Save the Jewels!

Hello Readers. I found this brown knit dress at a clothes swap and loved the jewels around the neckline. The dress was too tight around the chest and the high/empire waist made me look pregnant. I couldn't wear it but, I really wanted to. It had jewels on it! It was shiny! It was sparkly!

The dress really needed a new top, the skirt was fine. I decided to use this big t-shirt for that. I could make it into whatever kind of top I wanted.

It doesn't look like it but, I was wearing shorts in this picture.

I started by cutting the top off the skirt. The skirt had a nice waistband already. That would be really handy. And the knit material wouldn't fray so I could just cut it off.

All I needed to do was make a small hole in the waistband, thread some elastic through, connect the elastic ends, and close the hole in the waistband. In no time I had a skirt.

I cut the entire collar piece off the dress. 

I used a favorite tank top as a guide and cut out a new tank from the green t-shirt. I thought green would work well with the jewels because some of them had a green tone to them.

Here is the tank top after I cut it out. I made new side seams first. The arm holes look rough but I turned them under, stitched them down, and they looked great.

Here is the finished tank top. The collar is sewn on the neckband of the shirt. It covers the original neckline of the t-shirt.

The skirt sits at my real waist now. I like that better.

  

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

***Year End update-  I love this shirt. I wear it all the time, even in winter. It is great to layer under a sweater. I like the skirt but I wear the shirt more.

The Zipper Vest

Hello Readers. This vest was the simplest of projects, it might take longer to explain than it did to make. This idea came from @trashtocouture on Instagram. She posted about this little vest with zipper straps and gave directions on how to copy it.

It all started with this big men's t-shirt I had handy. My shirt was thick gray cotton. A lighter weight material would probably work out just as good if not better because it would hang nicer. My philosophy is always, use whatever you have on hand or can scrounge for free.

 

I cut the body off, right under the sleeves. And there is the jacket zipper I used too. This zipper had metal teeth which will look cool on the vest.

I cut the shirt open so I had a big rectangle. It was going to be a big loose vest. And the zipper is going to act as shoulder straps.

 (Any rectangle of knit fabric would work, it doesn't have to be a t-shirt.)

I turned the gray shirt upside down so the finished hem was at the top of my new vest. I placed the zipper so that the open ends of the zipper were sewn into the front seams. The closed end of the zipper is centered at the top of the back of the vest.

 

I had an idea for the hemline. It involved cutting up this skirt for spare parts. (I didn't really like this peasant skirt but it had nice trim.)

 

This cotton lace at the bottom would be nice at the bottom off my vest.

 

Here is my vest with it's zipper straps and all the raw edges folded in and stitched down. It is basically a big box.

 

Trim close-up #1

What should I wear with the vest? I had some really awful shorts. They were a soft black  knit material, but they were so long on me it was ridiculous!

 

 I cut them off and immediately panicked because they seemed too short. That's OK, I had the trim from that black skirt.

 

Remember this one? I cut off the cotton trim that divided the tiers of the skirt.

It was a great way to finish the legs of the shorts without turning them under and making them shorter.

Trim close-up #2

I thought if I put the shorts with  a black tank I already had, it would look a little like a one piece romper. 

And  it would be a good backdrop for my zipper vest.

Here is my vest at the farmers market. The prices were great and they gave my little guy a lollypop. It made his day. 

 

Thanks for reading along, and thanks to @trashtocouture for this idea. Her vest was a little different so you might want to check hers out.

***Year End update-  I still like this vest but @trashtocouture did a better job with hers, go check her out.

Softening Denim & A No-Sew Cold-Shoulder Top

Hello Readers. I wanted to do an experiment. I read online that you could soften denim with salt water. Was it true? (Short version - Not really, no. Don't do it.)

I found these stiff jeans at a clothes swap and it turned out that they were not very comfortable. They were young men's jeans and very heavy weight denim. I thought I could break them in and make them more comfortable. I also wanted to do something with this shirt that was making me look 5 months pregnant. I liked the stripes but the fit was awful.

  

Why shirt? Why do you hate me?

I cut them off into shorts because they were so thick and unbending to wear as pants. I figured less denim could only help.

I followed the directions I found using Google by adding salt to a gallon of water and...

soaked the shorts for a few hours. I couldn't feel any change to the fabric. I soaked the shorts longer.  And longer. After 3 days of soaking, I gave up.

The directions also said you could use your washing machine. DO NOT DO THIS! I added salt to the wash like soap and washed the shorts. My washing machine got very upset and refused to work at all. I eventually got it working again but I thought it really might be dead. The shorts didn't feel much softer to me. I can't call this salt idea a success.

DO NOT PUT SALT IN YOUR WASHER!

I wanted to make the shirt a cold shoulder top. I cut the shoulders out and used scraps of the shirt to tie at the neck and sleeve to gather the fabric.

The shirt is like a tank top with little sleeves that hang down. They look like little bows with the ties on them. I took the sides of the shirt in a little to help it fit better too.

Are the shorts softer now? Maybe, but not much, but it was not worth the fear I experienced thinking that I broke the washer. They just look like basic denim cut-offs. All I can say about them is, "Blah."
 The shirt was fun and different for summer. With the shirt resized and tucked in I don't look pregnant anymore.

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

But DO NOT put salt in your washer!

 ***Year End update-All I can say is I learned not to put salt in the washer. I ended up with plain out cut offs. I was not impressed.

Make a Pattern & Make Shorts

Hello Readers. I did something new and different recently. I made my own pattern and used it to make the pair of shorts you see below. I have used patterns but I have never made a pattern before. It was fun and I learned a lot.

Check out this amazing dress. It was so cute and the pattern was amazing. It was a little big and the back was very open and strappy. It was impossible to wear a bra that didn't look awful. I decided to make this dress into something else.

 

 I found a blog post about making a pattern for shorts based on your measurements. I just had to measure myself. I made some dots and lines on a piece of paper and I had a pattern. It felt similar to geometry. You can see the instructional post at "The 31 Woman" here.

  

My daughter helped me quite a bit.

I thought I would have enough fabric in this dress to make the shorts. It was almost impossible, but I made it work. I cut out the 4 panels and stitched them all together. I put a zipper on the side and I had a pair of shorts. A wild pair of shorts.

  

  A truly wild pair of shorts. There are lots of flowers but can you see some chickens? There are also a few giraffes, fish, and bunnies.

I also made a t-shirt to go with the shorts.

I cut out a basic shirt shape from the body of this shirt.

I used the finished edging of the sleeves to make my sleeves look finished too. I just reattached the edges to the sleeves of the new shirt. 

My outfit was done. I learned a lot by making the pattern myself.

  

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

***Year End update-I loved these shorts. They looked like Lilly Pulitzer and were just so much fun to wear. The shirt was one of those tops I didn't know I needed until I had it.