The Silhouette Sweatshirt

 Hello Readers. Let's up-cycle an old sweatshirt. This Florida sweatshirt was a great base for these small silhouettes. Let me show you haw I put it together. 

I lived in Florida for years but I wanted a new sweatshirt. 

I thought I could remove these letters from the front of this sweatshirt... I could not. I decided to cover them. 

I have some cool fabric that my mother-in-law gave me. I cut out some of the silhouettes from the fabric. The colors are great for this shirt. I love this aqua-marine greenish-blue. 

 

I used some fusible inter-facing to make it easier to handle the small pieces of fabric. 

 

I arranged the pieces so that they would cover the Florida logo. I used matching thread and stitched around the edges of the pictures. I used a zigzag stitch to attach the silhouettes to the shirt. 

 

I loved how it turned out but this sweatshirt was a little too big. I decided to fix that too. 

 

 

I cut the shirt down and made it smaller and short sleeved. 

 

This was a fun shirt and I love the new look. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Heart Hoodie

 Hello Readers. Valentine's Day is coming soon. I love to make clothes with a theme. I don't know why but I do. Let's just go with it and have some fun with it. I had this plain sweat shirt on-hand and I decided to dress it up a little. 

New Sweatshirt! 

This was a plain sweatshirt jacket. It was simple and it had a zipper in front. That means I could open it up to sew the heart on it. 

 

I also had these sweatshirts that I could use for this project. 

 

I cut 3 hearts out of the sweatshirts. I wanted one in each color. 

 

I took the heart shapes and ironed on some fusible interfacing to give them more structure. I ironed the back of the hearts to the bumpy side of the interfacing. 

 

I played around with the placement of the hearts. I rearranged them until I liked how they looked. 

 

I pinned the hearts in place and sewed around the edges of the hearts to attach the hearts to my jacket. 

 

I sewed the hearts on the sweatshirt one at a time.

 

I used thread that matched each heart to keep the colors the same. 

 

My sweatshirt was ready for Valentine's Day. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quilted Sweateshirt

 Hello Readers. Free promotional shirts are so common at thrift stores, we all get them from festivals and events.They get donated often. They are usually covered with advertising and they are not very cute. Let's make this promotional sweatshirt as cute as can be. 

 Before and after some simple alterations.  

 This sweatshirt was boring and blah. I can change that though. I have some scrap pieces of a quilt. I want to use some of this quilt to decorate this sweatshirt and make it special. (This is a modern quilt made in a factory, it was not made by my grandmother or yours. It's not antique or vintage. Please do not get upset about cutting up this quilt. It's OK. I have 2 quilts made by my great grandmother and I solemnly swear to never cut them.) 

 I measured the area that I wanted to cover. This shirt has printing on the front and back. I want to cover both. I cut a square-ish rectangular shape to cover the printing. I don't want to see any of the writing peeking out around my quilt piece so i used the size of the writing as a guide for how big to make my quilt piece I made my quilt piece a bit larger than the printing I wanted to cover.  I un-picked the stitches of the front pocket. I saw there was a stain on my shirt at the waistband, that's OK. I just cut it off. The pocket came off with the bottom of the sweat shirt. It looks short right now but I will fix that later. 

I pinned the quilt piece in place over the printing with a lot of pins. I wanted the quilt piece to stay in place and not shift around at all while I was sewing. The pins will do this.

 I used a zigzag stitch on my sewing machine and stitched along the edge of the quilt piece. The stitches will cover the cut edge and make it look nice and neat as well as attach the quilt piece to the shirt. The light blue is a nice color with the quilt and the sweatshirt. 

 When I was done sewing the front and back pieces onto the sweat shirt. I got a long horizontal piece of the quilt. It had a really pretty scalloped edge and I wanted to sew it on the bottom of the sweat shirt. It would add the length that I had cut off and it would be a fun look. 

 My new sweat shirt was cute in front and back. I liked the new look. 

 I added some light blue ribbon through the hood casing because it didn't have any string in it. It was just for fun and added a touch of matching light blue to the hood. 

 

Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.    

