How To: Alter a Dress

I just love a good refashion. I found this dress for $1 at a thrift store and even though it was ridiculous with its enormous sleeves, neck tie and shoulder pads, I liked the fabric and thought it would be a good project.

Here's what I did:

1. Remove the shoulder pads. Always the first step when taking the ugly out of old dresses.

2. Rip out the seams along the shoulders and sleeves, removing the neck ties and the sleeves completely.

3. Re-sew the shoulders, following the original seams lines.

4. Take the dress in on the sides to make the arm holes smaller and the dress more fitted. I wanted the dress to be more of a shift style, so I only took in the sides about 6" down from the arm holes. If you want a more fitted dress, you would take it in all the way down to the hem.

5. Reshape the arm holes. I used a dress that fits well to see how much to trim from the arm holes. This was probably one of the more difficult steps, but you can see in the picture above the chalk line around the arm hole, that is where I cut to make the hole smaller.

6. Take in sleeves. The sleeves on this dress were enormous and the cuffs were very tight fitting around my wrists so I knew I would have to do a lot of work to make them look normal.  Again using a finished dress for reference I determined the new length for my sleeves and cut the bottom 5" off each sleeve, then took each sleeve in another 4" (2" from each side of fabric, where the pins are).

7. Make the cuffs. I used the fabric I cut off of the bottom of each sleeve to make the cuffs. After determining how big I wanted them, I cut them to size and then ironed on a very lightweight interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric to give the cuffs some shape. I then sewed them into a circle, with right sides together, pressed the seam open and then folded down each raw edge about 1/2".

8. Attach cuffs to sleeves. First I basted along the bottom edge of the sleeve, then pulled the basting stitch gently to pucker the sleeve. Only pucker the sleeve enough to make the opening the same size as the cuff (you want a slight pucker, but don't want to go back to what the dress looked like originally). Next, I pinned the open cuff to the inside of the sleeve (the sleeve is right side out for this step), sewed it on, then folded the cuff over and topstitched.

9. Attach the sleeves. Sewing on sleeves is always a little hard hard for me, but especially when I am doing alterations because my sleeve and my arm hole often end up not matching as well as they would from a pattern. Getting the sleeves on took a little bit of time because I had to do several adjustments as I went. It's always a good idea to use a basting stitch first when attaching your sleeves and then go over it with a regular stitch once the sleeve is in place and has no puckers. Rather than give you my step-by-step here, I'll share the best tutorial I have ever seen on attaching sleeves: Teach Yourself to Sew: How to Sew A Sleeve

10. Make sash. I used the remnants of the neck tie to make a sash for my waist. First, turn the neck ties wrong side out. Following the straight seam on each half of the neck tie, I continued sewing to the end of the fabric and then cut off the excess. Then I turned each strip right side out and ironed them flat. I folded the end of one strip inside itself, then tucked the raw edge of the other strip into it and topstitched it in place.

11. The picture doesn't show it, but a good tip to make projects look professional is to always give them a good iron when they are done. And, you're finished!

How To: Dye Your Clothes

I have had this sweater for a while now, and while I still love the cut and fit of it, it wasn't long before I grew tired of the color. It didn't really go with anything else in my closet (which consists of mostly black, white, gray and blue) and I found that I was never wearing it. Still, I wasn't quite ready to part with it either, so I decided I would try my hand at dyeing.

Dyeing this sweater was actually pretty easy, but before you go decide to change the color of everything you own, its important to keep a few things in mind. First, it does matter what your item is made of, and natural fibers will dye best. My sweater is 65% ramie/45% cotton, both natural fibers. Second, a patterned item may not (read: probably won't) turn out well because of all the different shades, so its probably best to stick to solid colors. And finally, no matter the color of dye you use, you are not going to get a super bright, super true-to-hue finished product, but it will still look nice.

Rather than give you a step-by-step how to, I will just post a few pics and recommend that you simply follow the instructions on the Rit color remover and dye, as I did (I know, that makes my post title deceiving...).

I "cooked" my sweater in the color remover for the whole 30 minutes that the instructions recommended and was pretty pleased with how well it took the color out.

