How to: 2 shirts for the price of 4!

It doesn't sound like such a good deal when it's worded like that, but I couldn't be happier with the results. Let me explain...

I hate having my shirt ride up flashing my post-kids belly to the world against my will. While I appreciate all the work my body did growing and housing my two girls, I'm not a huge fan of the saggy skin that remains on my stomach years after their births. I love my kids and am at peace with my body, but I'd still rather keep my stomach covered than not. However, especially being on the tall end of average with kind of a long torso, finding shirts that fit right can be a problem. Every once in awhile I go through my closet and take out clothes that don't make me feel good. I might love the color or the pattern, but if I end up spending my time tugging and adjusting something in order to feel comfortable it's got to go. I went through my closet this spring and unloaded several items, including 3 tanks that I loved on the hanger but were not great to wear due to their tendency to ride up landing them in my recon bin in my craft room.

Here's what I started with last night:

• 1 orange paisley built-in-bra tank


• 1 solid orange built-in-bra tank


• 1 solid turquoise built-in-bra tank


• 1 solid light turquoise t-shirt bought from the thrift store for its fabric that I had on hand (Some people horde canned goods, I horde fabric and clothing to cut apart. We all have our quirks.)

Other materials needed:

• Sewing machine


• Thread


• Scissors


• PINS - lots and lots of pins... no winging it when stretchy material I intend to wear is involved

Sorry, there are no before or during pictures... I tend to forget to grab the camera when I get the urge to craft something at 11 pm.

And here are the results:

I cut the top layer of the solid orange tank in a straight line all the way around from the armpits resulting in an orange tube. I then (rather sloppily) sewed the raw cut edge onto the elastic band of the built-in-bra on the paisley tank. The end result is a layered look with the orange tube hanging out about 3.5 inches from the bottom of the paisley tank. Because the seam is up under my boobs it's not noticeable at all and does not change the look of the paisley tank at all. I LOVE the result.

(It occured to me when I was done, that if I was still breastfeeding I could've cut slits into the built-in-bra and made it a nursing top - I have no need for a nursing shirt, but if you do and try that, let me know if it works well.)

Next I combined the two turquoise shirts.

The lighter colored shirt was a bit big and the darker tank was rather thick so I decided in order to reduce the amount of sewing and keep the end result shirt from being too hot in the summer, I would just add a band of fabric from the t-shirt to the bottom of the tank. I cut a 4 inch strip off the hem of the t-shirt and took in one side to make the circumference match that of the tank's hem. Then I pinned raw cut edge of the t-shirt strip onto the underside of the tank (right side to wrong side). I simply stitched around the edge, keeping my stitches evenly spaced in relation to the original hem stitching on the tank.

The end result is functional - it looks and feels great - but the hem line is not quite as clean as the orange tank. On the hanger or lying flat, the seam where the two shirts meet puckers a bit, especially since I have a very basic sewing machine and had to do a basic straight stitch. Once it's on me and is stretched out, it smoothes out, but this method would not work as well with a looser shirt. Also, the shirt is maybe a bit more obviously modified, where the orange tank looks legitimately layered. The upsides for this version is that it is light weight (read: cooler in the heat) and required much less of the second fabric than the orange version.

There are two examples of how to lengthen a shirt for my fellow long-torsoed anti-belly-shirt friends! I'm sure those of you in this camp will agree that 2 for the price of 4 is a good deal if it means no more tugging.

No-sew Tu-tu How To

Materials

• Some tulle: how much depends on the size, length, and how full you want it. I used about a 1/4 yard from a bolt of orange and 1/4 yard from a bolt of hot pink. The white was from a 6" wide roll so I used a little over 5 yards.
• Some thin elastic: long enough to fit comfortably around the waist of the wearer
• A pair of scissors: they don't even have to be good scissors... I used the dull junk-drawer scissors
  
  

How To...

1. Say the title of this post 3 times, fast. (Giggling helps with tu-tu making.)

2. Set any children in the area up with a mess of art supplies and applesauce.

3. If you bought tulle from a bolt, you'll first need to cut it into strips about 6 inches wide. Some tulle can be found in rolls that are already 6 inches wide so that saves a lot of time since cutting long pieces of tulle can be interesting. The rolls don't always come in the fun colors though so it's a trade off.

4. Cut the strips of tulle into pieces twice as long as you want the finished tu-tu's hem to be. For example, I wanted this tu-tu to be about 14 inches long when it was finished so I cut strips about 28 inches long.

5. Take one of the strips of tulle and gather it around the middle. Fold it in half to create a loop at the top.

6. Tie a knot at that end leaving a loop about an inch long (so about 2 inches in circumference.) You'll be threading your elastic through this part so make sure you can still get your finger through the loop.

