DIY: Turn a T-Shirt into a Strapless Top with Pockets

Posted on | May 17, 2010 | 13 Comments

My friend L. emailed me one day with this link, asking if I was up for trying this simple T-shirt refurbishing project. Since she was offering her crafting expertise and sewing machine, I could not refuse. I struggled a bit with the initial instructions, so I decided to document this DIY project in every minute detail to help other novices (like me) be able to do this even without the help of an expert seamstress. (Thanks, L!)

Materials Needed:

Old t-shirt (we thrifted these discarded German Army shirts for under 3 Euros each)
Elastic (approx. 1.5 meters per shirt)
Scissors
Sewing Machine (preferred)

Instructions:

After you’ve chosen your t-shirt to deconstruct, begin by measuring the circumference of your chest (watch L. demonstrate…)

Cut the elastic to size so that it will fit around your chest snuggly (this will hold up your top, so a snugger fit is preferred.)

The bottom hem will now be your new top hemline, running across your chest. Using a seam cutter, tear a hole large enough to run the elastic through it. (Tip: choose a spot on the side of the shirt that will likely be hidden under your arm when worn, rather than in the front or back).

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DIY: Tank Dress with Pockets!

Posted on | May 11, 2010 | 20 Comments

At long last, I present a tutorial for the tank dress I made a few weeks ago before the end of the semester blindsided me. I’ve been seeing these tank+patterned skirt all over the place lately, but frequently they were too short or too short-waisted for my particular proportions. After some googling, and studying the really excellent skirt tutorial and t-shirt dress tutorial at Ruffles and Stuff and the skirt with pockets tutorial at Freshly Picked, I decided that even my fairly rudimentary sewing skills could handle this project.

And since I celebrated my height yesterday for Dress Your Best week, it seems appropriate to post a sewing project prompted by my need for a longer-than-in-stores dress.

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7 March 2010 – Embellished Cardi DIY

Posted on | March 7, 2010 | 11 Comments

7 March 2010 – Embellished Cardigan DIY, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

Grey Cardigan – H &M, embellished by me
Purple Tank – Gap
Denim Skirt – Gap
Boots – Banana Republic, via ebay

Endnotes:

I’ve had this grey cardigan for years. For a while it was a staple in my wardrobe (making almost as frequent appearances as my beige cardi does now) but eventually, I just stopped wearing it much. I got bored with it, but I couldn’t bring myself to toss it in the donation pile. When E. decided to do a cardi-embellishing project, this seemed the perfect item to breath new life in to.

Despite the fact that E’s sewing and crafting abilities are far superior, I took on a slightly more difficulty DIY…but, trust me, if I can pull it off, so can you.

To make these little flowers you will need:

Scrap Fabric (I used a purple jersey)
Thread in to match your fabric
Scissors
A Needle
A few pins

Cut your fabric into 1-1 1/2 inch wide strips, 4-6 inches long (I used a variety of sizes). Fold the fabric strip in half and pin it to keep it folded.

Then do a running-stitch across the bottom (where the folded ends meet).

Pull the thread on one end to gather the fabric together. Use your fingers to adjust the gathering and shape the fabric into flowers.

You can either make a few stitches to keep the fabric in this shape, or tack the flowers directly to the cardigan, shaping a bit as you go. I played around with the placement of the flowers for a while, but eventually settled on a keeping them on one side of the neck line. I still have some fabric left over, so I can always add a few more flowers later.

I know have the DIY embellishment bug and I’m excited to go through my drawers looking for tired pieces just begging for a few ruffles or a corsage of purple jersey!