After it was good and white, I prepared the dye in my washer (actually my mom's, I was at her house when I did this).  I wanted my sweater to be as dark and vibrant a blue (I used Rit Royal Blue) as possible, so I bought the liquid dye instead of the powder. One liquid bottle is about equivalent of two boxes of powder, but at a better price, so it seemed like the right choice and was easy to just pour right in. If you opt for liquid dye too, remember to shake the bottle before pouring it in the washer. I forgot, even though the instructions told me to, and I had a clump of dye that didn't want to come out of the bottle and then got all over my hands and dyed them blue. Learn from my mistakes.  

The dye did splatter around quite a bit inside the washer, but after I was all done dyeing and washing my sweater, I wiped it down with a wet rag and some bleach based cleaner and it came right off. 

Here is my sweater now:

This isn't really the best picture because I took it when the light was bad, but it shows the new color of the sweater pretty well. I'll admit that it's not as dark or bright of a blue as I hoped for, but you can only do so much with at-home dye, and I knew that when I started. Still, I am happy with it and have already worn it more in the past month than I probably did the whole two years I had it before when it was pink.

Have you ever dyed any of your clothes? How did it go?

Things that Made my Life Easier in 2014: A French Shopping List and a Capsule Wardrobe

I think overall, 2014 was a pretty good year. Phil graduated from school, got a good job, we moved into an apartment that we love, and Luke grew and grew. We feel really grateful and blessed to be in a good situation, even if everything isn't perfect (darn student loan debt).

Lately, I have been trying to find things to make our life more simple and enjoyable. I want to look back on these years and remember good times that we had, not just a busy or stressed-out life. So, I spent some time reflecting on things that I did in 2014 that made my life easier. I found that it had really been just simple, small changes that made a big difference. Here a few of them:

1. Creating a Capsule Wardrobe
2. Menu Planning
3. Using a Monthly Budget
4. Having a To-do List

Capsule Wardrobe:  First, of all, I had never heard this term until about September of this year, but apparently its "trending".  I have always loved clothes and fashion, but I have never had the money to buy everything I wanted so I have often felt frustrated with my closet, always thinking that if I could just buy a few more things I would be happier with my wardrobe (which of course I never was). In the spring of 2014, I stumbled upon the blog The Private Life of a Girl talking about the "French Wardrobe" which, according to her, means that the French don't have mountains and mountains of clothes, but rather a few basic pieces that they can wear often, and when they shop they only buy a few new pieces each season.  I really liked the idea of being more intentional about the things I buy rather than chasing a bunch of trends that I see on fashion bloggers. So, over the past year I have made a list of 5 things that I wanted for each new season and focused only on buying those pieces. I tried to make sure the pieces on my list were items that would mix well with pieces I already owned, as well as would be pieces that weren't too trendy so that I could use them for a long time, even as trends change.

This way of shopping has changed a lot for me. First, it has helped me avoid impulse buys.  I keep my shopping list on my phone, so whenever I was out browsing I could pull it up and remind myself of the pieces I really needed and wanted rather than getting distracted by some pretty thing that probably wouldn't have suited me in the long run anyway. Next, it made me appreciate the items I already had a lot more, and stop coveting what other people had. When you choose to buy less, and become more thoughtful about what you do buy, it changes your perspective. Instead of thinking, "if only I had more money to..." you choose to think (and therefore begin to feel), "I am choosing to limit my purchases and be content with what I have."

After making my seasonal lists over the course of the year, I discovered another great blog called un-fancy that focuses on keeping a "capsule wardrobe" for each season. Basically, a capsule wardrobe means that you choose to only have a certain number of items in your wardrobe for a certain number of months and you don't buy new clothes during that time. In the un-fancy blog, she has 37 items (shoes included!) that she wears for 3 months (spring, summer, fall, winter). I had already been trying to simplify my wardrobe so I really liked this approach and decided to give it a try.

I sorted through all of my things and got rid of anything that was old or that I didn't wear very much (I actually do this pretty frequently, so it wasn't a big ordeal). Then, I boxed up all the items that I didn't want to have in my fall wardrobe (mostly short sleeve shirts, shorts, capris and a few other items that I decided I didn't need currently hanging in my closet). I didn't quite get down to 37 pieces, but I was pretty close, and I wore only those items through October, November and December. Turns out, I didn't miss my other clothes at all and I enjoyed how having less items gave me the opportunity to be more creative. I found new ways to wear things that I had never tried before and I found that rather than feeling like I didn't have enough, I just really enjoyed my clothes and getting dressed each day.