7. Repeat steps 5 & 6 with each piece of tulle until you have your desired number. The more tulle bundles are on the tu-tu, the fuller it will be. For this example I used 24 of them.

8. Thread the tulle bundles onto the elastic.

9. Cut the elastic at the desired length and tie a knot.

10. That's it! Super simple, super fast, and super cute!

T-shirt reconstruction

First of all, let me just say that I am far from the first crafter to reconstruct a t-shirt, and I am certain I won't be the last. This is hardly groundbreaking. That said... here's what I have to show for the weekend.

I started with a boxy I *heart* NY t-shirt, purchased at a yard sale for 50 cents, and an ill-fitting, but cutely patterned tee, from the thrift store. ($1)

First the print tee...

I used a tank top that fit well (and had the same amount of stretch as the t-shirt) as my guide and cut out a front and back piece from the t-shirt.

I stitched up the sides using a wide and short zig-zag stitch.
I used some stretch lace to trim the neckline and arm holes, and to form straps. I just used the basic Wrights "flexi-lace" from the fabric store but it's really not very, well, "flexi." It does the job but I'm looking for a different kind for future projects.


Now the NY tee...

I just cut and sewed the front and back of this tee, into a simple tube shape. Then I added some black lace around the top and formed straps from more lace.



Here are some other transformations I've done from basic t-shirts...


Suggested readings...
Tease: Inspired T-shirt Transformations by Superstars of Art, Craft, and Design
99 Ways to Cut, Sew, Trim, and Tie Your T-Shirt into Something Special
Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt

Bleach "batik"

This could sort of be a how NOT to... I got a plain blue hooded sweatshirt and decided to jazz it up with some embroidery. I drew out a swallow design and set to work stitching it but I got bored with it and set it on a table in my livingroom right in front of the Eastward facing picture window, then I left it there for months. You smell what I'm cooking? Yeah... the sweatshirt was folded up so the part that was on top had faded a shade lighter than the rest of the shirt, and there was a nice big circle from the embroidery hoop that was still unfaded. (And by "nice" I mean tacky as all hell.)

This is what it looked like at that point...

I ripped out all the embroidery (shudder) and decided to do a faux batik distressing technique that would disguise the faded parts using a Clorox bleach pen.

I did a freehand paisley design and then flicked drops of bleach all over for more distressing.

I really like the way the front turned out, but the word "pen" in the name "bleach pen" is rather misleading. It's really more of a very narrow mouthed bottle since anytime I held it vertically, bleach would drip out. It was fine for the look I was going for but wouldn't work for finer detail. There's also the permanance-factor of bleach... anywhere bleach accidentally dripped or smeared was there for good and just had to be worked into the design. I did the front of the shirt first, then carefully turned it over onto a brown paper grocery bag to protect my surface. I did the backside of the shirt as well, then picked it up and carried it down to the washing machine. Since the back was more wet at that point some of the bleach on the back smeared in transport. In hindsight I wish I hadn't done the back at all, or at least let it sit awhile longer before moving it around. I washed and dried the shirt and it's done. It was a very fast project and something I'd like to try again. I think in the future I'll try using bleach with a paintbrush for a bit more control than the pen afforded.

Flowy Necktie Skirt

I bought old neckties from various thrift stores as I found ones I liked and have been saving them up until I had enough for this project.

First I cut them to the right hem length plus 2 inches for a seam allowance, waistband and a little extra - just in case. For the skirt to hit at my knee, I measured up 24 inches from the point of the tie and cut.

I wanted a lightweight skirt, so I chose to rip out the back seam on the tie to remove the stabilizer from inside. Leaving the ties intact would have resulted in a much heavier, more structured skirt.

I then laid the ties on the floor and played around with the order so that it was nicely random. (Not all blue ties in one section, for example.) I pinned a small scrap of paper to the point of the tie with a number on it so I could keep the ties in the right order once I started sewing.

With the ties opened up, I sewed the right sides together along the original fold lines of the tie. Since the silks on the different ties were of varying weights and extremely slippery, I found I needed to use a LOT of pins to keep everything together.

Once all of the ties were sewn together, I went around and again measured up from the point, this time measuring 21 inches and marking it. Even though I had cut all of the ties to the same length initially, some of them had "grown" from the bias of the fabric being stretched during sewing so it was important to measure again. I folded the ties over at the 21 inch mark, pinned them down and stitched around leaving a small opening to thread the elastic waistband through.

More photos of this and other skirts I've made here.

