All that glitters…a quick tute to extend the life of a pair of kids pants.

K, so I’m not done the sparkle dress yet, it is cut out and waiting for me to do.  In the meantime I made up a couple of pillows using another sequin fabric we had at work.  I had a bit left over so I decided that it would be great for fixing a pair of my daughters pants.

She got a pair of jeans from the Salvation army a few months back during one of their dollar sales.  She loved them, wore them all the time and then the inevitable happened.  She got holes in the knees.  The pants were starting to get a bit short anyhow but they still fit in the waist.  Fixing them wouldn’t be a problem since the style already had a seam right around the knee area so all I had to do was cut of the legs at the seams, use the cut off bottom portions as pattern pieces and add new fancy bottoms to her pants!

Here’s what I did, you can adapt this to any pair of pants and the fabric you choose can be gender appropriate of course.

Materials:
Old jeans
Scissors
fabric for new pant legs
iron

I split the pants up the side seam and trimmed the leg off at the seam that was at the knee.   If your pants don’t have this particular seam (and they probably don’t since this is purely for design) just cut off the pant leg slightly above the knee (or just below would work too) so the seam doesn’t run directly across the knee.  Nothing is more uncomfortable than a line of bulky fabric right across the kneecap.

I was instructed to keep the little embroidered girl on the right leg so I cut it out to put it back on the new leg as an applique.  Next I ironed the jean pant leg so the seams were out flat.  Then used it as a pattern piece to cut out the new legs.  I added some length to the new ones while I was at it so she could get some more time out of the pants.

Then I just sewed the new pant legs on, sewed up the side seams and hemmed them.

Some thoughts on this project:

The type of fabric you use will determine the final look of the pant.  Choosing a more casual fabric would have given the pants a more casual look.  Choose your fabric based on your child’s favourite colours, prints etc and try to choose something that is similar to the pants fabric.  The fabric I used was a thicker knit but the jeans had a lot of stretch to them so the two fabrics actually worked out well together.

This works for boys pants too, just choose fabrics more suited to your little man.

This is a great way to reinforce knees too.  create a double layer of fabric across the knee and a single layer of fabric for the lower portion of the leg.

Use your imagination, straight legged pants can become flared leg pants and vice versa.  Just add a strip of fabric an inch or so above the hem if all you need is to add some length and the pant leg is in good shape.

How to squeeze one more year out of a kid’s t-shirt

So my Daughter started school today and was very excited about it.  She got herself dressed but when she came downstairs I noticed the shirt she was wearing was about 3 inches too short in the arms and body so in addition to her belly hanging out, she looked like she had gorilla arms! lol!  That and she had obviously worn this while painting one day and it was covered with little paint spatters.

I had her change her shirt and off to school she went.  When I got home I decided to see if I could get one more year out her shirt.  She has three of the same shirt (my mom found them on sale for a buck somewhere) and I knew they would all be fitting the same so I took the black shirt and the purple shirt and put them together to make a ‘new’ shirt.

Here’s the black shirt before:

and here’s the purple shirt before:

I love how the grease stains on the purple shirt show up so much more prominently in the photo than they do in real life.  Yeah, laundry is not my forte and my daughter has a hard time understanding the difference between her shirt and a napkin.

Anyhow, first thing I did was cut the sleeves off of the black shirt.  I didn’t measure anything, just eyeballed it and used the first sleeve cutoff to measure the second sleeve so they were even.

I needed to add about 3 inches to the length of the sleeve which worked out that I could simply cut off the purple sleeves at the underarm point.

I needed to add approximately the same amount the bottom of the shirt so I cut off the bottom portion of the purple shirt that equaled the length I needed to add plus the hem allowance of the black shirt.

I then inserted the purple piece I just cut off in the bottom of the black shirt, matched the side seams and lined up the cut edge with the top edge of the hem. Then I stitched around the hem of the black shirt to attach the two pieces making sure to follow the stitch line of the original hem.  I used purple thread but you can use a matching thread.

Next I matched up the sleeve edges, right sides together and serged them together.  You can use a straight stitch instead, knit fabrics tend to be resistant to fraying so there really isn’t much need to finish the edges.

So here’s how the shirt should look at this point.