At the beginning of January I pulled my boxes out, put away a few things from my Fall capsule and added some new things. Now I will only wear those things until the end of March. I will still continue to make my French shopping list, and buy the 5 new things I need for each season/capsule. This whole progression over the year has really helped me to be more content, which is something I not only want for myself, but want to teach our kids too. It seems silly that clothes and the way I buy and wear them would be a source of happiness, but they have been, and I can see how that change in perspective has influence other areas of my life as well. I'm looking forward to a new year of a simple, easy wardrobe.

Check back for more posts on things that made my life easier in 2014. 

How to: Let Out a Skirt

I found this skirt at the GoodBuys 99 Cent store in Albuquerque.

I would have paid a dollar, but was half off so I only had to pay 50 cents for it! I figured it was worth the money. I like the overall make, and the fabric is sturdy and in good condition, but it was just too tight around my waist. After inspecting it carefully, I decided it would be a good opportunity to try my hand at letting out a skirt, especially since I pretty much only ever alter things that are 5 sizes too big.

Here is what I did:

1.  First, I used a seam ripper to remove the belt loops in the front of the skirt since I didn't like how they looked and I knew I would never wear a belt with this skirt. I had to unstitch the seam that connects the waistband to the skirt (just around the belt loop) since the loops were actually sewn into the skirt, not just on top of it. Once I pulled out the loops in the front, I top-stitched back over the opening I had made. 

2.  Next I ripped out the seams attaching the waistband to the skirt in the back, starting from the zipper to all the way past the darts and the belt loop (again to remove the loop). You can see here that there is extra length (about 1/2") at each end of the waist band, this is what will give the the extra room to let out the skirt and tells me how much I can let it out. 

 

3.  I turned the skirt inside out and following the seam of the original dart, sewed a new seam, about 1/4" closer to the edge of the skirt. Then I ripped out the original dart seam, pressed flat the new dart, and repeated this step with the dart on the other side of the zipper. This gave me an extra 1/2" on each side of the skirt (the amount of extra waistband I had, as shown above). 

4.  I then pinned the skirt back onto the waistband. As you can see from the picture, there is no longer the extra length at the end of the waistband, but it matches up exactly with the end of the skirt. and, following the original seam, top-stitched to secure the skirt and waistband together. 

5.  Next, I removed the buttons, moved them about an inch to the left and sewed them back on.

6.  I gave the skirt a good press, and tah-dah! A 50 cent skirt that fits!

Before and After: Sport Coat to Tote Bag Refashion

We bought a sport coat for Phil to wear with his Halloween costume. Even though I found it at a thrift store it was still $10, which seemed a little expensive to me, but we needed it so I paid the price. Once Halloween was over and I started putting things away I wondered what we would do with it. I hated to just send it back to the thrift store since I didn't feel I had quite gotten my whole $10 back, so I started thinking of things I might be able to use it for. The coat itself, although it was too big for Phil and not really his style, was made of 100% wool with a nice lining and was still in really good shape, so I decided to turn it into a tote bag.

Before:

This is the first time I have ever sewn a bag, let alone one made out of an old coat and leather (I wasn't sure if my machine could handle it but is sewed right through that leather like it was butter)! It took a bit of trial and error figuring out the size of everything so that it the finished product was half decent, but I love how it turned out and think its a fun accessory for fall and winter. I especially love the lining, which of course came from the original coat lining and still has all of the original jacket pockets.

After:

I am hoping to post a full tutorial soon, but there are A LOT of steps for this one so its taking me a while to write it all out. For now, I hope it just inspires you to think twice before you fill up that goodwill bag and repurpose your old things!

Before and After: Denim Shirt Dress

I altered this denim dress without taking enough pictures to do a tutorial, but I love how it turned out so I still wanted to share it here. I really like the shirt dress style, but I can rarely find any that are long enough for me so I knew I would either have to make one from scratch, or find something to alter. I decided I would start by checking out some thrift stores (always a great place to find big, denim dresses) and I found one for $3 that I was able to alter in just a couple of hours.

