Category Archives: Craftiness

Knitting, sewing, DIY, tutorials etc.

Before and After: Vintage 80′s Blouse

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Before

Before

I bought this gorgeous vintage 80s blouse on my trip to Sherry’s Yesterdaze with Kristin of Bon Bon Rose Girls.  The fit was a little looser than I preferred, and the front had an odd length to it, so I decided to take it to my sewing machine to fix it.

Double Darts?

I started out by figuring out how much I wanted to take the shirt in.  I knew that the bust fit alright, as did the hem, so I wanted to add darts that would mainly take it in at the waist.  I’m not sure what the exact term for the technique above is, but I call them double darts.  I created them so that they would end at the bust and hem, with the most fabric being taken out right at the smallest part of my waist.  I created four of these double darts, two on the middle of the front panels and two on the back panel.  I also shortened the front panel hem, since it oddly dipped four inches lower than the rest of the blouse.

The end result is a lot more flattering on me, so I’m quite happy with it.


After

After

After


Tutorial: Boot-cut to Straight Leg Jeans

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I posted a tutorial on flared to skinny jeans about a year ago, but it didn’t include any photos, and didn’t really go into detail.  I recently altered some boot cut jeans into straight leg jeans, and I documented the steps to create this more in depth tutorial.

Before

My Express Stella jeans have made many appearances on this blog before.  Lately, though, I’ve been tired of the boot cut leg, and I’ve been wanting a hem that would allow me to wear low-heeled shoes.  I decided to alter them to have them look exactly the way I wanted.

Please note: This is specifically how I altered this pair of jeans.  Different jeans may have different constructions, so this tutorial is no comprehensive.

Step 1: Rip out seams. Rip out hem with seam ripper.  Rip out inner and outer leg seams to about 2-3 inches above knee.  Generally, boot cut jeans start to flare out just below the knee.

Step 2: Measure and take notes. Remember that the front of the jeans and the back of the jeans will have different widths. The back of the leg is usually wider.  Keeping notes, measure the width of the jeans at the knee and at the hem.  Measure for the front and the back, and take notes on what you find.  The difference between these measurements will be divided by two, and that’s how much fabric you will take away at the hem.  For example, on the front leg, the knee is 8 3/4 inches wide, while the hem in 10 inches wide.  That’s a difference of 1 1/4 inches.  I decided to take out 3/4 inch on each side, which gives it a very slight taper.

Step 3: Mark your cuts and cut jeans.

Step 4: Analyze and plan for the different seams. In most jeans, the inner leg seams and outer leg seams will be different in construction.

Outer leg seam

In these jeans, the outer leg seam was made by first serging each piece of fabric separately, and then stitching them together with a sewing machine.

Inner leg seam

The inner leg seam is constructed in the opposite order.  First, both pieces of fabric are stitched together, then the seam is serged.  Finally, this seam is also topstitched on the outside.

Because the inner leg seam is top stitched, it’s better to sew it first.  I’ve done it in the opposite order before, and it’s much harder to topstitch a leg seam when everything else is already sewn together.

Step 5: Sew, serge, and topstitch inner leg seams.

Stitch front and back together at inner leg seams.

Serge inner leg seam, then topstitch on the outside.

Step 6: Serge front and back separately at outer leg seam, then sew together.

Serge each panel of fabric separately.  Do not serge them together.

The edge of the front and back are serged and separate.

Stitch both panels of fabric together.

Step 7: Hem both legs. If you’d like your hem to be shorter, cut it now.  I shortened mine by half an inch.  Then fold under about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of fabric, and press.  Fold under to create hem (I prefer a 1 inch cuff) and press.  Top stitch through all layers on the outside.

And voila!  New jeans!  I’m considering going back and making them slightly tapered and slightly shorter, but I’m happy with them for now.

After

Green D.I.Y.- Cloth Napkins

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I’ve been trying to find more ways to eliminate waste in my daily life, and one easy change I’ve made is switching from paper napkins to cloth napkins.  There’s really no need to throw out another napkin every time we eat, when cloth napkins are so easy to make (or buy).  To keep them clean, I just wash them with my dish towels, and I keep enough on hand to last for about five days to a week.  Even if you only have minimal sewing skills, cloth napkins are super easy to make.

Step 1: Start out by making sure all your fabric is pressed.  Wrinkles will mess up your cuts.  Once your fabric is nice and smooth, cut out squares of it.  I decided to make mine 8″ by 8″, but you can make yours at whatever size works for you.  I chose to have patterned cotton fabric for one side (which came from a vintage pillowcase) and plain white cotton for the other side.

Step 2: With right sides together, stitch the two squares of fabric together on three sides and part of the fourth side.  The picture makes it more clear.  By leaving the gap, it makes it easier to turn the napkin inside out (or rightside out, depending on how you look at it.

