New Maternity Clothes, Please! Stretch Pants

"Sometimes, when you are a man...you wear stretchy pants...in your room...it's for fun."

I was able to get this project finished before the big move, which has been nice because I've been able to enjoy these bad boys most of my pregnancy.

This was a pretty easy alteration, and pretty straight forward. Truth is, I miss stretchy pants from the 80's, and had been wanting to get my hands on some for awhile. Then, while spending countless hours on my miserable back during the first + trimester of pregnancy, the thought occured to me... why not alter some black stretchy workpants from my first pregnancy??? Though my pregnant brain was fried with hormones and I forgot to take pictures before and during the process, I have conveniently illustrated as best I can the process for alteration. This process would work for altering flare jeans into skinny jeans as well, but make sure you use heavy duty needles and thread!

Here is a representation of what the pants looked like before: just your standard black, stretchy maternity workpants. Convenient, but plain.

The first thing you want to do is to turn them inside out and put them on. Decide how tight or loose you want them.

After you have a feel for where you want parts taken in, pin the pants in a vertical pattern so it creates an outline of where you want to sew. Remember, you should still have your pants on.

Take your pants off carefully, I think I got stuck a few times in this process, but I did rush it. If you're not home alone, it might be a good idea to replace them with another pair of pants.

Sew along the pin line, removing pins as you go, so you can sew in the exact area of the pins. Reinforce your hem to your preferrence.

Do this for both sides, and cut the excess fabric off as close to the reinforced seam as close as you are comfortable with.

Turn pants back right-side out, and you've got yourself some genuine 80's stretchy pants to comfort your growing body (or regular body) during pregnancy!

This isn't supposed to be a belly shot, but sometimes I like to emphasize that it is actually a baby there, and that I'm not just a super-sized Sarah in a mu-mu.

And isn't it kind of nice to focus on something on your body that isn't quadrupling in size?? Well, I guess at least from the knees down...

New Maternity Clothes, Please! Blue Maternity Shirt

This is a new little series I'm doing. As most of you have noticed by my previous post, I am expecting our 3rd child in June. With this being my third pregnancy, I really want some new maternity clothes. Thank goodness we're about ready to be grown-ups now and move away with a job! But the downside, is that I have become very cheap in our years as students. I really can't bring myself to buy new maternity clothes #1, because in between my second pregnancy and now, I've acquired quite a few non-maternity clothes, that would easily fit a 9-month belly in an array of different styles. #2, ever since I've developed a love of refashioning, I've thought up ways to redo some of my existing maternity clothes to more fit my style and give me something exciting to wear. #3, though I grow sick of them, I do still have quite a selection of maternity clothes from the last two kids.

I'm sure I'll break down and buy some new things, but maybe this will help all you 2nd+ time moms-to-be when trying to find something new and "you" to wear!

This was the first shirt I re-did. It was one of those shirts that I would never really wear out in public because even at 9 months, it's still a little slouchy and baggy. I figured, it could survive a change, since if I'm not going out in public, I have quite a nice variety of baggy t-shirts to wear.

The first thing I did was I chopped off the sleeves.

The second thing I did, was I cut up both sides of the shirt on the side hem, up through the sleeve. I measured and took it in as needed, then I used some of the excess fabric for a "binding" of sorts for the sleeves.

Then I laid out my two pieces of extra arm material (though I only used less than one whole arm for this part), and I cut it in a square spiral, starting with the outside so that when I got to the middle I had one long piece of fabric about 1/2 inch thick. (See THIS tutorial for a better explanation on the cutting, follow the link) Put the strip aside, and hang onto it for later.

I then taped the shirt down the front in strips. I actually had to do it as I went, because the tape was too thick, but if you're using regular width tape, you can just put all the strips on at the same time. I started above the V, and taped off 1 1/4 inch strips until I met the bottom of the shirt. 

I then mixed up acryllic paint (for your reference, I mixed 1 part white to 1/2 part gold and 1/2 part silver) and painted between my taped off lines to create the stripes. I did it lightly and roughly to look like that beaten/worn look, with the ends fading out. Acryllic paint is a great subtitute to screening because it's super permanent, and has a very similar texture to a regular screened shirt. Iron-ons are good, but they tend to peel off eventually.