In order to give the sleeves the look of being layered I flipped the seam up and stitched a “hem” around the black part of the sleeve.

I wanted to try and cover up some the paint spatters on the front of the shirt.  Reverse applique is my favourite thing at the moment so I decided to put some reverse appliqued flowers on the front.  It didn’t completely get rid of the paint splatter but I think it looks very cool now.

I cut the sleeves and front from the back of what was left of the purple shirt.  I used the back since it was less stained and slightly bigger than the front.  I turned the shirt inside out and pinned the purple to the front.

Next I turned it right side out again and drew my design on the shirt.  Then I simply used a straight stitch and went around the design a couple of times.

I trimmed the excess purple from edges on the back and then cut out the black inside the petals.

And voila! New shirt that should last at least one more year before she completely grows out of it.

Some thoughts on this project.

To lengthen the sleeves you don’t have to cut the sleeves short, you can just add to the hem of the sleeves similar to how I added length to the hem of the shirt.

If you don’t have enough to lengthen the sleeves, just cut them off and hem them as short sleeves, that way they can’t be too short. 🙂

You can leave the front of the shirt plain, sew on an embellishment, iron on a patch, embroider something, it’s really up to you.  I just really like reverse applique. 😀

Completed wedding dress!

Yay! I’m finished!  Now I need to get the dress dropped off before Friday night and keep my fingers crossed for a positive outcome from the competition.  🙂

I encountered a few snags, some I overcame and some I have to live with.  There were quite a few pick marks and tiny holes that I couldn’t do anything about.  They don’t detract from the dress and are not noticeable (except to me, anyhow) so I left them.  It would have been too awkward to cover them.  I did have to deal with the couple of stains on the bodice, I couldn’t ignore them.  I added lace to the bodice and added some of the beads and sequins I took from the original lace.  It wasn’t a mirror image design in the lace so I couldn’t make a perfectly symmetrical design from the flowers.  I opted to try for more of a non-specific design and I hope it doesn’t appear as though it was just added for the sake of adding it.

I had had an earlier problem of the sides of the dress sticking out.  I’ve somewhat solved the problem by removing the armhole thingys and re- attaching to take up the slack.  I think it is more of a design problem though and in the future I will probably take a different approach to the whole backless dress idea.

I also had originally made some really pretty organza flowers that I wanted to put on the dress.  I had added a cluster on the bodice, a cluster at the top of the train and one of the ends of the ribbon ties.  However, I found that they just didn’t fit.  Once I removed them, the dress seemed ‘finished’ so I’m happy to share the results.

Dress Front

Detail of Dress Front

Dress back

Detail of armhole thingys and the lacing. 😀

Detail of lace flowers on end of ribbon ties.

If all goes well I’ll have some professional photos of the dress to show you. 😀  Wish me luck for the competition!

Dress Update #4

I’ve hit a mild snag.  I have the plaid fabric on the dress and will be able to put the train on very soon.  I was having some trouble with the zipper.  First it was a bit short which meant that the wearer would have wiggle a little to get in.  Then there was an issue with how I put it in.  I tried to do a centered zipper but found that it didn’t really look that nice and also noticed that the back had stretched a bit, causing some gaping.  So I made some adjustments to give allowance for a longer zipper and reinforced the back so it wouldn’t stretch.  The plaid fabric just needs to be stitched on, by hand, now.

My snag is that now that everything is just about together I’ve noticed that the sides of the top are not sitting right.  I’m not sure how to fix this at the moment, I’ll have to think about it.  Right now my focus is to get the plaid fabric and the train on.  I have just over one week left to finish this dress in order to get it into the competition.

Dress update #3

Well, it is coming together, slowly but surely and I envision it will be awesome when it’s done.  I’ve got the front of the skirt and top portion of the back on.  Next step is adding the plaid strips to the waist, center front and center back.  I’ve started working on the armhole things…which I should figure out a name for so I don’t continually call them things or thingys though it does convey my message.

here are photos of the front, side and back.  I almost have all the plaid ready to put on but I think it’s going to be a lot of hand sewing since I don’t want any top stitching.  (That could change depending on my mood though. 😀 )

Oh, and one pic of my boy.  I can’t have the camera out without taking his picture, he is a bit of an egotist I think. ;D

and just in case you were wondering, yes those are boots he’s wearing with his swim trunks which he put on backwards because he likes the pocket.  lol!