The Sweatshirt Skirt

 Hello Readers. It is time for the annual Dressember Fundraiser. What Is Dressember? They are an organization that works to fight human trafficking and forced labor in the U.S and all around the world.   Since 2013, Dressember advocates have raised over $20 million to support International Justice Mission (IJM) and its partners. I will be wearing and refashioning dresses all month in honor of this mission. You can learn more at Dressember.org

  This fun sweatshirts seemed to match each other. I loved the candy colored stripes and how the colors went with the lettering of the other sweatshirt. The "Holly Jolly" was Christmas-y but the colors were a change from traditional basic red and green. 

Before and after. Yes, this is a skirt in a month of dresses. I realize that might bend the rules a bit, but its so cute!!!

This sweat shirt would make a fun colorful skirt. This would be a fun Christmas outfit. 

 

I cut the sleeves and shoulders off the sweatshirt off the shirt. 

 

I threaded elastic through the waistband of the sweatshirt. The waistband will make a great waistband of my new skirt. 

 

The sweatshirt skirt tuned out just as I planned. Things don't always turn out they way we think they will. Life is like that.

 

I think Christmas is worthy of a fun holiday outfit. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 
 

 

 

 

Crop a Sweatshirt

 Hello Readers. Have you ever wanted to shorten a long top? I liked this sweatshirt a lot but it was a tunic. I wanted it to be waist length so I decided to shorten it and add a waistband made from the excess fabric I cut off. Let me show you how I did it. 

A new shorter length.

 

This was a soft tunic style sweatshirt. I like the eggplant color but the hem length and the sleeve length were both a bit long for me. I would like it a lot better if it was shorter in length and I would love an actual waistband at the hem of this shirt. Let's make it shorter. It's easy to do.

 

I cut the length of the shirt to my waist. I use sharp sewing scissors. This length will vary for each person. I suggest putting it on and marking the length that you want and then cutting the shirt.

 

I cut a second piece to use as a waistband. I cut a band from the extra fabric that was approximately 3 inches wide. 

 

I folded the band in half. I wanted the right-side of the fabric facing out. 

 

I clipped the waistband to the outside of the sweatshirt. It was clipped all the way around the hemline. The clips will help keep it in place while I sew it together. 

 

I sewed all the cut edges to each other. I sewed all the way around the hem of the sweatshirt to attach the waistband. I used my serger but you could also use a zigzag stitch on a regular sewing machine. Either is fine. Use what you have.

 

My next step was to top stitch the new seam. This will make the seam smooth and flat. I used my sewing machine with a straight stitch. This waistband will look nicely finished with out any elastic in it so I did not add any elastic to the waistband. (This is a simple beginner sewing machine if you need one.)

 

I wanted to shorten the sleeves a little too. (I have short arms. If you have normal to long arms, you might not need to do this.) I turned the sleeves up. I wanted the sleeves about 3 inches shorter. 

 

I stitched around the wrist cuff. I used a zigzag stitch so that the cuff will still have some stretch. The way I folded the cuff up to sew it will remove the extra length in the sleeve.

 

This is what the new seam looks like. It runs all the way around the wrist. 

 

I cut the excess fabric off the sleeve. I cut next to the seam I just sewed. When I fold the cuff down it will look like a normal sleeve and cuff.

 

Here is my new sweatshirt. The new waistband and wrist cuff look like there were always like that. 

 

I was happy with the new shape and fit of this sweatshirt. I hope this helps you crop one of your shirts. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweatshirts to Dress

 Hello Readers. I wanted to make a dress out of sweatshirt material. I had these 2 sweatshirts in my refashion stash so I decided to use these sweatshirts together. I thought this would be a fun cozy dress.

Before and after. 

This sweatshirt had a cool lace up neckline. This would be a fun feature to a dress.

This men's sweatshirt would be great as a skirt.

I cut the sleeves. and waistband off. I wanted to get the front by itself so make the bodice of the dress.

I cut 2 pieces so I would have 2 layers for my front.

I made a front and back that I could put together.

I cut the sleeves and shoulders off the gray shirt. The body could be a great skirt. I attached it to the bodice.

I wanted to attach the gray sleeves to the bodice.

The dress was as cozy as I thought it would be. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.