Sweater Dress De-shlumpified

This sweater dress was a nice L.L. Bean, made of 20% wool.  The color is also nice but the dress leaves a lot to be desired in the cut.  You can see how long it was.  The hem had been turned up twice and this picture shows it let out. The next picture shows the polo collar.

 

After taking in the sleeves and sides, I cut it off above the knee and used the cut-off section to create 4 triangles that I inserted over the legs to make the skirt wider.  My advice if you plan to do this, is to sew your triangles on so they hang a little below the bottom edge of the dress.  That way you have enough length in the middle of the triangle to be able to curve the hem which you need to do on a fuller skirt.  I then cut off the polo collar and used more of the extra fabric to make a sort of substitute- a piece of fabric that wraps like a shawl around the neckline.

I would wear this dress with a wide leather belt and knee-high boots, but I don't have them with me.  Thanks for looking.

Shapeless Sweater to Fitted Sweater

I've had this sweater for well over a decade, and it was old then - my host family in Australia gave it to me because they were giving it away. I liked the color and the fact that it was 100% Australian wool, but it was shapeless.

I realized the knitted band at the hip would make a good waistband. First I took it in under the arms and the upper part of the sides.  Then I cut off the bottom band, cut the sweater across the middle, and sewed the band in.  I finished off the bottom edge with a piece of velvet-like fabric. At first I made a ruffle but that looked awful so I just did some bias strips and added some to the edge of the collar to tie it together. 

90's Floral Skirt

This rayon floral skirt was one my earliest sewing projects from high school.  So matronly!  I used to wear it with a mauve cardigan.  Anyone remember the color mauve? The workmanship on it was so poor (and the waistband was - ahem!- so small) that although it looks like I just shortened it in the after picture, I actually remade the whole thing.  Cut the top off, made a new waistband and put in a zipper, even redid the seams because the stitch length was huge and they were unfinished.  Even the hem was bad.  But, I was just learning.

The velour shirt was something I got recently at the Goodwill.  It turns out that waterfall necklines can just be gathered in the middle to create definition at the bust.  It is not my normal style, but I thought I'd try something different.  I was originally going to sew the pieces together to make a dress but decided it would be more versatile as separates.

Here is a closer picture that shows the top and the pattern of the skirt better:

 

It's hard to explain exactly but I'm satisfied that I could take something from high school and improve it and wear it with something more body conscious.  Like a slight, personal evolution or something. 

Jacket to Vest

Someone else on here already beat me to this refashion.  I'd seen these long vest-like things in places like White House Black Market and thought it would be pretty easy to do it yourself from an oversized men's suit coat.  Well, everything takes longer than you think - there are a lot of seams on a suit jacket and they're not always where you need them to be. But it wasn't too bad.

It's actually a nice black and white herringbone wool.

Now I would probably wear this to work with a white shirt and black skirt, but I'm out of town and don't have those with me at the moment.  I also have some nice sleeves left over to make a purse, so you may see that in the future. 

Sweater to Cape

This sweater was a little bulky to get much everyday use from. 

It also needed a little more color (I thought so at the time, although now this picture doesn't look too bad) and the neck was too high.  I got the idea to do the same thing as the pants-to-skirt refashion.  So I took off the mock-neck, and ripped out the side seams. Then I crocheted a new navy blue neck edge, then added some more blue to the design, which was a lot easier to do since the sides and sleeves were ripped open. Then I sewed the seams together in the back and in the front, leaving an opening for my arms to come through.

I think my vision was a little bit better than the reality. Maybe adding some blue crochet trim to the bottom edge would make it look more capelike.  Or maybe a different sweater.  We'll have to see on this one.

Pants to Skirt

Just an ordinary pants to skirt refashion.  Unfortunately I didn't take a before pic.  They were wide-legged, just above the ankle pants and were not my style.  The fabric is a wool blend and seemed like it wanted to be a skirt.  I pinched the fabric on the creases that went down the front of the leg and sewed 1/8 inch from the edge to make those trouser-looking ridges.

Linen Tunic Take II

This is a before pic of a linen-ish tunic (except it's turned inside out). I always liked the waist belt, but it seemed kind of blah.  So I decided to add some black trim for definition.

But I never wore it. (This was years ago). It looks something the dress Cora is wearing on the cover of the Downton Abbey Season One DVD.  And it wasn't really my goal to look like an Edwardian matron. 