Before:

This dress was a size 16 (I usually wear a size 4 or 6) so it was several sizes too large, but it definitely had plenty of length! When I alter dresses like this one, I always look at is how the shoulders fit. I don't like re-setting sleeves, and I especially didn't want to re-set them in this dress because of the top-stitching that I would have to try to duplicate, so I tried to find one that fit ok across the chest and shoulders. It looks pretty awful in this picture (and it doesn't help that my hair isn't done either), but I wanted my dress to fit somewhat loosely (the way a comfy denim jacket would) so I knew it work out after the alterations.

After:

The make of the dress was fairly simple, so I really only had to do a few cuts and seams to get it to fit the way I wanted. I took in the width of the sleeves (about 2 inches) all the way up from the cuffs, along the underarms, and back down the sides of the dress. Then I cut off about six inches of length and sewed a new hem. I used the same techniques for the hem of the dress as I used in this jean tutorial.

I wear this dress all the time now.  It has been perfect for fall and can be dressed up or dressed down and it's so comfy! What do you think of my before and after?

Tip: Make a Laundry Schedule

Sometimes I wonder if everyone but me already knew to do these things. Either way, all of these tips are things that I have found to be really helpful to me as a homemaker, so it can't hurt to share them with you too.

This week, I have discovered the magic of scheduling my laundry (it's the little things). Usually, I do most of our laundry on Saturday, which sometimes rolls into Sunday because I forget to finish drying or folding it, and sometimes I don't get the laundry finished at all so I have to do random loads during the week because we need something cleaned. I would rather not use my weekend for this, but it has always kind of happened that way. Then, I thought, "what if I create a schedule for this, and do one load a day each day of the week? Then I won't have to do it on the weekend!"

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner.

My new laundry schedule currently looks like this:

Monday - whites
Tuesday - darks/colors
Wednesday - towels/sheets
Thursday - Luke's clothes

That leaves Friday, Saturday and Sunday free to do other, more fun things. And since it is just one load a day, it is easy to get it all done: washing, drying, folding, and putting away.

Do you use a laundry schedule?

How To: Shop at Thrift Stores

Have you ever asked someone where they got that cute shirt only to hear the answer, "at the thrift store, it was only two dollars!" Determined to find something just as good, you also head to the thrift store, walk through racks of junk for fifteen minutes, and walk away empty handed.  "How does she do it?" you wonder.

While finding that $100 designer purse for $5 at Goodwill may be a stroke of good luck, most often successful thrifting is about knowing some tricks and putting in a little extra time and work. Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Go to various stores and go often. Just as you shop at various retailers for all your other clothes, try to shop at multiple thrift stores. They are not all the same; prices, sales, and quality and quantity of items will vary greatly between stores. Also, it helps to go frequently because items are constantly changing. I probably stop at at least one thrift store at least every two weeks (often it's more than that).
2. Go with something in mind. Most of the time, successful thrifting requires a lot of digging through a lot of junk, and it's not always fun. I have found that when I don't really have anything in mind that I'm looking for, I'm less willing to dig, and therefore usually less likely to find anything. It always helps to at least have a few ideas in mind--such as a black pencil skirt or red cardigan--of what you hope to find before you go. That doesn't mean you only go to the skirt section and then nothing else, but if you start out by looking for something in particular it sort of breaks you in to the somewhat tedious, but necessary, process of of picking through every item on every rack until you find the treasures.
3. Take your time. I can easily spend over an hour at a thrift store (if I don't have the baby in tow) because it takes time to go through all the clothes. If you only have ten minutes to run in and look around chances are you aren't going to find anything. Thrifting will be more successful if you take your time and look through as many items as possible.
4. Ignore tags. Thrift store items are constantly being mis-tagged and misplaced, so don't focus too much on the tags or section labels. I usually wear a small or medium but I still sort through large and x-large sections to see if I find anything I like. Some items that say x-large may have shrunk and now fit a size medium, or it may be something that can be altered to fit. 
5. Try it on. Absolutely never buy anything from a thrift store without trying it on first. Remember rule number 4: just because the tag says it's your size doesn't mean it will fit. Many items are donated to the thrift store because they have shrunk or stretched and no longer fit the way the tag says they should. Most thrift stores do not accept returns (although some will allow you to exchange your item for something similar within a few days of purchase), and even though it may only be three dollars, that's still three dollars that you wasted if you get home and find that it doesn't fit after all.  
6. Double check. If you find an item you want to buy, make sure you give it an extra good look over checking for any tears in the fabric or seams, loose buttons, or stains. 