Wardrobe Refashion Challenge- I took the 6 months pledge!

I troll the internet constantly, checking out other blogs and websites, being inspired by the incredible creativity that is out there!  One site I’ve come across before is Wardrobe Refashion.  This site encourages participants to take the pledge to remake, refashion, thrift and otherwise make their own wardrobe for a set period of 2, 4 or 6 months.  I happened across it again today and I’ve decided to take on the challenge for 6 months and will be posting things here.  I’ll try to post ‘in progress’ photos and tutorials when I can as well.

The Pledge

I Donna Giroux pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of “new” manufactured items of clothing, for the period of  6 months. I pledge that i shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoted, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed__Donna  Giroux__.

Anyone else care to take the pledge with me? click here.

Dress Update

I decided that maybe I could share some pictures of the inspirations I will be using for my wedding dress remake.  I’m even going to let you see my sketch, just promise not to laugh.  It was drawn really quick and with pencil and my scanner isn’t working right so I had to take a picture of it (on my cell phone no less).

Anyhow, I decided that this dress would be my main inspiration:

I love the idea of colour in a wedding dress.  I think it really sets a dress apart from the usual white.  I don’t care much for the silhouette of the dress, at least not for my dress since I don’t feel I could make this shape work with the fabrics I have available to me so I’m going to go with a slimmer skirt.  Here is my sketch.  I don’t know how clear it will be to everyone but perhaps when you look at the other inspiration photo’s it will make sense.

The main portions of the dress will be out of the off-white taffeta that was the original dress.  I’m going to slim down the skirt but create a fishtail train in the back.  The front will still have that awesome sweetheart neckline but I’m planning to add sleeveless armholes (sorry i can’t think how else to describe it) that will hook in the back.  The back will be open and the skirt will have a zipper in the back.  I’m going to add strips of colour (the darker portions of the sketch) around the armholes, waist, front and back of the skirt.

Here’s the dress in pieces:

These are the photo’s I’m using as inspiration for this dress.  This first one is actually the third dress that can be used as inspiration for the competition.  I’m sure you will see how each of these have given ideas for different aspects of my sketch.

So far I’ve removed most of the lace and beads from the top part of the dress.  I plan to use the beads again but the lace didn’t survive very well so I don’t think I’ll be able to use it.  I’ve already started working on the bodice.  here are a couple of photo’s of it pinned on the dress form.  Right now I’m just trimming it up and will start work on the skirt when the top is pinned back on the dress form.

A view of the princess seam pinned to fit the size of dress form I’m using.

A front view of the side seam pinned out.

A back view of the side seam pinned out.

after the fit of one side was what I wanted, I drew the new seam lines on with pencil and marked where I want to cut the back of the top out.  Then I carefully ironed the pieces flat and trimmed the excess fabric.  The front was folded in half so that the other half I didn’t fit on the dress form would be the same and the back piece that I marked also becomes a pattern piece for the other side.

Cut-offs for the Little Lady

Well, I’m trying to work my way through my stash a bit before I get started on my wedding dress and bra project.  I had this pair of kids jeans that I got from somewhere.  They were in great condition except for the holes in the knees that the previous owner had tried to patch with felt.  Felt, unfortunately, does not wash well so I imagine this was a very temporary solution to the problem.  I contemplated simply fixing the hole and putting the jeans away until later but decided instead to cut them off for my daughter.

Here’s how I went about doing this. (I apologise for the not so great pics, I only have my cellphone camera until my husband gets back from his business trip.)

First I laid out the jeans and decided how short I wanted them.  I decided to cut them 3″ below the crotch seam.

The easiest way I found to cut the legs fairly evenly is to measure up the inseam from the pant hem to the point you want to cut off the leg.  For these jeans it was about 20 inches.  Then I folded the jeans in half so that the inseams were together and measured up 20 inches from the hem and marked a few points to cut along and cut the legs off in one go.

