirts which have the same pattern.
STEP 2: Read this post to combine the two skirts into one beautiful maxi skirt.
STEP 3: Wear your new skirt! I love to wear mine out to the movie theater because it is long so it keeps my legs from freezing and because it is SO comfortable!

AFTER

I hope that you've enjoyed this refasion!

Helen
Blue Eyed Beauty Blog

Reafashion: Shirt-Cardigan-Combo to Open Cardigan

Notice in the before how the white shirt piece is in the front. All I did was cut that out! NO SEWING at all!!

 

Hi! It's Helen from Blue Eyed Beauty Blog stopping in for a new refashion! Well, actually this project was originally finished and posted on my blog back in July...but it's new on here! :)

This cardigan project is one I've done several times with shirts I've found at the thrift store. This is a NO SEW project so, for those of you who may hate sewing...listen up!

Step 1: FIND one of those cardigans with the shirt piece in the front at a thrift store. (This cardigan was only $3!)

Step 2: CUT the shirt piece out! (Only about 5 minutes to do this, 10 maybe if you are a very careful person...which I usually tend not to be.)

Step 3: WEAR your new cardigan in a fun outfit! Like my sister did here, and I did here!

I hope all you Refashionista's are inspired to pick up those odd shirt-cardigan-combo's now that you know there is an easy way to fix them into something adorable! For more details view this post!

Until next time,
Helen @ Blue Eyed Beauty Blog

Hello Fellow Refashionistas!

Hi readers! My name is Helen and I blog over at Blue Eyed Beauty Blog! I was just invited to contribute to this amazing blog yesterday! Let me tell you a little about myself and my blog!

My blogging & refashioning experience: I'm fairly new to blogging, but in the last few months I've found myself addicted to it...and to finding new blogs to read (which is how I stumbled upon Refashion Co-op!). I LOVE to refashion clothes! In fact, I'm always digging through any of the clothes my sisters/mom give away to see if there is even a scrap of the fabric I might use for something else. I generally try to refashion a minimum of three things a month (a guideline to be a member of Cotton & Curls: Refashion Nation). So far I have written 13 posts on my blog of things I've refashioned. (I've done a few more than that, but didn't have the photo's to write a post for them, but now I know better and take pictures of EVERY project! lol).

What I Refashion: I mostly tend to refashion/sew skirts because I wear them all the time. Lately I've been broadening my experience and have moved into working on cardigans/shirts/etc. Everything I refashion is something I owned previously and wanted to give the garment new life, I found at a thrift store and saw beauty in the ugliness, or the piece of clothing was given to me by my sisters/mom or a friend who knows how much I love to refashion clothes! I literally have three big boxes of clothes sitting and waiting their turn to be picked for a refashion!

Me & my blog: Other than refashioning and style, my blog focuses on my faith (I'm Apostolic Pentecostal skirt girl and proud of it!); the many new recipes I am constantly creating and posting throughout each week; my thrift finds via yard sales or thrift stores; tutorials for sewing and crafting plus SO much more! I am also a HUGE Pinterest addict! (P.S. my pinterest account is being re-organized by me so it's kind of a mess right now, but I did try to put all the boards I'm keeping at the top of the page!) I have boards where I save my inspirational photos and links for both refashioning and creating new recipes!

Goals: I plan to post all my previous refashions until I get caught up to the point where I will share a new refashion on my blog and then hop on over here and share it will all of you lovely readers as well! And don't worry, they will be spread out and not posted all at once!

Today's Refashion: Turning Denim Jeans into a Knee-length Skirt w/Ruffle.

BEFORE

This skirt started out as a pair of jeans...which I used to wear a lot...about three years ago... When I started only wearing skirts these jeans ended up in a pile and somehow managed to stay in my possession.




AFTER

With a fair amount of work earlier this year (in May) I was able to create a perfect length skirt which was a wonderful thing to have in my closet this summer! I would wear the skirt two or three days, wash it and then wear it another two or three days. I rarely wore anything else because it was so comfortable! And even now with the fall weather approaching I am finding all sorts of outfit combinations with tights, leggings, boots, etc. so the skirt is multi-seasonal which is the best part!

I did write a short tutorial with a few pictures in it on my blog. View this post if you would like to see the details involved in making one of these skirts yourself!