Wardrobe Redux Tutorials

I’m bored with my work clothes & have very little to spend on anything new, but I’ve got shelves, drawers and hangers full of stuff I don’t wear anymore for a variety of reasons. A lot of it could be made into other things. So I’m going to try to do that! Here are a few of the tutorial projects I hope to complete. I will use these as a guide and may make a couple versions based on the inspiration below.

Shawl Collar Sweater Tutorial from the Cottage Home blog. This would be cute in various weights of sweater material as well as woven fabric. I wonder what type of fabric would be strong/stiff enough to make that awesome collar, but soft enough to drape below?

Ruffled Infinity Scarf from Skip to My Lou.

Ruffle Neck Top from How Joyful. I believe I will be making this top out of my wedding dress. Yes, my wedding dress! I’ll try to post a pic. I wore a wine-colored, long, shift with a sheer overlay & matching sheer blouse. The style is outdated and I bought it so I could wear it again. So – if I can turn it into something (or thingS) that I like, I’ll be able to have a keepsake of my wedding more in the forefront of my memory, compared to how infrequently I think of it as it’s in the back of my closet.

 Catch and Release scarf from presser foot.

Museum Tunic from Anna Marie Horner.Mine would be a tad shorter, or long like a maxi. I have one of these from Target and it is sooooooo comfortable. I’m wearing it right now, in fact. Perfect alone w/bare feet or flip flops, with leggings & sandals, with tights/boots and jacket/sweater.

 Spring Infinity Scarf from The Cottage Home (again).

Pleated Knit Scarf from Make It and Love It.

 Ruffled Scarf from Make It and Love It. I like the idea of doing this scarf in a fabric with a repetitive pattern like polka dots, stripes, grid, plaid.

Casually Cute Knit Dress from Made It On Monday.  I have a dress with a similar cut – it has little puff sleeves and a cowl neck, but I’ve been wanting to try to recreate it. I’m hoping this tutorial will help!

Do you have any shopping or re-purposing plans for your wardrobe?

Birthday Suit

My birthday is in about a month, I'll be 34.

Last year my work BFF and I, who share a birthday week, had a joint party. We went to a few bars - we drank, we ate, we made merry. We attempted to go dancing but it wasn't the best night for dancing and the club we ended up going to was kind of deserted and had a smoke machine going, which forced us to leave because one of our friends has bad asthma. Still, it was an awesome time, and we'll be doing the Ashley/Sara Joint Birthday Extravaganza again this year. Besides the normal dinner/drinks portion of the evening, I'm set on either going dancing or finding a karaoke spot, or maybe both, if we can find the right place(s).

I don't need a lot of cute casual clothes because most of my time is spent at work or at home where I rock t-shirts and pj pants or yoga pants. (Side note - are you a family that wears normal "I can go to the grocery store in this" clothing at home when you know you aren't going anywhere, or are you like my family? We come home and immediately change into SUPER comfortable clothing that doubles as workout gear or sleepwear). Anyway, I have office outfits and a closet full of cardigans and tees/tanks that I wear with jeans and flip flops, or boots, depending on the weather. When I go out with friends, it's almost always drinks right after work with co-workers, so I just wear what I wore to the office that day.

For my birthday this year I want to dress up a bit. I *must* be comfortable - I refuse to spend my special night worrying about how I look or in pain/discomfort. So here is the sort of look I'm going to be shopping for over the next month, which I think is sufficiently cute but would be very comfortable. Most of my friends have closets full of stuff like this, but I don't. I'm excited to see what I can find! What do you think?

Birthday 2011 by oneinthehand featuring skinny jeans

Are you trendy? If you're close to my age or older, do you find it easy to wear the trends of today, or do you (like me) find it difficult to try something new?

Skirts vs. Blouses

Sometime in the last year I bought a bunch of skirts and dresses from the thrift store (there’s a massive one a few blocks from my house and it ROCKS), with the intention of turning them all into blouses, and using leftover fabric for stuff in my shop or whatever. It’s taken me forever to get started on this project, but I finally did!

 

 

 

First, let me show you just a few of the things I bought – most cost $1-$3 each. I’ve got at least 15 more skirts/dresses/large blouses that will be turned into tanks/blouses. I bought a pattern for a wrap-top blouse, but am such a newbie seamstress that it’s confusing and I decided to just wing it.

 

Pillow sham that will be used somewhere in my daughter’s room.

So here’s how I made one skirt into a breezy tank:

The original skirt – not the accordion-folded fabric straps that are supposed to be belted & tied around the waist.

I took out the zipper on the side

And removed the white cotton underskirt/slip

I pulled the skirt up on my torso (inside out) to see where I wanted it to fit, and folder over the side of the skirt because it was too big for my torso. I pinned it in a couple places along the fold, took it off, and stitched up the side of the skirt to create a new seam. Then I cut off the excess fabric on the outside of the new seam.

 

I opened up the seam on the other side of the skirt at the top by the waistband (remember, I’d done the same thing by removing the zipper). I opened those seams enough to create holes for my arms.

Then I folded the waistband over toward the inside and sewed it down to create a small white piece across the top of the blouse.

 

Then I trimmed the extra waistband fabric from the inside.

I sewed up the seams of the “armholes”.

I took the “belts” off of the skirt and used that fabric to make 2 nice, thick straps for the top. I’d have sewn the straps to the corners (where the armholes start) except I wanted something cover my bra straps.

The finished product! This actually took me quite a while to do, but now that I’ve done it I know what steps I can skip, what to look for, etc.

Do you ever make clothes out of other clothing or objects?