7 March 2010 – Embellished Cardigan DIY, originally uploaded by academichic.

DIY: Floral Applique Embellished Cardigan

Posted on | March 5, 2010 | 35 Comments

Sources:

Embellished cardi: Target + Amy Butler fabric + a little DIY
Navy top: Target
Denim pencil skirt: Banana Republic Factory
Gray knee socks: mom’s from college
Boots: Steve Madden Iriss

End Notes:

I adopted this little green cropped cardigan from one of my sisters-in-law, but shortly thereafter it developed a little hole in the shoulder. Rather than throwing it away, I thought that it would serve as the perfect base for trying my hand at cardigan-embellishing. I started with this Blushing Bouquet cardigan from Anthropologie as my general inspiration:

A few simple steps:

1. Select a fabric with a strong print. Iron on a length of fusible web to the back of your fabric.

2. Cut out the pattern you want to applique. I tried to get a variety of sizes of flowers and leaves from my fabric.

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3. Lay out the cut-outs on your cardigan. I wanted mine to go all the way around the neck, so I couldn’t lay everything out at the same time. Instead, I selected a few flowers as anchor points and ironed those into place.

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4. Keep ironing the cut-outs onto your cardigan until you have the desired look. And… ta da!

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A Few Notes: Any time you adhere a woven fabric to a knit, you lose the stretch of the knit. So, if you need your cardi to keep that stretch — particularly around the bust, for example — then refrain from appliqueing embellishments there. Also, be sure to follow the directions on whatever brand of fusible web you purchase for best results. And finally, I think this is going to be a handwashed laundry item from here on it. But I think it’s worth it.

If academia doesn’t work out, maybe I’ll just become a full-time cardigan embellisher. I know that, given time and supplies, I could very well make something like this or this or this. And look how many fabulous — and often surprisingly easy! — ways there are to fancy up your cardigan using ribbon or just scraps of fabric!

As always, we’d love to see what you’ve come up with yourself!

DIY: Denim Cut-Off Shorts

Posted on | January 26, 2010 | 17 Comments

Ah, the winter shorts. So contradictory and impractical of a trend that it’s spread like wildfire. Even J.Crew can’t help pairing their shorts with blazers, classic cardigans, or crisp button downs (just see above for proof). So who am I to fight it? I actually love the winter shorts trend because it’s just like wearing wool tights with skirts or dresses only better; No worrying about your skirt flying up in the wind or your dress static-clinging to your nyloned legs. You get the best of both worlds.

Since I’ve been getting so much mileage out of my recently purchased tweed shorts, I decided to take a pair of scissors to an old pair of jeans and gift myself a second pair of winter shorts. A denim cut-off pair. I think it was around the mid nineties that I last turned a pair of jeans into cut-offs, so I proceeded with caution and recorded the transformation for your benefit as well. In just a few easy steps, you too can be the proud owner of a pair of denim cut-offs…

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6 January 2010 – Buttons

Posted on | January 6, 2010 | 27 Comments

6 January 2010 – Buttons, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

Red and white eyelet top – from my grandmother’s closet
Black cardi – Marona, thrifted (embellished by me)
Jeans – thrifted
Wool leg warmers – local drugstore
Boots – Dillards

Endnotes:

This is something I wore during my break in Romania and never got to posting. I’m now back in Munich and back to work. When I wore this, I was just spending a casual day reading and hemming a dress of my mom’s that I found that she probably wore in the 70s or 80s. I can’t wait until it’s warmer out and I can wear it. I’ve been inspired by a plethora of sources lately to flex my DIY muscles a bit more. I will long not be the DIY queen that our E. is but I’m hoping to get better at handling a needle and thread (I don’t have a sewing machine) so that I can buy all those lovely garments I always see while thrifting and put back because I don’t know how to alter them.

Buttons, originally uploaded by academichic.

I’m starting small with a dress hem and this embellished cardi I’m wearing. I was inspired by this embroidered black cardi by the lovely remixer ‘The Frog’s Eyebrows‘ and the button embellished cardi crafted by the stylish Clodo to pull out my own thrifted black cardi and spruce it up a bit. It’s hard to go wrong with DIY’ing a thrifted item since it’s not likely to have cost much or be all too irreplaceable. I found a handful of pretty vintage buttons in my grandmother’s sewing drawer and grouped them in clusters of three in shades of red and whites to adorn the cardi’s neckline. It’s not much of a change but just enough to make the cardi feel a little more exciting and new to me. I still want to try my hand at embroidering a cardigan, but that will have to wait until I thrift a practice item and some embroidery ribbon.

