Thursday, March 14, 2024

A Shamrock Wrap Shirt

 Hello Readers. St. Patrick's Day is coming and I am mostly Irish so want to be ready. I came across some shamrock fabric at the thrift store and I knew it would be perfect for a this time of year. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I have made one of these wrap shirts before. At it's simplest a wrap shirt is just a square with a head hole in the middle. 

For this wrap shirt I made larger sleeves that will be wider and more full. That is why the sleeves are wider than the waist here. 

Here is a better look at the shape of the shirt. That is the head hole in the middle.

I think the best way to cut the shirt is to fold it in fourths so that all the sides can be symmetrical. 

I used bias tape to finish the edges of the sleeves. I sewed the bias tape to the right side of the fabric. 

Then I turned the bias tape under and stitched it again. This hid the cut edge and made it easy to finish the curves of the sleeves. I also used this bias tape on the waist of the front of the shirt. 
 
The front of the shirt wraps around to the back of the body and you can see the bias tape tied there.
 
I cut narrow strips of the fabric to make a waistband for the back of the shirt. I sewed them together and made a long narrow strip of fabric. 
 
I sewed the waist tie to the waist of the shirt and left long ends that I could tie to keep the shirt closed.
 
You can see the long ties hanging from the waist here. 
 
The ties make a cute bow in the front of the shirt and the wide sleeves are so fun. It could be worn with the big bow in back too. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 
 
 Erin go braugh!
 

 
 
 
 












Wednesday, March 13, 2024

A Buttondown Shirt Refashion

 Hello Readers. St. Patrick's Day is coming soon. I hope you have some green to wear. It's good luck! I wanted this button down to be short sleeves so I got to work. 

Before and after.

This green plaid shirt was fine but I had an idea. 

I cut the sides of the shirt and that also removed the sleeves. 

I made new arm holes. 

I also cut it shorter and hemmed it. I was in mood for a summer top. I thought this would be a great top for spring and summer.

Then I took one sleeve and cut it open so it would lay flat. Why? It is going in the front of the shirt.

I cut a section of the sleeve that was about 5 inches wide and I serged the edges. 

I sewed the piece of sleeve into the front of the shirt. It is attached between the sides of the shirt. 

I liked the green stripes going in a different direction. I had fun playing around with this and it will be great for warm weather.
 
  But I can also wear it under a sweater in cold weather too. Thanks for reading along, now go make something green for yourself.











Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Low-rise Pants to Cargo Skirt

 Hello Readers. Can pants become a skirt? Yes, let me show you how I did it. 

 
Before and after.
 
These are not flattering and the clasp in the front is broken. The fabric was very nice linen and I thought I could make a fun cargo style skirt.

I could connect the legs to make a skirt and use some of the extra fabric to add some large pockets. 

I needed to fix this part of the waistband. It looks like someone tried to fix this but it didn't work. 

I used a zigzag stitch to sew the 2 sides together. I sewed horizontally as well as vertically to make this really strong. 

I cut the legs open along the inside seams. 

I turned the pants inside-out and once the seams were cut open I pinned the seams together like this. I would sew this new seam together and I would have a skirt. For the back I pinned all the way up, including the waistband. That way it would remove the entire back seam.

You can see the new seams if you look closely. In the front the new seam goes up the the bottom of the zipper, We will need the zipper to get in and out.  I tried it on to check the fit and then cut all that excess fabric away. 

The waist was a bit big so I decided to cut the sides open at the side seam.

I pulled the back of the skirt over the front and clipped it in place. 
 
 I stitched that down using a zigzag stitch and the waist fit so much better. 
 
I cut 2 pockets from the hem of the pant legs to attach to the sides of the new skirt.
 
I folded the edges under and ironed the pocket into a square. 
 
I wanted a large pocket on each side of the skirt so I sewed them on. 
 
I shortened it and I love how fun and casual this turned out. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
 
 
 

 

 

 













Thursday, March 7, 2024

Patching Distressed Denim

 Hello Readers. I have always liked distressed denim. It just seems relaxed and there isn't any pressure or stress about it being perfect. It's a little messy. It's casual and fun.

