The Sassy Sweatshirt

Hello Readers. Some days are made for dressing up and going out and some are made for sweatshirts and being lazy. My daughter had a great sweatshirt that she loved. It was soft and cozy and had some great sassy writing on the front. The problem was that it didn't fit well at all. I needed to make it smaller, without altering the fun writing on the front of the shirt. 

OK, I can do that.

You can see from the back that the neckline was way to big and too low. Maybe it was supposed to hang off the shoulder in a slouchy way?  No, the material was too thick to hang off anything. The sleeves were too long too. It made the sleeves bunch up or hang off her hands.

 

You can see the front neckline is too big. She wore a blue shirt under it because it was too open and revealing to wear by itself. The waistband also bunched up around the waist while she was wearing it. The waistband was too tight and would ride up. It wasn't comfortable like this.

I know what you're thinking. What is this lousy picture here for? I was very confused about why my camera couldn't focus. Or was it something wrong with my computer? Long story short after an investigation; my 2 year old got his sticky hands all over my camera lens and it took me hours to figure it out. Obviously, tech is not my area of expertise but seriously it took me forever to discover I needed to clean my lens.

I made the sleeves shorter. I removed the waistband and left it off.

Here is another terrible picture of the sleeves getting shortened. It was right after this that I realized how to fix the camera.

I made the sleeves about 4 inches shorter.

I took a big piece of fabric out of the back of the shirt. It was just too big and This made the neckline smaller as well. It wouldn't be so low and it didn't alter or disturb the writing on the front.

The new neckline fits so much better. Taking the fabric out from the back made the neck hole smaller and higher. It fits better and doesn't need a shirt under it.

 

The back of the sjirt fits better too. It doesn't hang down too much. 

 

The sleeves are 3/4 length now. Instead of hanging down over the hands they can stay up on the arms. Now that the waistband is cut off the shirt can hang loose and comfortable when it's time to relax.

 

We can't always wear dress clothes, sometimes you need casual clothes to wear too. Thanks for reading this post, now go make something fun for yourself.

*Year end update- This is still great for relaxing on the weekend.

Using Dye and Cleaning It Up

Hello Readers. I love using dye to freshen up or change a piece of clothing. It is easy to do and very effective. It can be intimidating if you have never used dye. Someone asked me recently how I used it in the washer, did it leave a mess behind, and how did I clean up the washer after? Read on to find out more.

I loved this floral dress but it wasn't a nice crisp white anymore. It was a little yellowed from the wash. (Maybe because we have hard water in our town?) It was in great condition but it didn't look its best anymore.

I put it in my top loader washing machine with this bottle of dye instead of soap. There are directions on the back of the bottle about how much dye you need. I usually just set my washing machine for a small load and use HOT water.

You can buy this kind of dye at craft and fabric stores. It is available online too.

Here is how the dress came out. The gray made the dress look so much more luxurious and expensive. Somehow the color made the fabric look richer and higher quality.

After dying the item, I run a rinse cycle to get the extra dye out of the dress (As directed.) There is usually some dye splatter left in the washing machine after I do this. I use a bathroom spray with bleach and spray it inside my washing machine and wipe it down with paper towels. I try to make sure to spray in all the nooks and crannies. The bleach in the cleaner makes the dye disappear right before my eyes. Then I run a large load of whites, like towels or sheets with bleach to flush out the whole machine, and that's it.

I didn't get paid to endorse this cleaner, I just actually use it.

After that my washing machine is good as new. I never have any problems with the dye getting on other clothes when I clean the washing machine out like this. I hope this helps you if you decide to use some dye on a project.

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

*Year end update- I don't think I wore this dress again yet. And I still use bleach to clean my washer after I use dye.

The Lace Vest

Hello Readers. I have seen some lacey vests and kimonos recently that I really liked. I don't usually like to buy things retail, I like to try to make things myself. If I can. I don't always succeed but I like to try. I found a nice lacey dress recently at a clothes swap and thought I could use it for material. Basically, I brought it home and cut it up for parts. Y'know, like a stolen car.

Here is a look at the dress. It has a handkerchief hem. There are 4 points along the hem of the skirt skirt, 2 in front and 2 in the back. There was a beige lining under the lace. I originally thought there would be enough lace to make a kimono with sleeves. I was wrong, so I made a vest.

  

I started by cutting off the lace at the waist. I cut all the way around the dress. I ended up with what looked like a lace skirt. I also cut the waist tie/sash off the dress to use later.

I saved this but I am not sure what I will do with it.

I cut the lace skirt up the back because there was a seam in the back. What you see in this picture is the beginning of my vest. I folded the fabric over on itself. That is going to be the back of my vest.

 I also rounded of the corners at the top of this picture. It helped the front of the vest lay flat in the front when I was wearing it.

It looks like a bat doesn't it? It's the "Bat Vest".

I connected the two pieces of the waist tie and it made a long thin piece that I was going to use as a collar of sorts.