How about you? Are you of the crafty sort and if so, what are your favorite kinds of DIY projects? For us novices, do you have any words of wisdom? Also, does anyone know of a site with great embroidery patterns for free? Thank you, as always, for your input! S.

6 January 2010, originally uploaded by academichic.

3 September 2009 – Independent Study

Posted on | September 3, 2009 | 15 Comments

3 September 2009 – Independent Study, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

Purple cardi: Gap Outlet
Gray nursing cami: Target
Black jeans: thrifted and “skinnied” by me
Orange pumps: Dolce Vita, via solestruck

End Notes:

Though this is just a simple outfit for running errands, I need to momentarily crow about the pair of jeans I’m sporting here. These indeterminately colored jeans were part of my thrifting haul a few weeks ago. They were bootcut and, as such, were quite flattering. But I’ve been having a hankering for a slimmer fit on my bottom half and decided that this $5 pair would serve as the perfect sacrificial lamb for another foray into DIY land. (That’s a mixed metaphor.)

As Sal wrote a few weeks ago, taking a scissors, needle, and thread to your existing wardrobe is a great way to revamp your wardrobe for practically free. I’m far from a skilled seamstress, but I know my way around a sewing machine well enough to hack at existing pieces in an attempt to tailor them more to my needs or taste. I’ve chopped and hemmed pants to make bermudas, shortened dresses, and even done a few more complicated reworkings, like the orange maxi-dress-turned-drapey-knee-length-number.

A quick Google search resulted in a plethora of written and video tutorials on how to make skinny jeans. I ended up primarily following the advice of this one and using a pair of my pre-preggers straight leg jeans as an additional guide. It took a couple rounds of experimenting (better to sew too wide than too narrow!), but I’m pleased with the results. This is my version of “skinny”: more straight than tapered, skimming over the hip but with a close enough fit to appear on trend.

And, as Angie over at YLF recently noted, skinnies aren’t going away any time soon. I have a feeling I’ll be heading back to Goodwill soon, hoping to snag a few more pairs of ready-to-skinny jeans.

3 September 2009 – Independent Study, originally uploaded by academichic.

S. Gets Married: The Collected Works

Posted on | August 18, 2009 | 20 Comments

Discover, originally uploaded by academichic.

The Background Story:

Initially, T. and I had a bigger wedding planned for next year. We felt that it was expected of us by family and by friends who’d invited us to their weddings to reciprocate with a similar event. With both of us being knee-deep in PhD work and my getting ready to spend a research year abroad, the bigger wedding in the works was growing into a on-going financial and time-sucking burden. But we both felt that it was what we had to do.

The moment we both admitted to each other (and ourselves!) that we were willing to risk disappointing others to make ourselves happy with this, we knew we wanted to cancel the bigger event in the works and just elope.

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DIY: Elegant Outdoor Champagne Toast

Posted on | August 17, 2009 | 5 Comments

Champagne Toast, originally uploaded by academichic.

Our recent wedding was a small affair comprised of less than twenty guests. While we didn’t do a grand event, we still wanted small personalized touches to make the day feel special. So one of our ideas was to have a champagne toast at the end of our ceremony, with which we and our guests could toast to our new life together. Here are some ideas on how to serve an outdoor champagne toast that is both elegant and budget-friendly.

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DIY: How to Make a Boutonniere

Posted on | August 15, 2009 | 5 Comments

How to Make a Boutonniere, originally uploaded by academichic.

When making the bouquets for my wedding, A. and I also made the boutonnieres for the remaining wedding party. This too was not something we had any experience with, but was surprisingly easy and quick once we figured out a methodology. To learn how to make a boutonniere yourself, click here…

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