Here's where you'll need your long strip that you cut from the arm piece. I really had no rhyme or reason sewing this to the shirt, just basically whatever direction it laid, I sewed it into little loops and crosses, until it looked like this.

P.S. This is not my real belly, I was only 16 weeks when taking this picture, but wanted to show what it would realistically look like.

***Linking this up at Today's Creative Blog---Get Your Craft On***

Fall Apparel: Knit Strips Scarf

I've seen a lot of those scarves lately that are basically a bunch of strips of knit fabric bound up into one scarf/necklace. I thought they were really cute and I wanted one, but of course I didn't just want to buy one...I knew I could make it!

It's super easy...all you need is an old t-shirt you aren't wearing anymore!! (and of course altering supplies such as scissors, sewing machine and thread)

Here's my old t-shirt. It was in my highscool- "I'm-a-punk-rocker-and-like-all-black" phase.

I just cut off the top so I had the straight trunk of the shirt left.

From there I cut the strips. I cut them about 3/4 - 1 inch in width

And there they are.

I stretched them out a little at this point so the rolled into themselves a bit.

And there they are... again.

Now figure out how long you want them to hang down. Put them around your neck to see how far they go. decided how much of the length you want to take off, if any. If you do want to take some length off, then bunch them together, and make one big cut in a single line, then trim the ends to however long you decided you wanted them.

 Now you're ready to sew. Make sure that the ends are rolled up before you sew each one down. This ensures they stay rolled after they're sewn into place.

Sew them one at a time, one right after the other.

 Repeat for other side. This is what it looks like when you're finished with this part.

Now, with it laying flat, as pictured above, loosely roll it up a little on each sewn end, so it it looks like a tube, and matches the picture below.

Once you have a straight tube of sorts, take just one of the ends, and twist it once or twice, depending on how twisted you want it. See below. I twisted it once.

Join ends together now, keeping all your rolling and twisting in place in your hands until you reach the sewing machine. Sew the ends together.

Now all you need to do is to make a little covering to go over the ends that you sewed together. I just used a block of fabric from the sleeve of the same t-shirt. I didn't take pictures of me attaching the strip on, but just cut it as wide as you think you need it to cover up the ends, and sew it around the scarf. You can then hand stitch it in place so it doesn't travel down the scarf.



This is what it looks like attached.

And then you are finished! Here she is!

Super-Easy J. Crew Re-fashion

I was looking around on J. Crew, which, if I had to pick a store that I think defines my taste in clothes perfectly, it would be that one. Anyway, I was looking around and found this beautiful shirt:



I really liked it, among others on the site, but I decided I wanted to re-create, with a few differences. I wanted to combine this with another idea I have seen around that I love. I love when clothes have an artsy feel, and I LOVE shirts that are painted, or look like they are! So for this shirt, I decided to use the same concept and design, except I wanted to have the stems painted.

I used acryllic paint for the stems, and if you do this, make sure you put cardboard or something in between the front and back of the shirt, to prevent bleeding through on the otherr side. You have to let it dry a couple of hours, just to make sure it is set. I free-handed it so it looked sloppy and hand painted.

Once the paint was dry, I cut two 24X1 inch strips of satin, and two 5X1.5 inch strips as well. I pleated the shorter strips with an iron, and evened out the edges, then sewed down the middle. The longer strips become the petals, and the pleated sqaure becomes the center.

I hand-stitched the petals on the shirt by just folding the strip back and forth over itself in a circle pattern. I stitched it on the shirt in the middle, then stitched the pleated center on.
(Sorry I don't have pictures of the process, I couldn't find the camera until after I finished.)

And there you have it!!!


And here is a close-up of the flowers with the pleats.