So I took off the trim and dyed it with Rit dye.  I used Petal Pink with just a touch of Tangerine Orange (could maybe have added more orange, but the first time I mixed up a batch, the dye looked really orange-y). I'm finally happy with the result.  Let's see if I actually wear it!  (By the way, both the tunic and these pants had to be let out in the intervening years!) 

Dress, and Wreath from Scraps

Here is an infinity dress I made years ago and only wore a couple times. (I got the idea to add a bodice from someone else.) The only problem with the dress was that the fabric I chose was 100% cotton interlock and was heavy, so that by the time I was done wrapping two pieces that were 6 feet or whatever long around myself, it felt hard to move around.  I couldn't wait to get it off.

 So I redid the top using a pattern.  I had to piece it together since those long strips weren't wide enough to make the new bodice pieces. I think it has a 40's look to it.

 

 

Then here is a project I've been planning on doing for two years now.  I cut down all my boxy oversized T-shirts and turned them into girl shirts, and just loved the colors of the scraps when they were all on the floor. 

 



So I cut them into more or less regular strips, ran a gathering thread down the center, and hot glued them to a wreath.  It was actually pretty time consuming, but I'm happy with the results.

T-Shirt Redo

I got this T-shirt in the mail for donating to Rails to Trails, a group that takes unused railroads and turns them into bike trails.  It was nice in white, but they never stay looking that white for long. 

So I dyed it with Rit dye and altered it using my usual method, which I have written about already.

I plan on redoing the shorts in the first picture - they are Umbro's from the early 90's, if anyone remembers those!

See-Through Shirt Solution

I really liked the fabric in this shirt (it's a rayon knit) and the self-covered buttons on the sleeves.  You can't tell here by the way the light is coming in, but it was tight, thin, and very see-through - you could see the entire outline of the bra. It's a light greenish-blue.

I tried to think of different ways to fix it and in the end I noticed that if you scrunched it up, you couldn't really see through it. I gathered it on the sides, and with two rows of stitching down the front and the back. So then the next step seemed to be to add a skirt and make it into a dress.  I like purple with different shades of blue and green, so that's what I went with.  A few little fabric roses were added to make it seem like the skirt wasn't an afterthought.

Thanks for looking!

This Dress Downsizes

I got this 90's dress with shoulder pads from a co-worker.  I thought the print was a lot for a dress and that it would rather be a skirt.  I bought an invisible zipper and found out you needed a special foot for your machine, so I just put it in the normal way.  Has anyone used the special foot?



Sweatshirt Update

I've had this sweatshirt since the 90s.  This was back when sweatshirts were heavy, huge, and pullover.  I couldn't do much about the heavy part, but I could change the huge and pullover.

I had a fleece jacket that was made out of sweatshirt fleece rather than the spun polyester fleece, so I used that as a guide.  I pieced together the collar from scraps cut off (it's in 6 pieces, 3 on the outer collar and 3 on the under).  I also had to insert scraps in the sleeve cuffs and hip cuffs, because they were too tight and that's what gives it that outdated, baggy effect.  Surprisingly, the fabric store had a 22" separating zipper in hunter green.  I'm also considering using Rit Color Remover to lighten it a little.  Has anybody ever used it?

I have a few more college sweatshirts lurking at the bottom of drawers that I will probably try this with. 

Sweater to Leggings/Boot Socks

This has been done before, but not by me. :)  I had a heavy tweedy sweater that I never wore but thought the sleeves would be great for legwarmers/boot socks.  It did involve a little sewing because I put the wrist edge at the knee, and then had to take them in at the ankle.  Then I cut off the finished edge that had been on the sleeve cap and sewed it to the newly cut raw edge at the ankle.  Of course that made it get all stretched out but you can't really tell when they're on.

 

 

They also help to take up some of the extra room in my boots.  They make wide-calf boots but not narrow-calf, and mine look a little silly with all that air space.  

Sweater Alteration

 I've been doing so much sewing for people at work (hemming skirts, making pillows, etc) that I'm embarrassed to have nothing interesting to post here.  All I did was remove the zipper on this baggy sweater, take it in, and make a belt out of the scraps.  I had to use plain cotton for the back side of the belt and also use the sweater tape things that covered the zipper in order to get enough.

 

 

But here are some really cool new tools I got at the sewing expo that travels around the U.S. It goes to smaller cities. First up is this "iron shoe" which is a piece of Teflon that you strap over your iron.  It enables you to put it on the hottest setting and you can iron polyester without melting it! Now I use my $10, 20-year old Walmart iron with great results (it doesn't fit over my sewing iron because of the cord reel).