At this point you can either leave it as is for that true cut off look or you can hem them. I decided to hem them since my daughter is somewhat particular about her clothes and I thought she might prefer the hem.  So to hem the shorts I turned up about 1/4 inch and pressed it.  Then turned up another 1/2 inch and pressed.

Then I stitched around the hem.  I just used white thread but you can use a thread that matches the top stitching.

I then had to take this project one more step.  Since the jeans are actually a couple of sizes too big in the waist I wanted to add some elastic.  I cut a slit in the inside waistband just in front of the side seam on both sides.  Be careful not to cut right through both layers.

Next I inserted a piece of elastic into the back portion of the waistband.  I left the elastic long and I’ll explain why in a minute.  Once the elastic is through to the other side, leave about a 1/2 inch tail and stitch through the waistband and elastic at approximately the side seam point.  The reason I left the elastic long is because it can be hard to gauge just how big of a piece of elastic is needed in order to draw in the waistband.  What I did was I measured a pair of pants that I knew fit my daughter and then drew up the elastic in the new shorts to match that measurement.  Then I tacked the elastic inside the waistband the same way I did on the first side, by stitching through all three layers.

Next I trimmed the elastic leaving about a 1/2 inch tail.  I tucked the ends of the elastic into the waistband and then slip stitched the openings closed.  Voila! new shorts for my girl!

Shrug Tutorial

About a week or so ago I found this really cute t-shirt reconstruction through one of my favourite crafty blogs, One Pretty Thing.  The tutorial is by EVEnl on Cut Out + Keep (another great crafty site).

My husband gave me an old sweater of his recently because it shrunk and didn’t fit any more but was still in great shape.  I wanted to do something with it for me so I thought perhaps this shrug idea would be fun to try.  I did have to deviate a little from the original instructions because though this sweater had shrunk, it wasn’t exactly my size.

To start with I cut the sleeves off.  Then I put the shirt on inside out and marked on the one side with pins the amount I wanted to take out of the width so that the sweater was more fitted.  I also needed to shorted the shoulders a bit as they hung a good 3 inches off my shoulder.

Next I cut up the center of the front and cut off the neck band.  This left a rather sharp corner at the neck so I decided to trim it off into a smoother curve so sewing in the casing would be easier.

Next I turned back about 1 inch along this new cut edge and stitched to create a casing.  Then I reattached the sleeves.  I had thought I might have to gather the sleeve head into the new armhole but it actually fit nicely so I didn’t have to make any major adjustments.

I also decided to not finish the seams.  Since the sweater is over half wool and had been pretty well shrunk (about 3 sizes) I’m not worried about any raveling of the raw edges.

The last step is to thread a ribbon or other lacing through the casing, put on the shrug and tie it up.  Since this is slightly thicker than a t-shirt I did have to adjust the gathering once I had it tied and I will be picking up a proper piece of ribbon tonight at work since all I could find in my notion box that was long enough was a rather thin piece of soutache braid.

Some thoughts on this project:

This is best for light weight fabrics like t-shirts.  The sweater I used was a fine merino wool/acrylic blend and probably verging on being too thick but I think it worked out pretty good. Any thicker and it would be too hard to tie the ribbon and it would be really bulky.

The sleeves do not have to be removed if you are using a top that already fits.  I removed the sleeves to make adjusting the size of the sweater easier but if you are using a t-shirt or other light weight top that fits ok, you can skip that step completely.

You don’t need a machine for this, it’s just faster (and I’m an impatient person) 😀  You can just as easily stitch this up by hand using a running stitch. check this awesome video from Threadbanger to see a running stitch in action (and maybe make something else cool from an old T)
http://www.threadbanger.com/episode/THR_20090327

As always, if this seems beyond your skillset but you have a t-shirt you want to do this to you can always email me to either do it for you or teach you how to do it yourself.

Closet Clean-out

My last post touched on what to do with your UFOs but what if you don’t sew?  A large majority of people have a closet stocked full of clothing that they don’t wear.  We keep things because we spent a lot of money on them, they have sentimental value, we think we will fit them again someday, and sometimes we keep things just because.  There are dozens of reasons to hang on to an item of clothing but unless you are actually wearing it, there is no good reason to keep them.

