Sweater Refashion

A couple weeks ago my neighbor dropped of a bag of clothes for me to look through that she is getting rid of.  There was a loose sweater poncho in one of the bags.  I liked the idea of the sweater, and items with loose, bat-wing sleeves are really popular right now...  But this sweater was just a little too big with not enough shape.

My solution was to bring in the sides and make the poncho have actual sleeves instead of just arm holes.  To do this I sewed a line of straight stitching where the new seam would be.  Then I sewed a line of zig-zag stitch next to the straight seam.  Once the zig-zag was in place I could cut the extra fabric away without unraveling anything.

 I have worn it several times already, usually with a bright colored long sleeve shirt and jeans.  This is becoming one of my new favorite sweaters!

Dress Refashion

I got this pink jersey dress from Target earlier this summer.  I love the ease of jersey dresses, but this one was a little on the plain side.  So I pulled out my trusty freezer paper to jazz it up a little bit!

I decided to add a stenciled border along the neckline and the bottom of the dress.  After measuring how long my stencil needed to be I cut two pieces of freezer paper and taped them down to my cutting mat.  I always cut two stencils at once, even if I don't need both right away.  Then I used a pen to draw a floral design for my stencil, and went at it with an x-acto knife.

Several hours of cutting (and numerous Netflix tv episodes) later I had four completed stencils!  The next step was ironing the freezer paper to my dress.  If you have never done freezer paper stencils before, this is a link to a great step-by-step tutorial.

I attempted to mix up some pink and purple fabric paint... But it ended up more as a nice brown, blue, and gray.  After the ink dried I peeled off the freezer paper and heat set the ink with an iron.  Now the pattern is permenant, washable, and ready to wear!

T-Shirt Shorts

This week I found a great tutorial about making your own shorts pattern based on measurements.  The weather has been so hot lately that I have been planning on making myself another pair of pajama shorts.  So I pulled out some newspaper for pattern making, and a couple old t-shirts from my fabric bin.  I took some measurements and whipped up a pattern on yesterday's newspaper.  After seeing the size of the pattern I pulled out two standard t-shirts (think Jerzees, event t-shirts, not baby doll tees) and I happened to have two of the exact same shade of goldenrod yellow.  I made a second pair using two red t-shirts and remembered to take some pictures of the process!

The shorts were really easy to make and took maybe a half hour of sewing.  I used a three step zig-zag stitch instead of a straight stitch.  This stitch uses three straight stitches for every zig and zag, and is excellent for stretchy fabrics like t-shirts.  When I cut the fabric I lined up the finished shirt edge with the bottom of the pattern.  This meant I didn't need to hem the legs, and the final shorts kept a professional detail.  Instead of adding elastic to the waist I folded over the top edge about two inches to make a channel for a drawstring.  I made a drawstring out of a strip of the t-shirt, stretched so it rolled over on itself.

The yellow shorts turned out great BUT the shorts were a couple sizes too big.  They have a drawstring, so not unwearable...  However, for the red shorts I cut about an inch off the side seam of each pattern piece and a little off the top edge.  This made a world of difference!  The shorts fit perfectly.

 I am helping a friend make a t-shirt quilt, so I am sure to have plenty of scraps once the logos have been cut out of all 22 shirts!  Possibilities for next time include cutting each pattern piece out of a different color shirt, using shirt logos instead of blank shirt material, and freezer paper stenciling on the finished product.