Step 3: Clip the corners so that they will turn out neater.  Turn the napkin inside out.  Press the heck out of it.  It should be nice and smooth, with crisp edges.


Step 4: Topstitch on all sides, close to the edge.   This will close up the gap left earlier.  Press again.

Step 5: Repeat steps 1 -4 until you have the desired number of napkins.  Prepare a delicious meal, and enjoy your new eco-friendly napkins!

Before and After: Mlle Gabrielle Dress

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Before

Sometimes an alteration will dramatically change the look of an item.  And sometimes it is more about making something more comfortable.  Today’s post was more the later.  I adored this dress as soon as I tried it on at Revolve, but while everything else fit just fine, the sleeves were painfully tight.  As in, I really couldn’t move my arms tight.  I decided to take my seam ripper to the task, and see if I could make them work.  If I couldn’t, I was going to make the dress sleeveless.

This is the sleeve inside out.  When I went to alter it, I noticed that the sleeve is gathered at the hem.  I decided to take apart this section, using my trusty seam ripper.

Turns out that the sleeves had what I will call hem tape, because I’m not sure if that’s the right term.  Because of the bias of the fabric of the hem tape (maybe this is bias tape?) it made the sleeves have less give.  It also revealed the gathering stitching.  Gathering can be a lot of fun in some areas, but here, it is making the sleeves fit tighter.

I took out the gathering stitches, and pressed the sleeve with my iron.  You can already see a noticeable difference between the altered and unaltered sleeves.

The hem tape wasn’t long enough to cover the newly altered sleeve, so I folded over the hem twice, pressed the heck out of it, and stitched it down with black thread.

And now, the finished results. The sleeves don’t look extremely different, but they fit SO much more comfortably.

Before and After: Jonathan Martin Dress

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Before

Sometimes I buy a garment that looks not so great on me off the rack, because I know of the potential it can have with the right alterations.  Such was the case with this dress.  That waist striping detail was way too long, and made my torso look odd.  And having a hem that hits at mid-calf is not very flattering on me.

But I took a good look at the fabric and seams, and I knew that it could be altered.  I decided to pass this one on to my tailor, because it involved stuff that’s a bit more complicated than my skill level, like removing and re-installing an invisible zipper.

I had my tailor remove some of the striped material from the waist section.  She then reattched the skirt portion of the dress so that it would sit higher, creating more of an empire silhouette.  This also raised the hem line several inches, so that it would hit right above my knee.  The cost of the alterations was around $30, largely because the back zipper had to be taken and put back in. (That made the total cost of the dress $42, which isn’t terribly bad)

It was worth it, because I love the final result.

After

Before and After: J. Jill Slacks

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Before

I thrifted these J. Jill slacks a few weeks ago.  They fit quite comfortably, but unfortunately there was a stain near the hem that wouldn’t come out.  It got me a discount on the slacks, but it also meant that I would need to hem them several inches to remove it.  So, I decided to make them capris.  I started by cutting off several inches, leaving enough fabric for a hem.  I then took out the seams and made them straight legged, following my skinny jeans tutorial.  And now, I have perfect, slouchy spring/summer capris.  I love sewing :)

After

Before and After: Express Eva Jeans

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These jeans have gone through many, many changes while I’ve had them.  Originally, they were Eva Fit and Flare Jeans from Express.  I had to dig way back in my archives to find a pic of them in their original state.

December 2008

Soon after buying these jeans, I began to realize that I really didn’t like the flared silhouette.  So in the summer of 2009, I altered them into skinny jeans and posted a tutorial.

June 2009

I kept them like this for awhile, frequently rolling up the cuffs.  Eventually, I decided that the length was not universally flattering on me – it worked with a few outfits, but generally wasn’t that great.  So I tried making them ankle length.

January 2010

This length was fun, but I often felt a bit odd.  I can’t really put my finger on it, but it just felt a bit in-between.  Not quite regular length jeans, not quite capris.  So, last week, I decided to make them capris.

April 2010

And I love them.  I’d really been wanting a pair of denim capris for the summer, and I wasn’t really wearing them a lot at the previous lengths.  I think I’ll be getting a lot more use out of them now, and I think the final result is pretty darn flattering.

Before and After: Ann Taylor Factory Dress

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Sometimes, items of clothing need complete make-overs to work.  Sometimes, they just need a few simple changes.  This dress was a case of the later.  Above is the before picture, when I first bought this dress.  It fit well overall and had a beautiful print.  But it was a touch too long, the straps were too thin to cover bra straps, and the sides were a bit too high, digging painfully into my underarm area.

Changes:  I hemmed about two inches from the bottom of the dress.  I then used this fabric to create new straps, removed the old ones and installed these.  I took off the bow detail, because it looked cheap and made layering cardigans a bit awkward.  I lowered the “armhole” just a bit so that it would fit more comfortably.  And voila!  It looks and feels much more beautiful.

Sometimes, a few simple changes are all you need.

