Clothes Surgery

I was cleaning out my sewing room (hah! more like moving piles from one side to the other to see what was underneath them) and found a bunch of jeans I had been saving to make into skirts.  I really want to make a long flowy jeans skirt, but I'm not good at designing stuff, I need a pattern to follow, so to speak.  I've been hunting the web on and off all day and haven't found anything that really tells me how to turn a pair of jeans into a nice long skirt, all the free patterns and tutes I found were for short skirts.  I did find one, but it was for a long pencil skirt - and I want this skirt to be comfy like my jeans!  Help please?

This is a very simple tutorial but I had fun writing it anyway!

I dug out a T-shirt of my husband's. He has never been worn it before. Apparently I bought a size too small for him. Well, actually it was just nice, but he insisted the belly showed. So, he never wore it. Hmph.



I liked the print on this shirt, and I love racer back tops.

So, I got out my seam ripper (insert sinister laughter)

( For more instructions, click here! )

Hey everyone! I just wanted to share this video tutorial I made on how to turn a t-shirt into a tube top. Hope you like it!

Don't let a moment pass you by!
Shinshay Originals was featured by Raw Artists last week in Austin Texas! The fashion show was absolutely a success!
Don't let all of the best Upcycled clothes on the internet!
Reduce - Reuse - Refashion

Fashion show Photos

www.shinshayoriginals.com
www.shinshayoriginals.com
www.shinshayoriginals.com

I was re-organizing my dresser today and found a bunch of clothes that I had stashed away awhile ago. They are all a few sizes too big (which explains why they were "stashed away") but I couldn't bear to give away because I loved the prints. I thought maybe one day I could reconstruct them into something more my size, and along the way I guess they just got forgotten. Terrible hoarder!!! *tsk tsk*

Anyway, today is one of the days when I AM going to do something about my hoarded stash.

I picked this one to experiment with.



I'm not a big fan of gathered collars and ruffled sleeves, i feel like they look kinda frumpy on me. So, snip-snip-snip. Bye bye collar, ruffles and kerfuffles.



I'm going to make myself a tube top!

But hang on! this looks strangely similar to the beach dress reconstruction! Could it work? Barely containing my excitement, i zigzagged the cut edges before turning the hem in about 1.5" to sew a casing for my 1" wide elastic band.

I threaded the elastic band all the way through (with a safety pin this time *yay!*) and decided to try it on before i sewed the casing shut. Just to see how it falls on my silhouette.

Thank goodness i did that. I guess making an elastic-waisted skirt is kinda different from making an elastic top. It didn't look too flattering.

Then i decided that the elastic should go only at the back of my top. I removed the elastic from the front, and left about 9" of elastic in the back.



Now, how did i come up with the magic number 9" measurement, you might ask. It's a little bit of actual measurement and a bit of fumbling in the dark. I took my high bust* measurements, divided it by 2 to get the width of the top when laid flat. So my high bust measures 30", and when divided by 2 is 15". But because of the elastic band, you want the width to be shorter than 15". I guesstimated 12" so ...

first i ripped the side seams and then snipped off a total of 3" (1.5" from both ends). Finally I rejoined the side seams to make the tube whole again.

*High bust measurements taken around the body above the bust (where you want your tube to sit), across the widest part of the back, under the arms.

Here's the resulting top!





Nothing fancy, but i get to wear the prints I like in a style that is more flattering on me! Yay!!!

This past weekend I thrifted an awesome shirt with an adorable robot on the front. The only problem is, the shirt is a horrific saffron color that I just can't wear. The shirt is a good size for me, and is comfortable 100% cotton that's been softened with wear, so I don't want to just cut the image off the front and apply it to a different garment.

So I had an idea. I'm thinking about busting out a candle and putting a layer of wax over the design, front and back, and then gently bleaching and dyeing the shirt in a dye bath on the stove (batik, basically).

I've never done this, though. Have any of you? Any advice is welcome!



Cross-posted to sew_hip

My mother in law got a stash of clothes from her friend but as usual, everything was a few sizes too big. So as we sifted through the pile, imagine my excitement when I found this! I knew immediately what I could do to it!



And so I begin my rogue adventure to making my very first SKIRT!

( Read about my skirt making adventure! )

I have been reading a lot lately about Refashioning and Recycling old clothes.  This was my first attempt and I love how it turned out.  Now I'm wishing I had taken pictures and done a tutorial but I will have to save that for my next project. 
My youngest son had a cute pair of corduroy pants that no longer fit him, he actually only wore them a few times, that I thought would make a really cute purse.  For the lining I used an old pair of pink flannel shorts I had but never wore anymore and the belt is a scrap piece of material left over from a dress I made a few years ago.  I still need to sew the strap on, it's being held with safety pins in these pictures.  I also am not sure what I want to use for a closure.....maybe I'll just leave it open, I'm not sure yet.

Can't (and not tryin to!) compete with most of what goes on here like that last fantastic jacket...
but slammed out a pair of comfy shorts for my husband for Christmas out of 2 of his old t shirts. Living Sacrifice and Dead Kennedy's. He's gunna dig them.
Front of shorts

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