Decoupage

Materials:

Something to decoupage on: Old shoeboxes can be a great place to start (and are free so there's nothing lost if you screw it up) but pretty much anything can be decoupaged as I'm sure you've seen around here. (Wooden items like tables or cigar boxes, plastics like suitcases, metals like the ever popular Altoid tin, glass vases and such - if it holds still it can be decoupaged.) For this I used a small chocolates box.
Something to decoupage onto your object: This can be pictures from magazines, pretty paper napkins, stamps, some fabrics, comic books, old sewing patterns, etc. It's generally best to stick with something in the fiber family (papers and fabrics) and be fairly thin because you want your glue to get a really good hold. For this I used images of print fabrics from catalogs and magazines.
Decoupage medium: You can use Mod Podge (available in matte or shiny finishes), other commercial products or just plain white school glue watered down (equal parts glue and water), which is what I like to use.
Brush: For the medium
Scissors: To trim up your images... I recommend using scissors that you don't mind getting a bit messy since you're dealing with glue.
OPTIONAL Brush for paint & paint: I like to paint my object before I start just in case I don't completely cover the surface with my images or in case they are transparent. I used white acrylic craft paint.

1. Prep your surface. In my case I peeled the label off my chocolate box since it wasn't glued down very well and I didn't want the logo showing through and then I gave it a quick coat of paint.

2. Figure out your design. If you are doing a complete collage, select the images you want to stand out the most and set them aside. You'll want to save them for the end so they don't get buried under other images.
3. Start somewhere... slop down a whole bunch of glue on your surface or to the back of the image itself. Apply your image and slop down even more glue on top. The idea is to get your image completely sealed in glue, top and bottom, so that there are no air bubbles or lumps.


You may notice with some images (specifically those cut from magazines) that you can see the printing from the opposite side when they are wet. In my experience, if you couldn't see it before the paper was wet, you won't see it once it dries, so don't freak out until you see how it dries. Keep moving until your item is covered in images to your liking.

4. Let dry.

5. Trim up the edges of your object if applicable.

6. Cover the object in glue medium again and allow to dry.

7. Check your object for any loose images... places where a bubble may have formed or a corner that is sticking up. I glue these down with full strength white glue (which dries clear.)

OPTIONAL: You can lightly sand the object with a very fine sand paper to remove any extra lumps. (I never sand my stuff though.)

8. Cover in a 3rd coat of glue and allow to dry. I usually do a 4th and 5th coat as well. In between coats for the patchwork box top, I decoupaged the bottom of the box with pink tissue paper and made a felt lining for it.

The lid for my box was rather loose to begin with but in case of a tight fit between box lid and bottom, decoupaging the bottom (or inside of the lid) wouldn't work because the box would no longer fit together. It's important to keep that in mind when decoupaging boxes.

9. Seal if desired. Mod podge is made to act as a sealant and in my experience school glue is fairly durable as well. However, if your creation will get a lot of wear or will be exposed to moisture, you may also wish to spray it with a clear art sealant or varnish.

10. Enjoy your finished creation!!!

Decoupage is not an exact art - there can be a lot of trial and error depending on your medium, the object you're decoupaging and the images you are using. For this reason, I wouldn't use any antique or otherwise irreplaceable items for your first project. Overall though, it is a very versatile and forgiving craft.

DIY Maternity Jeans

I posted this on the Craftster message board back when I was pregnant with Vivi, but for my mama-friends who aren't on that board, I'll fill you in here...

I started with a pair of jeans that fit me everywhere except my growing belly, (this happened to be a pair of stretch jeans 2 sizes larger than I normally wear found at the thrift store for $4) and a funky print t-shirt (from the thrift store again for $2.)

First, I put the jeans on and figured out how far up I could comfortably wear the zipper and marked that place.












Then I cut out the zipper and handstitched the fly shut. From the top of the new fly, I sketched a curved line up to just below the belt loops which would become my new waistband. I sewed along this line with upholstery weight thread and a small stitch length to make sure it would hold. As you might be able to see in the pic, I removed the small 5th pocket to cut down on bulk.









I tried the jeans on with the new waist seam to check that they would fit, then cut off the excess denim.








I sewed a 6" wide strip of my t-shirt into a loop and then pinned it onto my jeans, right sides together. (To get the length for the t-shirt loop, I pulled the t-shirt around my belly as tight as I could get it and went with that.) Since the t-shirt circumference was smaller than the jeans waist circumference I stretched the t-shirt tightly across the back of the jeans and pinned them together leaving left lots of slack in the front part where I would need it to stretch over my belly.








I turned the t-shirt out, and then top-stitched to make it lie flat when worn.









This is what the jeans look like on if I pull the t-shirt waist all the way up...












and if I scrunch it down.












An actual maternity shirt comes down far enough to cover the waist band entirely, but if I wear a shorter (normal) shirt, the waist band is visible but, with the printed fabric, looks more intentional than if I had used a blue shirt to match the denim.


For just $6 and about 30 minutes of sewing, I had a great pair of jeans that actually fit! Rock on!