So lets clear out the closet.  Depending on how full your closet is, I would suggest setting aside at least one full day to do this.  The first thing to do is take everything out of your closet and dressers and lay them out.  It may be easier to do this in a large open room so if you have a small bedroom, take it all down to the living room.

The next thing to do is separate into two piles.  Be honest with yourself when doing this.  The first pile is going to be the stuff you wear regularly and by regularly I mean at least once every two weeks.  These items must fit and must be in good condition.  Don’t try to fool yourself by thinking that you might want to wear that item tomorrow when you haven’t worn it in over a month and it doesn’t matter if you are still 5lbs from fitting those jeans you wore every day before the kids came along.  Be honest and be harsh.  The second pile will, obviously, be everything else.  Once you have your first pile sorted, fold it up and put it away, keeping a mental stock of what you now have in your closet (or keep it set aside if you need the visual reminder).

Next we tackle that huge pile of clothing that is left over from the first sort.  This is where you need to keep in mind what is in your closet now.  Go through the pile and sort it out into one pile that fits and one that doesn’t.  It doesn’t matter if it’s in style, or if you haven’t worn it in years, just sort it out.  Set aside the pile that doesn’t fit, we’re now going to sort the pile that does fit.

Go through the pile and sort out anything that is not in good or wearable condition.  By this I mean anything that has holes, faded colours, is threadbare, has broken zippers or missing buttons etc.  Next you want to take a good look at each item and decide if it will fit in with your current wardrobe or not.  Try to set aside any feelings of sentiment.  If there was anything in this pile that fits with your current wardrobe and you will definitely wear, fold it up and put it away.  From what is left, if you have anything that would fit with your current wardrobe and all it needs is a quick fix, like replacing the zipper, you can put it aside in a fix pile.

Now it’s time to decide what to do with everything that is leftover.  The obvious would be to donate anything that is in wearable condition (no holes, fades or broken closures) to good will.  You can then flesh out your wardrobe with a shopping trip.  While I’m all for the shopping trip and who wouldn’t be, if you are trying to save some money you may consider going through the pile to see if there is anything else that is salvageable.  $10 + cost of zipper is usually way cheaper than buying a new skirt or pant.  Some things you need to take into consideration, however, are your sewing skills (if you plan to take this on by yourself), time, and necessity.  If you plan to do any fixing/altering on your own you will need to have both some sewing skill and the time to complete your projects.  Again, you need to be honest with yourself.  If you don’t see yourself being able to fix/alter on your own, then you have the option to take your stuff to a seamstress.  Also consider whether it is really necessary to fix that skirt or put new buttons on that jacket.  Just because it may fit in your wardrobe doesn’t mean you need it.  Who really needs 5 black blazers anyhow?

Tired yet?  Take a break, have a cold drink and something to eat.

Now that your closet is cleaned out you have three options for all the left over clothing.  Option one would be to simply pack it all up and make a trip to the local good will store.

Option two would be to have a clothing swap.  Never been to or heard of one?  It’s pretty simple.  Pick a night to get together with a group of your girlfriends, the more, the merrier and the better the clothing selection.  Tell everyone to clear out their closet of anything they aren’t wearing or don’t want and this can include shoes and accessories too.  It doesn’t matter if everyone is the same size, chances are someone has lost/gained weight and has something that will fit someone else in the group.  You can be organized and sort everything out by sizes/styles, draw number to see who goes first etc, or simply dump everything in the middle of the room and dive in, just make sure to have some wine and snacks available. 😀  Once everyone has picked out what they want, everything else is packed up and taken to good will.

Option three is a little more involved so I’ll write a separate post about it but this is where you can get creative.  Take stock of each item of clothing you have leftover from your closet clean out and decide whether it can be repurposed.  Maybe you have a dinner party coming up and that old bridesmaid dress could be remade into a cute cocktail dress.  Perhaps you have children, the younger the better since they love anything you make for them, and that old pair of jeans or that huge corduroy skirt could easily be cut into a pair or two of  new pants for your toddler.  There are hundreds of options if you take the time to consider them.

I hope this has been helpful and if you are in the Kitchener/Waterloo area, remember I’m available to do repairs and alterations for you!