Before and after.

This skirt was cute but it was meant to be low in the waist. I wanted to raise the waist but that means the distressing will be up on my thigh and I wasn't comfortable with that open hole so high on my leg. I wanted to patch the hole from the inside with this fabric I had in my stash. It had little green sneakers all over it and I just thought it was cute. 

I cut off the long white threads just to get them out of the way. This will open up the hole but I am going to fill it in so it's OK.

I cut a piece of the fabric and made sure it covered the hole fully. I turned the skirt inside out to check the coverage. 

I stitched around the hole to secure the fabric to the denim. I patched the other hole the same way.

I cut off the excess fabric away from the patch. I sewed the new side seams to make the waist smaller. When the waist is smaller the skirt will sit higher on my body. 

The skirt has a higher waist and the patches are a fun addition. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.







Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Use Shrunken Wool Sweaters to Make a Quilt

 Hello Readers. Sometimes accidents happen, wool goes in the washer and/or dryer and it shrinks down to child size. It gets thicker and stiffer. What can you do? I have an idea. Wool is very warm and cozy, even shrunken wool, let's cut up some sweaters and make an easy beginner kind of quilt.

Use those shrunken sweaters, don't throw them away!
 
I used my sharpest scissors for all my cutting.

I started by cutting my sweaters into pieces of the same size. I cut rectangles, approximately 8' by 12', and smaller rectangles that were 4' by 8'. 

I had 6 sweaters. I have been collecting them for a while. I cut out all my pieces with very sharp scissors. (The wool is thicker and tougher to cut when it shrinks.) I tried to keep them all the same size. I tried not to stretch or pull the sweaters as I cut them. They will give and stretch because they are knits. 

I spread out my pieces so I could see what I had. I wanted the colors to be spread out all through the quilt. I had more of some colors and less of others. I tried not to over-think the arrangement but I wanted the pieces in rows that were the same length.

I started sewing the pieces together. This is a lot of sewing, I needed a sewing machine, needles and neutral thread. I sewed the 8' sides together with the right sides facing each other. Some of the sweaters had a definite right side and some looked the same on each side. 

I put piece after piece together to make a long row. I sewed row after row. Until I used all my pieces. I broke quite a few needles on this project so I am glad I had some extras on-hand.

It started to get more difficult now. I sewed the rows together. I put the right sides together and stitched straight down the edges. When all the rows are connected, the quilt gets heavier. I stitched with a straight stitch and sewed slowly without pulling or stretching the pieces.

I spread it n the floor to see all my rows connected. 
 
This is what the back of the quilt looks like. It's not pretty.
 
I wanted to cover the back of the quilt. I had this large pieces of fabric in my stash. It was large enough to equal the quilt. I sewed it to the top of the quilt.
 
 I sewed all around the edge of the quilt connecting the quilt to the fabric.
 
 I left and opening to turn the quilt right-side out when I was done. When the quilt was right-side out, the fabric hid the stitching in between the quilt and the fabric.  

I wanted to smooth out the thick edges, I stitched all around the quilt. That would keep the edges neat and help define the border of the quilt. 

I sewed all the way around the quilt so that the edges more defined, but you can see the fabric layer peeking out fro the back of the quilt at the top. The layers have shifted around a little because they are so connected. I just needed to stabilize or connect the center of the quilt. 

I used some very narrow ribbon for this. 

 
I used a large embroidery needle to sew under and back on top of the sweater layer and the fabric layer. I did this in the center of each quilt piece.
 
I tied the ribbon in a knot. Connecting the layers together. If they are not connected like this the quilt and fabric layers will shift around. 
 
I made sure the knot was tied tight. 
 
I cut off the excess and left about an inch of the ribbon attached to the knot.
 
Here is a close up. You can see I left the pockets/seams/etc. attached to my wool squares. I didn't want to pretend this wasn't made from old sweaters, I wanted to embrace that.  
 
This is going to be cozy as winter comes to an end. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.