Then there's this seam ripper which is really a razor blade they use in surgery.  It's really sharp and fast.

 



I love finding a good tool!

Easiest Infinity Scarf Ever

This was made by joining two sweater sleeves together.  The wrists go at the back of your neck which is nice because it reduces the bulk.  The ruffly scarf below was made from the front of the same sweater, and I was able to get another one out of the back, which I gave away as a gift.  Three scarves from one sweater!

Cover-up to Shirt

I got this at the grocery store, of all places. The tag said "sundresses/swimsuit cover-ups."  My cover-up does a lot more covering up, and this was way too short to wear as a dress.  It was also see-through.  But I liked the polka dots, so I decided to make it into a shirt.

It had elastic smocking at the top that I removed, and it gave me a ton of extra fabric to work with.  Basically I made a tube, shirred the sides, and made straps out of the excess. I can now wear this without any special bra, which is nice. 

Top + Dress = Maxi Dress

I got this top years ago to exercise in, but never wore it because I really prefer t-shirts.  It's also way too short.  But it's cotton rather than shiny spandex and has some nice seaming, so I hung on to it. 

I pictured it here with a weight so you get the idea. :)  Then I saw a maxi dress in an ad that had a solid-color fitted top, so I realized what I could finally do with this. I found this dress at the Goodwill, which I call "older teacher on vacation."

It's that gauzy-type fabric.  I had to unpick the crocheted insert in the middle and the darts and piece it back together.  I inserted just a small strip of the crochet at the neckline of the tank top and was able to use the trim from the sleeves to extend around the back of the now-skirt part (the thin strip of crochet you see at the waist was only on the front. ) It doesn't show too much since I'm holding the skirt, but it hangs a little crooked so I may take it off.

Betty Draper Dress

I started this refashion 5 years ago with a gingham shirt that I thought would make a good 1950's style shirtwaist dress.

I remember it was 5 years ago, because I was working on one night right before I left to take the train the next day for a trip to Savannah.  I had gotten this far when . . .

 . . . a policewoman knocked on my door to tell me that a tree had fallen on my car.  It turned out to not be that big of a deal, and actually all worked out for the best because then the city came and cut down the tree which dropped disgusting brown fruit all over my car from September to December. So in the end, the trip got taken, the car got fixed, the tree got cut down, but the dress languished in the bottom of the closet.  At this point I had planned to add a self-covered belt (I had already bought special buckles online) and some navy blue ribbon to the bottom.  But in the intervening five years, I decided I didn't want to look like June Cleaver so much as Betty Draper.  So off came the sleeves, and I also took about four inches off the bottom.

 

I ended up using navy fabric instead of ribbon on the bottom, and then used the same fabric to make bias tape for the armholes and collar edge.  I also used it to cover metal buttons I bought at the fabric store, because I couldn't find any 7/16" navy buttons.  The belt has a covered buckle and three eyelets (they were a pain, and who needs more than three?)  I was most afraid of ruining the belt because I had to cut into it to put the tongue in, and also the eyelets.  But it turned out okay.  I'm so relieved to have that UFO finally done!

Guy top to girl top

I got this J.Crew vest at the thrift store and loved the feel - it's got a little cashmere in it.  I had thought about incorporating it into a dress, then making it into a tote bag (still think that might have been cute) but decided to make it into a fitted top instead.

I cut off all the ribbing, cut it across the middle, took in the sides, and used the extra pieces from the side to make a ruffled collar.  Then I cut it down the middle, attached some of the ribbing to make a pretend button band, and sewed some buttons on (there are no buttonholes).Then I reattached the bottom, which did not turn out to look as gathered as I thought it would.

I just need to sew it up the middle where it gapes a bit.

Hybrid Infinity Scarf

These two items were given to me by a co-worker. My original plan had been to cut up the pink sweater to make an infinity scarf, because it was so see-through - you can see the hanger through the shoulder. But then I noticed the other shirt coordinated well with it, and thought I'd try making the scarf out of two fabrics.  This turned out to be a necessity since there wasn't enough of either one to make scarf, and they were both really thin. So here is how it looks with more of the floral showing:

And here it is with more of the pink showing.  I might try this again with something else; I think it turned out okay but the floral isn't really my favorite.