Before and After: Grey Cashmere-blend Sweater

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(I’ve decided to start an occasional series on my blog called “Before and After”.  It will feature before and after photos of items that I have re-constructed (through sewing, embellishment, etc) to work better in my wardrobe.  I’ll also feature before and after shots of items that I’ve had professionally altered, and discuss what I had the tailor do.  I’m discovering that tailoring your clothes to work for you is extremely important, and that it is essential and do-able for everyone, including those who are on a tight budget.)

Today’s before and after features a grey cashmere-blend Ralph Lauren sweater that I bought at a garage sale for a mere $5.  Normally, I prefer to knit my own sweaters, but when a deal on cashmere presents itself, I tend to oblige.  Especially when the temps get as insanely cold as they did in Florida this year, and I find myself ill-prepared handknit wise.

Before: Grey Turtleneck

After buying this sweater, I wore it once, while hanging out at an outdoor bar in Tampa on a very cold night.  After that, it languished unworn in my closet.  I pinpointed several reasons why: 1) turtle-necks are not flattering on me, and they aren’t really necessary in Florida, where a scarf wrapped several times around your neck will do just fine, 2) the turtle-neck was too warm.  It was fine for being outdoors, but in over-heated offices, it was just too much. 3) While the rest of the sweater didn’t bother me, the neck itched, which meant that I had to layer a cotton-turtleneck tee underneath it, which increased problem number 2.

I noticed that all of my issues with this sweater revolved around the turtleneck.  Since I spent so little money on this sweater to begin with, and since wool is relatively easy to alter, I decided to make it into a v-neck and see what happened.

Unfortunately, I’m horrible at remembering to take pictures while I d.i.y., so I’ll just explain the process.  First, I put the sweater on.  Then, in front of a mirror, I marked with pins where I wanted the new neckline to be (this would work better on a dressform, but I don’t have one yet).

After that, I took the sweater off, and cut out the new neckline, leaving about 1 inch extra.  I then folded that extra inch under and pinned it down.  After that, I machine-stitched three lines of stitching to make sure it was down there fine.

After: Grey V-neck sweater

Is this the most professional job I could have done?  No.  I could have serged the knit fabric, and faced it with a soft cotton.  But I didn’t really feel that was necessary, and I’m pleased with the result I got.  I’ll be wearing this sweater a lot more often now.

(And just a note, because of the length, I will be wearing this sweater with skirts and dresses.  I took the pictures with jeans just because that was what I already had on).

"Where the wild wind whirled"

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It’s a new year, but I’m still working on wrapping up outfits from 2009.  After these are done, I’m going to try to keep my outfit posts a little closer to when I actually wear the outfit.  Also, thanks to your suggestions on my quick reader survey, I’m tweaking my posts a bit.  Monday through Friday, there will be an outfit post every morning.  Etsy Love will now be midday on Wednesday, right in the middle of the week.  I’m also going to start a Link Love post on Friday afternoons, that will showcase my favorite links of the week.  Saturdays will be ongoing blog projects, like Wardrobe Inventory, Shopping Ban, etc.  Sundays will rotate between Shoe Lust and other topical posts, such as book reviews.

I’m also working on taking pictures at more interesting locations.  I recently discovered that the top floor of a parking garage makes for an interesting location.  The views are fun and they’re usually devoid of people. The view from this first photo is kind of amusing to me, because you can actually see two of my former places of employment in the background.  I guess I’ve had quite a few jobs on campus.

That green sweater vest in the first image is a recent re-construction project.  A few weeks ago, I got a green lambswool sweater at a clothing swap.  But it had a problem -I have to wear a layer underneath it, otherwise it’s insanely itchy, but the sleeves were too snug to allow any layers underneath.  So I cut off the sleeves, sewed up the armholes and made the neck into a deeper V.  Voila!  New sweater vest for no money!  You’ll be seeing this a lot while Florida is “chilly”

I really wonder how I ever managed to not own heather grey tights before.  These have quickly become my favorite pair of tights, so much so that I’m thinking of buying an additional pair.

I’m wearing my mom’s ring again for a pop of color in this outfit, and I thought you might appreciate a close-up.

And this is nothing but a gratuitous cat picture with my baby, Elvis (who’s not really a baby, at 14 years old).  After losing Brownie a few months ago, it greatly saddened me to realize how few photos I had of me and her together.  I want to make sure that doesn’t happen with Elvis.

Dress: Ella Moss (My Mosh Posh)
Long Sleeve Tee: Issac Mizrahi for Target
Sweater Vest: Gap (re-conned)
Tights: Hue
Socks: Bella (Village Shoes)
Boots: Dansko Risa (Ebay)
Scarf: Spun and knit by me
Purse: Morelle City Bag
Earrings: Sara Westermark
Ring: from my mom

Quote: The Edge of the World, Shel Silverstein (from Where the Sidewalk Ends)

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