Copy Cat Design/Another Refashion

Does anyone else remember the Favorite Tee from the Gap? They may still have it, I don't know, but it used to be the biggest wardrobe essential before Down East Basics came up with the Wonder Tee. They were just basic, crew cut tees in long sleeves and short sleeves, and different colors. They lost their steam when The Wonder Tee came out with a more up to date neckline and body length. That's about when I lost my steam with them too, having a need for a longer tee shirt to fit my afore mentioned large frame.
That didn't change the fact that I had literally a dozen of them, just laying around, waiting to be worn.
Around the same time I was pondering what to do with these shirts, I was looking around at one of my favorite idea stores (I say idea store because I can't afford to shop there, so I just get "ideas" from it), Anthropologie, and was noticing their cute little dresses, that were just so basic, yet chic and comfortable. It was this one that really caught my eye:

It was then that a little light bulb went off, and I realized i could make a sleeved version of this dress with one of my "Favorite Tees". I had a different idea for the top, however, because I wanted to save this beautiful circle ruffle for another top. Here's what I did to re-create this lovely piece:

First, I cut the trunk of the shirt across where I wanted it to hit.

I then, used the bottom that I cut off to cut 4 2 inch thick strips. (It doesn't really matter how thick, just as big as you want your ruffles.) I then took them to the sewing machiene, where I adjusted the tension on the machiene to the highest tension, and the stitch length to the longest length. I then only had to sew one straight line on the edge, and it came out like this:

I then sewed each ruffle to the top half of the shirt, starting with the bottom ruffle. This is how it turned out once finished with that part:

Next I found another "Favorite Tee" that I had used the trunk of to make the gaucho pants I posted about earlier. I used just one of the sleeves for the mid section, evening out the width before sewing it on.

Later, after this next picture was already taken, I decided to put vertical gathers in it every 4 inches or so. I did this by attaching elastic that was cut about an inch shorter than the width of the band, and stretching it out as I sewed down the width of the black section.

After that, I found some material that I thought would look cute with it, and cut it to the length I wanted, leaving the width the same as it had come. I hemmed up the bottom, then I measure the right size of elastic to fit around the t-shirt at the open end. I attached this elastic to the top by using the same method for the gathers above. Then I folded it in half with the wrong side facing out. I sewed the sides together, then turned right-side out again. I then attached the skirt to the top, and was just about done when I decided I wanted just a little more flare. I found this tutorial for fabric flowers, and took some black satin to make it, and I sewed on the pearl beads after I was done. I also hot-glued felt to the back to kind of seal it all in, then I attached it to a pin.

The finished product:

Just add some black skinny jeans and some pumps, and your ready to go!

Re-Fashioning Again...Skirt

I love pencil skirts. They are so sleek and classy, and can go with virtually anything. I've had the hardest time buying one. Not a whole lot of places sell the type that I like, that is, one that is a dressier skirt, rather than having zipper, button, etc. on the front like jeans. Anyway, even when I would find the dressier kind, they'd be too short, meant to hit above the knee, which of course in itself is not what I want, but it also means that it hits my 6'1" frame mid-thigh.

Well, I finally found this beauty and snatched it up. It hit me just above the knee, but that was the best I could find. So I decided to dress it up AND lengthen it by adding some pretty trim.

Now of course, since I had EXACTLY what I wanted for the trim in mind BEFORE actually shopping for trim, nothing met up to my vision. So I made the trim myself.

I made it using black satin. First, I measured how much I would need. For this kind of trim, you need 3 X the length of the measurment of whatever you are trimming. I cut the strip 4 1/2 inches wide. I then hemmed the strip, then pleated it by ironing folds into it. After ironing, I sewed the top of the strip to keep it in place. All I did after that, was treat it like normal trim and sew it to the skirt! Pretty fun and simple!



This one is so you can see the fold/iron pattern:

Re-fashioning

Okay, I don't know about you guys but, though fun, shopping can be a bit frusterating for me. I get ideas in my head of how I want an outfit to look, what exact outfit I would want (without ever actually seeing it somewhere), then of course, I can't find anything close to it, when I go shopping. So I decided to start making over clothes myself. This is the first of many more projects to come like this. It will be done by buying cheap clothes that have basic lines, or a basic shape that I am looking for, and I will be using extra pieces of fabric either from the same garmet, or from a duplicate that I buy.

This one was my first; very easy, and very pleased with the outcome.

I bought this shirt at Ross for 4 bucks.


Then I cut the entire turtle-neck off (to be used as my extra fabric).
I then cut 3 1 1/2 inch thick strips from the spread out turtle neck fabric, then folded and pinned them to the neckline in this pattern (if you're looking down at the edge of the strips)


I then just sewed one straight line through the middle, at the neckline, and voila!