Corset-esque t-shirt refashion

This shirt had been hanging in my closet for years, always with the best intentions to wear it because I love open back shirts. But the fact is this one takes open to a level that makes it really hard to wear, mostly because it gapes so much in the back that it actually exposes too much, like... your whole chest. And I have no qualms about exposing some flesh from time to time, but I do have some limits.

I spent a long time trying to fashion a panel to fit in the giant hole, or some type of dainty lace inset, but ultimately I came to this simple eyelet corset-type closure. It preserves the open back but doesn't dangle my stuff (or lack thereof) for the world to see. Now I just need to design the perfect invisible bra to wear with it...

I used a pair or eyelet pliers (these ones) to set the eyelets. I used the colored ones that had come in the kit, mostly because they've been sitting around since I bought it and I wanted to use them up. I found that the paint has a tendency to crack, but I found putting a piece of stretchy spandex in between the plier and the nice side of the eyelet was helpful in protecting it.

The tiny bows were made with the adorable little fork tutorial that's been going around pinterest. The bows are permanently tied and knotted so the t-shirt doesn't actually "unlace," but it's stretchy and all, so I'd rather have pretty bows than lace my t-shirt every time I want to wear it :-)

Put a Bow on it (or seven!)

Before

I'm going through a bow phase. The tinier the better. I even have a pinterest board dedicated to them right now. So when I saw Asperge's awesome shirt with bows down the back on BurdaStyle, I couldn't help myself. I had a blue shirt that I bought at Target a few months ago sitting in my closet - I didn't try it on beforehand and it ended up being way too big for me, especially in the bust area, so it got slated for transformation.  And here's what I got:


It went to together easily, I cut a significant chunk of fabric out of the upper back and then I used green scrap jersey to make the bows and bind the cut seems. Originally it was going to be 5 bows, but it was hanging off my shoulders so I took it two notches higher.

After

Saving a Too-Short-Dress

Every once in a while I find myself at a clearance rack in a store and end up talking myself into buying a dress that is gossip-girl-short because it’s super cheap I have nothing to lose, right? Then I get it home and remember that I’m 5’9" (which Wolfram Alpha tells me is in the 98th percentile for women) and that a short dress is always a really short dress on me. Really I have no idea how Serena Van Der Woodson ever sits down. Then it sits in my closet for years while I wait for an event where I might find it acceptable to wear it.

So I decided it was time to get realistic with myself and make some of these dresses wearable! And these are what I ended up with:

Dress #1 was 10 years old (H&M in 2003!). I was a simple refashion - I cut it down and turned the raw edge into an elastic casing with just a little stretch to it so it didn't gape at the waistline:

Dress #2 was a post-prom 2011 find -  $150 Haley Logan dress which I practically stole for $7. I don’t know what I was thinking when I bought it because really it doesn’t even cover me up standing straight up, let alone in any other positions. But I couldn’t just give up the ruched tulle and sequins, so I found some jersey knit at Joann fabrics that was a pretty close match to the lining of the dress, cut off the bodice, and made a tie-back waist band:

They both ended up making for really great skirts. Maybe I should buy scandalous dresses even more often than I already do?

A Sweater Tank

This was a sweater that I used to love, but after I lost some weight it was way too big for me. I’ve become infatuated with deep plunging backs lately, and I thought it would be pretty cool if I could turn it backwards and turn it into a tank with a deep v-back.

It was really easy to do – took about an hour all together. I cut off the arms and the neckline and took it in one the sides. I turned it backwards, pinned it to my dressform to get the shape for the neckline right and finished those edges. I finished the raw edge of the neck piece, and finally gathered the (new front) a bit, and sewed the neck piece and the bodice together.

Too Big to Too Small

I bought this dress when I weighed about 30 pounds more than I do now and never actually got to wear it. I originally had plans to take it in rather than to refashion it, but then I made a mistake... when I went to slash, I had a moment of incompetence with a pair of scissors, and let's just say a dress wasn't really possible anymore.

So in an attempt to salvage it, I turned it into a blouse! The bottom hem is bound with black bias tape and slipstitched on the inside. Otherwise, it's just the bodice of the dress taken in. It's still a tiny bit snug, but not entirely unwearable :-)

A Tribute to Encyclopaedia Britannica

This project made possible by the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse and the Encyclopaedia Britannica 1961 Edition.

Encyclopaedia Britannica’s announcement that they were discontinuing the print edition of the publication marks the end of an era. So I decided to embark on a tribute project of sorts with the goal of turning the archaic volumes into new things – pretty things, practical things? I don’t quite know yet. I’m just playing.

This wallet was created from a 1961 Encyclopaedia Britannica purchased at the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse. The vinyl covering for the ID window was cut from a vinyl tote I bought at a goodwill store. I added some fabric from my stash for stabilization. The project is entirely sewn, no glue or tape was used in the process.

I was a bit nervous about sewing paper, especially paper thin encyclopedia paper, but it was actually surprisingly easy to do. Paper doesn’t slip and slide like fabric can, it wasn’t as prone to tearing as I expected, and all in all it went together surprisingly quickly. The only thing I’ll change when I make another (which I do plan to), is to add some additional fabric stabilization in the spine, which I did tear a tiny bit during top stitching. I didn't think of it at the time, but fusible interfacing might have been a good idea!

I have 20 encyclopedias from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s to play with, so I'm hoping to make a whole series of this type of project :-)

Men's Shirt to Racerback Ruffles

Source: prettystuff.tumblr.com via Julia on Pinterest

A while ago, I was inspired by this pin (right), which I found on pinterest. I was never able to find the original source of the image or what the front of the shirt looked like, but I put it on my list as a thing to try out some day.

I thrifted a men's shirt for $3 at goodwill and set to cutting it up. I cut the arms off first and then started pinning it on my dress form. I ended up taking in the front with darts, and cutting a large amount of fabric out of the center back of the shirt. Some dressform manipulation and a lot basting later, I came to this! The ruffles were made with pieces cut from the sleeves.

It's still a little bit too big for me and I think I'll have to take it in some more, but I was too eager to wait any longer to share :-)

T-Shirts to Tetris

Hi all! I'm Julia, I write a blog called Because the World is Round, and I'm really excited to have been added as a contributor at refashion co-op!

For my first submission I wanted to show off this tetris dress, which I just finished a few days ago. It was made from 7 T-shirts and some extra jersey knit I had left over from another project:

It’s the kind of project you take on, knowing it will take forever and that it has the potential to be a complete disaster.

I took the seven T-Shirts, cut them into little 3×3 inch squares, and basically quilted them together. This is where I knew the project was sort of dangerous – that much seaming on that much stretchy fabric = lots of potential for a dress that hangs super funky. And you can see it in the pictures, it does kind of hang funky. I'll probably try some interfacing on it later.

The bodice is loosely based on Simplicity 2176. Except I sewed it in jersey knit, rather than the recommended not-so-stretchy fabrics. And I didn’t line it. And I didn’t put a zipper in. I tried to be smart and cut it to the 6 rather than my usual 10 thinking that would account for the stretch of the fabric – not so! I had to take it in another 2 inches at the end to get it to fit.

Here's some of the process: