Easy sweater refashion for spring

Last fall I purchased three plain 3/4-sleeve cardigans on clearance from Target with the idea that I would use stuff in my stash to refashion them. Here's what I did with the turquoise and the light green cardigans, which left the white one. I purchased the white one because I wanted to recreate this cardigan from White House Black Market:

and although I love it, I've never gotten around to it and at this point I know it's just not going to happen. So in the interest of just getting it done, I turned to another tutorial I have in my files that used a white cardigan: this 20-minute Spring sweater re-do from Jen at Tatertots and Jello.

I loved the way the bright colors of the buttons and the rickrack pop against the white sweater in Jen's version, but the only fat rickrack I had on hand was black, so I decided to go with it anyway. I followed Jen's tutorial and first removed the existing buttons, then pinned on the rickrack and sewed down the length of it.

 

I turned it under at the top and bottom but if I were doing it again, I wouldn't trim the end of the rickrack so close. Jumbo rickrack is woven and thus unravels badly and at the bottom you can see it peeking out. I attempted a fix with some Fray Check and fabric glue, but I wish I'd just left it longer to begin with.

I didn't have enough of the same size of covered button blanks, so I couldn't make cute covered buttons like Jen did. I do not have a shortage of buttons, however,

so I dug out a few of my favorite vintage plastic buttons and sewed those on instead. They were larger than the original buttons so they do not fit through the buttonholes, and I had to sew the sweater shut. That was a pain, but the cute buttons are worth it!

Sewing on all eight buttons took me longer than 20 minutes, but the rickrack part was a breeze. I wore my new sweater yesterday and the rainbow of vintage buttons made me so happy!

And if I ever get tired of the sweater or need to throw it away, I'll most definitely be removing those buttons to use again!

Wardrobe refashion: Cardigans

Last week I showed you the tank tops I did in my recent wardrobe refashioning session, and today I'd like to show you the cardigans I worked on as well.

I purchased three cardis at Target back in August when I found them on clearance. They're perfect for early fall in Colorado because they have sleeves that go to just below the elbow so they're warmer than a t-shirt but not as hot as a full sweater. The first that I worked on was the turquoise cardi:

I purchased the pretty peachy rose trim months ago from this etsy shop and I've been wanting to add it to a shirt, but just never got around to buying matching thread so I could sew it on. I loved how it looked with the turquoise sweater and I couldn't figure out how I would sew it on anyway, so I just took the easy way out and adhered it with fabric glue!

The flowers are sewn together on a strip of peachy tulle, so to add a bit more embellishment I went to my bead stash and found some bright orange seed beads and pretty fire-polished glass beads in the same turquoise as the sweater. I sewed the beads on randomly in little groups and although they're a bit hard to see amid the flowers, I think they add just a little bit of extra sparkle and interest.

Since I used fabric glue, I was a little worried about how well the flower trim would hold up in the wash, and I was careful not to let it dry all the way, but it seems to have come out just fine.

The second cardigan was easy too. For inspiration, I used this cute sweater by Jen at Tatertots and Jello. She in turn used a cardi from Anthropologie for her inspiration and when I was looking at her photos, I remembered that I had some very similar ruffled trim in my stash.

I laid it out on the sweater in a zigzag pattern and pinned it to the sweater, making my zigzags all different widths. Then I took a deep breath and gathered my courage and sewed it straight down the middle of the trim. It was easier than I thought and I love how it turned out and that I was able to utilize more ribbon from my stash.

I still have one more cardi to work on. I saw this cute sweater at White House Black Market back during the summer.

I think it retailed for around $90 and I knew that I could make a similar one for a whole lot less, so I bought a white cardigan with that project in mind. I picked out some vintage black glass buttons from my stash and I need to sew those on the next time I'm watching a movie.

The swirls on top were made from different fabrics and trims and those will be trickier to replicate, but I think I have enough stuff in my stash of fabrics and ribbons that I can come up with something similar. Hopefully I can get around to it soon so I can wear it before real sweater season in Colorado sets in!

Wardrobe refashion: tank tops

On Saturday I decided that it was time to repaint our living room/kitchen (the 30% off coupon for Sherwin-Williams in the paper that week might have had something to do with that) so I bought paint and supplies and informed my (long-suffering) husband that on Monday, we'd be painting. In an unusual twist for me, I didn't agonize over paint choices--I took the advice of the nester and many others is blogland, and went with Rice Grain. It was a snap decision and I hadn't even seen the paint chip until I walked in the store, but it seems to look okay and at any rate, it's too late to change our minds now, right?

We painted all day yesterday so the house is just torn apart. Today I hope to get everything put back together because the mess is making me twitch. I still have the Halloween boxes to put away, too so literally the entire first floor of my house is a disaster and there's not a clear vertical surface in the place.

A few weekends ago when there was enough clear space on my table for my sewing machine, I made a few fun things to add to my fall/winter wardrobe. Old Navy had these tanks on sale for $7 so I picked up three to see if I could do something with them.

For the first, I tried making ruffles with ribbon, a technique I've wanted to try for a while. I used wide red-and-cream striped ribbon from Stampin' Up! and sewed a long stitch down the middle with my sewing machine. Then I pulled the strings to create the ruffles, and pinned the ruffles around the neckline of the tank.

It was tricky to figure out what to do with the ends of the ribbon. I ended up cutting them into dove tails, which reminds me that I need to pick up some Fray Check at the craft store. After I pinned the ruffles, I sewed down their middles.

And now all I can think of is bacon. Is it just me? I made kind of a mess of sewing the ends, so to help hide that I clipped on a flower pin I'd just made that fortuitously is in just the right color of red.

I like it, even though it's not perfect. I'd like to try it again but use different ribbon or even buy another tank to cut up and make ruffles out of the knit.

The next tank was much easier. For inspiration, I used this refashioned skirt that I bought earlier this summer:

To make my design, I cut a simple leaf shape out of a cardboard scrap and used it as a template to cut more leaves out of scrap fabric.

I chose pale green vintage skinny rickrack from my stash, and pinned it down the side of the shirt with the leaves spaced out.

I used red thread to sew them all down, because one of the things I loved about the original design on the skirt was the use of bright, contrasting colors. I sewed the rickrack first, slowly and carefully. If I did this again, I'd wait to cut the rickrack until it was all sewn down. I thought I had measured enough but once it was sewn down, the rickrack came up a bit short at the top of the shirt. I think the knit stretched or something and it's annoying and I can't fix it so I'll just have to live with it and remember next time to sew from the top down!

When it came to the leaves, I tried the one on the bottom first (since if I messed up a little, it would be less visible) and completely screwed it up. Sigh. So I cut another leaf using my handy template, and this time I used a bit of fabric glue just in the center of the leaves to tack them down to the shirt so they wouldn't move when was trying to sew around them.

That worked much better! I thought about using an iron-on fusible product underneath but if you do that, you don't get the cute fringing on the outside of the leaves after they've been washed.

I'm happier with this shirt and it was so darn easy! I think both tanks will be fun to wear over long-sleeved tees this fall and winter. I still have one navy tank left to refashion but I'm waiting for inspiration to strike.

Skirting the issue: clothing restyling

I bought the cutest skirt the other day and I wanted to show you because I think it is very inspiring. I purchased the skirt at a small local boutique, and the owner told me that everything in this particular line of clothing is one-of-a-kind; that it was all repurposed and embellished with vintage items. Here's how that translated to me: the designer (a local girl) buys clothing at thrift stores, fancies it up by adding some details with vintage fabric and trim, cuts out the original tag and replaces it with her own, then marks the price up about 1000% and consigns them to this little boutique.

The pieces that were in the boutique were really cute. Unfortunately, because they were all OOAK, I was out of luck on several items because they weren't my size. I did find this cute denim skirt with fun detail on the front that will be great for summer and even with tights for fall.

The skirt itself is a nice, basic piece--I love the cut and the fullness created by the panels. The embellishment is really simple, but it's cute. Here's a closer look:

All she did was run a line of baby rickrack up the seam of one of the panels, then appliqued on leaves cut from bright vintage fabric. SO easy! Heck, I'm a-skeered of my sewing machine, and even I think I could manage this. Some of the other pieces in the shop had leaves or flowers cut out of  vintage feed sack fabric. Those were my favorite, but none were in my size.

In a nutshell: find good, solid clothing pieces at the thrift store that fit you well and are nicely made, then raid your stash for fabric and vintage trims, embellish, and you end up with a darling custom clothing item. This strikes me as a great use for scraps of vintage fabric that you just can't bear to throw away, but that are too small to do much else with. I also think it would be clever to use my Sizzix Big Shot and my flower dies to make the appliques. Now I just need some cute, cheap thrifted clothing to experiment on!

Wardrobe refashion: Freezer paper stenciling

Most of September is just a blur to me. I spent so many days in limbo, waiting for Porter to be born that the days all ran together and before I knew it the month was over! I've been meaning to post about these since the first week of September, when I did my class on wardrobe refashioning (previous posts here and here).One of the reasons I volunteered to teach the class in the first place was that it would give me a good excuse to finally try out freezer paper stenciling, a technique I've been reading about throughout blogland for a couple of years. I've long been acquainted with crafting with freezer paper, ever since I taught my roommates how to make tissue paper envelopes back in our freshman year of college. In case you've never used freezer paper before, it can usually be found in the same grocery store aisle as the foil and plastic wrap. It's wide white paper on a roll that has been treated on one side with a coating that makes it glossy and water-resistant. The neat thing about that coating is that when ironed, it melts and becomes adhesive, opening up all kinds of crafting possibilities.
Complete instructions for the freezer paper stenciling technique can be easily found through an online search, but the premise is this: draw or print a design on the paper side of the freezer paper and cut out a mortise (reverse) mask. Iron the freezer paper onto your fabric, glossy side down, thereby adhering the stencil to the fabric. Paint as you normally would with a stencil and when the paint is dry you can simply rip off the freezer paper to reveal your design!For my designs I used a mixture of sources. The crow was the outline of a clip art illustration from a book, the toadstool was hand drawn, and the black cat and owl were clip art from my Microsoft Word program. You can use any kind of design, but it's important to remember which parts of your design will be positive and negative space! (Ask me how I know this one.)For the owl, cat and toadstool I used regular opaque fabric paint. For the crow I used really beautiful silver Lumiere fabric paint that I bought at JoAnn's. It didn't photograph well but it's a beautiful metallic silver! I haven't washed it yet so I don't know how it will hold up but the shirt itself cost less than $5 so it won't be a huge tragedy if it cracks.

I found freezer paper stenciling is just as easy and addictive as all of the other bloggers said. What a great way to hide a stain or a flaw or just to spruce up an existing (but boring) piece of clothing!

Wardrobe Refashioning, round 2

Last week I taught my class at the church on Clothing Refashioning (the one I made the corsage t-shirt for) and I think it went really well! I had a great attendance and the ladies seemed to really enjoy themselves. It was a little tricky as I can't actually try on any of the shirts I made, so I'm not entirely sure how good they actually look on a body!
This was a $10 shirt from Target. To embellish it, I simply made three fabric yo-yos. I actually had never made a yo-yo before (even though I've always meant to learn) so I used Heather Bailey's tutorial. They were easy but if I was planning to make a whole bunch of them I'd definitely invest in a little yo-yo maker gadget. Three for a shirt wasn't bad, and to fancy them up a bit I sewed a coordinating pearl bead in the center of each before tacking them to the shirt.

I haven't washed it yet so I don't know how well they'll hold up in the laundry but they were so easy that I can reattach (or ultimately remove) them as needed.The next shirt was a $5 hoodie from Old Navy. For this one I raided my stash of vintage covered button blanks that I've been slowly collecting, one thrifted bag of sewing notions at a time. I used some fat quarters I had on hand from some other project and made buttons in a variety of sizes. Those little covered buttons are addicting! I love how smooth and perfect they turn out and can't wait to make more--I'll be on the lookout for these while thrifting for sure.
To embellish the shirt I laid out the buttons in a pattern I liked and sewed each one to the shirt. That part was actually harder than I anticipated, as I didn't have a good way to mark on the fabric where each button should go. My tailor's chalk just doesn't work and since the shirt is black a disappearing ink marker wasn't an option. I ended up taking a photo of the button layout and printing it to use as reference, then just eyeballing it but I think my arrangement suffered a bit as a result. I also think this would work better on a garment with a little more heft to the fabric; the knit is very thin and the weight of the buttons causes them to lay a bit funny. The good thing is that I can easily snip off the buttons and resew them on a different shirt or sweater--heck, I can even change out the fabric if I want!
This last shirt I made to show how you can doodle with a Clorox Bleach gel pen. I don't totally love how it turned out but at least it gave people the idea of what you can do. The shirt was less than $5 on clearance at Target so no big loss if I can't salvage it.

I placed a large piece of cardboard inside the shirt before I started so that the bleach wouldn't go through to the back, then free-handed a design with the bleach pen. Using the bleach pen takes a little bit of practice to get a nice, even line without smearing or blotting. I let the design sit for about 20 minutes and then I carefully folded the shirt in half with the bleached side out and put it in my laundry sink that was filled with cold water. I let that sit for a while until the bleach gel washed off and then I threw the whole thing in the washing machine. I still got a ghosting effect from the design in some places-- I'm not quite sure how that happened, but I don't like how it looks so that's why I'm not happy with how this shirt turned out. However, this could definitely be a fun way to salvage a shirt that got splashed with bleach: it's ruined anyway so even if you don't like how the bleach doodles turn out, you're really no worse off, right?

The other technique I showed in my class was freezer paper stenciling, which was so fun and just as addicting as everyone says! I'll show those shirts in another post.

Wardrobe refashion: Corsage T-shirt tutorial

Next week I'm teaching a class for the ladies at church on Clothing Refashioning. Let me be the first to admit that I don't really have any experience doing wardrobe refashioning, but what I do have is a healthy regard for my ability to learn a new skill (read: copy from other more creative bloggers) and teach it!

My friend Angie knew I was teaching the class and sent me this link showing a cute and easy T-shirt refashion and I've been obsessed with making my own version.
Here's the inspiration item: a shirt from J.Crew, original price $29.50. Not bad for a T-shirt from J.Crew, but I think my $5 version is pretty darn cute too:I used the same Old Navy $4.99 clearance T-shirt as this tutorial. I wanted to be able to wear it immediately, so I bought an XXL to fit my 37-weeks-pregnant frame. For the extra material, I bought an XL shirt in the same color. This one was also on clearance but the shirt had a small hole in the front so the salesperson gave me an additional small discount, making my total for the two around $9 with tax. Go ahead and get the largest size shirt you can for your cutter--it's probably the same price but will give you more fabric for your buck. This way you can make corsages for several t-shirts from one cutter so your final product is even less expensive!

The Little Birdies tutorial and original Enchantresses 3 tutorial both used heart shapes to make the flowers. I wanted things to be even easier so I chose to use the stacked circles method from this Hope Studios tutorial. I used a circle template and a Sharpie because I was having a hard time getting my shapes to look like circles instead of blobs (and I'm OCD like that), but you could just eyeball it if you like. My largest circle is about the diameter of a soda can.
I started out with 12 stacks of circles. To sew them, I used matching embroidery floss and starting at the shoulder seam, I just pinched each circle stack and stitched through the bottom onto the base shirt. It's hard to explain, but it was really very low-tech--if you can sew a button, you can sew these (the Hope Studios tutorial explains it better). I went through each stack about four times for security and knotted each one. It's up to you how close you want to place the flowers but in my opinion closer is better so that you get a nice fluffy fullness to your flowers.As I said, I started with 12 stacks but once those were sewn I thought it needed more, so I cut four additional stacks and sewed those. After that I washed and dried the shirt. The cut edges of the flowers don't really fray but they do become a little more rough and they shrink up and get fluffy. Originally the shapes were much more floppy like the J.Crew shirt, and I think if you wanted them to stay that way you either need to make the circles larger to begin with or try the heart-shape method. I did notice that after everything shrank in the drier, there were a few empty spots, so I quickly cut and sewed on two more circle stacks to fill in the design.
Here's a closer look at the corsage so you can see how fluffy it is. I wore my shirt to church on Sunday and I have to say that I'm pretty darn tickled with myself--for $5 and 30 minutes, I have a cute new shirt! Also, I still have plenty of fabric left from my cutter shirt so I can embellish another shirt or two--maybe Maren needs one too. I'm going to show this project in the class I'm teaching and I hope the ladies like it! I also think this would be a really fun project for teenage girls because it's easy, inexpensive and provides almost instant gratification, plus I'm sure you can take text-messaging breaks in between sewing flowers. ;)

I have two more refashioning projects for $5 Old Navy shirts in the works, so I hope I'll have those to show you soon. I also promised to teach my class freezer-paper stenciling for childrens' shirts, so I'd better get a move on learning how to do that as well. I've got a week to become an expert! :)