I attached it to the raw edge at the top of the vest at the neckline and down the front of the vest. It made the vest look more finished.

The added front pieces gave me a little more fabric up around my neck and in the front of the vest too.

I opened the side seams and made armholes. The points of the original hem are still visible and I liked the way they looked.

It looks like I have bat wings. Call me Batwoman!

I liked how the black lace looked with a black outfit but the photo did not come out very well. You can't see the vest at all. You can see the vest more easily over this white dress.

I did it, I made a vest. It was easy to put together but I had to sew most of it by hand. My sewing machine kept trying to eat the lace. It was annoying but the hand sewing went well.

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


*Year end update- I still like this with a basic black outfit. It adds a little something to a plain black t-shirt and jeans.

2 Sweatshirts Into 1

Hello Readers. It is that weird time of year when it is warm one day and cold the next. I decided to make one sweatshirt from two that had serious problems. OK, maybe they weren't "serious" problems. I mean life is full of serious problems. Really, these two sweatshirts just had some minor issues that I wanted to fix.

 Here are the two sweatshirts. The blue sweatshirt was too big and too plain. The brown sweatshirt was really nice but it was too small. I thought they would be a good combination so I got to work putting them together..

Here is the blue sweatshirt. It was a great navy blue color but it was very plain and simple. As you can see it is too big too.

I made the navy blue sweatshirt a little smaller. I tried it on and I made it a little bit smaller again. I curved the sides in and flared the hips out just a little. I also cut off the waistband and wrist cuffs. 

The brown sweatshirt was really nice quality and well made by J. Crew. It said it was a small but I think they were lying. I'm not sure how small the people at J.Crew think woman are, but it must be REALLY small. Because this was a very small shirt. Maybe it shrunk?

I decided to take all the good bits and pieces from the brown shirt and use them to jazz up the blue shirt. I cut off the wrist cuffs, the waistband, front pocket and the collar. I couldn't find a use for the tiny body of the shirt.

 If you look at this picture of the collar you can see I cut it off along the seam but I left about 1/4 of extra fabric around it. I used the extra fabric to pin the collar to the navy blue sweatshirt. After I stitched along the seam, I cut off the excess brown fabric from the edge. I attached all the brown parts to the blue sweatshirt.

You can see the raw cut edge along the collar, the wrists, the pocket, and the waistband. I wanted a casual look and raw edge lets the tiniest amount of white show. It gives the shirt some extra interest and texture. And it is soft, warm, and cozy to wear.

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

*Year end update- I just wore this a couple days ago. Love it.

The Peasant Skirt Shirt

 Hello Readers. I decided to make a new shirt. Dresses are fun but shirts and jeans are kind of my daily mom uniform. You know how it is. You usually throw your clothes on and you need to be prepared for whatever trouble your kids get you into that day. Cartoons, mud-puddles, errands, who knows!

I started with this cropped sweater that I didn't really need or wear. It was short and I couldn't wear it by itself. It always needed to be paired with something else. I was going to add it to something permanently so it was a complete shirt.

I also had this peasant skirt that I never wore. I really liked the fabric and the pattern so I have been saving it for a project such as this.

I cut off the lowest tier of the skirt. Once I cut it off I had a lot of fabric to work with. The fabric really spread out bigger than I expected.

The skirt had 3 tiers and the tier I cut off had a finished edge at the top and the bottom. It would be easy to add to the sweater without a lot of fraying or hemming.

I guessed how much of the skirt fabric I would need.

I used my sewing machine to attach the skirt fabric to the bottom of the sweater. The skirt fabric was already slightly gathered so I just stitched over the top seam that was already there.

I liked how it looked so far but it was still really low cut. That was an issue, but I can fix that.

I took a second piece of the skirt fabric and made a small triangular shape to fill in the front of the sweater. I pinned it in place.

I sewed the small piece into the sweater and I was done. My new shirt is ready to go.

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

*Year end update- I liked this but ended up giving it to a pregnant friend because it fit her and her belly so well.

All Buttoned Up

Hello Readers. I saw this dress at a clothes swap and I was crazy about it at first sight.

At first glance this dress looks like it has polka dots but in reality it had these super fun buttons all over it. I don't know how they made such a fun fabric into such a dowdy dress. When I saw the buttons I really wanted to see if I could make this dowdy dress a little more fun. 

I also wanted to try to close up the deep V-neck.

This dress is really soft stretchy fabric. I would never need to iron this dress. That was a big plus for me. I don't like to iron very much. (Does anyone?)

I didn't change the dress very much in style. I made the sleeves more narrow so they could stay up on my arms at a 3/4 length. I also made it about 5 inches shorter. Those long pieces of fabric on each side of the dress are the ends of the waist sash/belt. It was really long and the fabric was very heavy.

I connected the ends in the back so it still pulled the dress in but there isn't yards of fabric hanging down.

I connected the V-neck so it wasn't so loose and open. It really helped make the top fit better. The rest of the dress fits better too. And I still love the buttons so much!

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

*Year end update- I still love this dress so much!