Even following all these rules, there will still be times when you don't find anything worth buying at the thrift store. But, your chances of finding some great bargains will definitely increase if you give it the time and work. Happy thrifting!

How to: Remove sweat odor from clothing

I know, sweat is not the most appealing thing to talk about, but since we all do it I guess it's ok. Hopefully I'm not the only one with this problem, but I have noticed that I have several shirts (often synthetic fibers) that seem to retain a sweat odor, even after multiple washings. I don't know about you, but I am not really going for the "I just put on this shirt and already smell sweaty" look, so I wanted to figure out a way to get rid of this problem once and for all.

After thinking and doing some reading I determined that the real culprit here is not sweat, but antiperspirant or deodorant. Antiperspirants have a tendency to leave residue on your clothes, but since it is usually on the inside, you might not notice or care. The problem is, antiperspirants are made up of several ingredients, including wax, and if you have ever spilled wax on your clothes, or carpet, or any fiber, you know how hard it is to get off. So, even though you may wash your clothes regularly, a normal wash cycle is not likely to remove all of the waxy residue left by the antiperspirant. And since you have been sweating into that waxy residue each time you wear the shirt, the odor is likely to stay too.

So, what should you do? Are we all destined to slightly odorous shirts? Thankfully, no.

Not long ago, I altered a dress for a friend. When I went to iron out the crease in the hem, the iron scalded the fabric. In a panic, I quickly grabbed some soap and started scrubbing, hoping to remove the marks. Luckily the marks came off, but to my dismay, the soap wouldn't rinse out of the fabric! Trying to help, my husband started looking for solutions online to removed soap residue from fabric. The solution? White distilled vinegar. I tried it and the soap came right out of her dress, no problem at all.

So if vinegar worked to remove soap residue I had a pretty good feeling that it would remove antiperspirant residue too, and sure enough, it did!

First, turn your shirt inside out. You can't always see the residue on the fabric, but you can usually feel it.

Then, soak a cotton ball with some vinegar and dab or rub gently into the fabric until soaked through.

Rinse the fabric with warm water.

Wash your shirt as usual, and you're all done!

Extra tip: I also read a good idea to keep a spray bottle of vinegar in your laundry room and spray it directly onto the underarms of all your shirts before throwing them in the washer.  This keeps the residue from ever building up in the first place and gets rid of all those pesky odors and stains.

How to: Lengthen a hem

Of all the skills I have learned in my life (which may not actually be that many) sewing is by far one of the most useful. I have always loved clothes, but have never had much money to spend on them so being able to make my own clothes as well as alter and repair items has saved me a lot of money over time.

Most recently I bought this cute sweater dress on clearance at Target. It is so comfy but can also be dressed up or just worn casually so I felt like it would be a good addition to my closet. (Please excuse my lack of shoes).

 However, one of the problems I always have with dresses and skirts is that they are never quite long enough. This dress was close, but when I sat down came up just a little too high for my taste. Luckily, it had about a 3 inch hem, leaving plenty of room for me to take it down and add a couple inches in length. Plus the dress just used a regular straight stitch for the hem, rather than a blind stitch which is more common, making this alteration even easier.

Because I wanted to match the look of the original hem, I used extra wide bias tape. Bias tape is so easy to use and inexpensive. You can find it in just about any color and width at any fabric or craft store, or even at Walmart.

First, use a seam ripper to unpick the original seams and lay dress flat.

Next, lay your tape and fabric, right sides together, matching up the edges. You can pin if you want, but probably don't need to. Sew tape onto fabric, using the small fold in tape as a guide.

Trim off the extra tape and your dress should now look like this.

Turn dress inside out and fold up hem to desired length. I wanted the hem seam to be about the same as the original so I folded up the fabric about 3 inches.

Pin all around. If you have slippery fabric you may also want to iron your hem to make sure it stays put when you sew, but this knitted fabric was heavy and easy to keep in place so I didn't worry about ironing.

Depending on the look you want you would now either do a blind hem or a straight stitch. I am matching the original hem so I did I straight stitch as close the the top of the tape as possible. Then I flipped the dress right side out and did a second straight stitch, using the first as a guide and matching the look of the original hem.

Trim off any loose threads and you're all done!