Tutorial: Underneath Sleeve Shrug, Add Sleeves to Your Summer Clothes

Necessity is definitely the mother of invention! This tutorial is based on my need to convert some of my summer pieces into fall/winter wear. It's a shrug you wear inside your clothes! More and more, I am trying not to have this dichotomy between summer and fall and have my wardrobe reflect a smooth transition rather than a break. Too philosophical?

Anyway, here's the pattern I made from a New York Times paper page. I buy the paper all the time, read it, and then  save it to cut it up for patterns. Am I the only one who does this? 

Well, here it is, it's a very simple pattern:

Cut and paste this pattern and enlarge based on your measurements

My shoulder circumference is 15 inches so with stretchy material, 14 1/2 is good, with a little seam allowance. My arm length is 21 inches but I like my sleeves long and semi ruched at the end so 27 inches worked for me. Now use your measurements to make the pattern.  

Place on fold of fabric. Use pins or weights to hold down pattern in place. These are ankle weights that I should be exercising with, lol.

This is what it looks like after cutting.

Open it up and this is what you'll have

Unite top and botom points on each side

Pin

Stitch

Now we're going to make a binding for the opening

Cut a 36 in. long and 2 1/2 in. wide strip. Add the two ends of the strip and stitch

Now fold width-wise uniting seam allowance



This is how it will look from the outside

Iron, imprinting the fold on fabric

Pin to opening of shrug, raw edge to raw edge. I always pin top, bottom, left, and right and then ease and stretch the binding to fit the opening.

I like to serge all the seams but if you do not have a serger, you can zig zag stitch or just do a regular double stitch for durability.

Now I will show you how I use my "underneath clothes" sleeve shrug.

This is a summer top I made a while ago that I absolutely love and would love to wear in the winter showing off the color block, without covering it with a sweater.

Here's my little underneath sleeve shrug

Voila! I have a nice seudo winter top

My underneath sleeve shrug is also great for winterizing strapless items


This is what it looks like without anything over it. Here, it is paired with a sleeveless/strapless jumpsuit. It's a little too bare for me but you can wear it like this too.



From the back

With a knitted vest. You have three layers going on; jumpsuit, sleeve shrug, and the vest

I like it this way the best! I love layers.

So grab your stretchy fabric and scissors. This is a super easy project that really goes a long way in "stretching" your wardrobe. If you have questions, please leave a comment or e-mail me.  

Tutorial: Transform a Small Shirt into a Draped Top

So here is a short tutorial on how I tranformed my too small top into a cute draped top!

Here is what you will need: 1)The shirt you want to make bigger 2) an XL or larger shirt in the same color or different one for a color block effect, 3) scissors, 4) sewing machine or needle and thread (although I have not tried it with the latter). 

 1. Here’s the shirt I wanted to make larger. When I bought it at a thrift shop years ago, it was gigantic and I had to make it smaller. Now it got too small and I have to make it bigger (sigh)

2. So here you have another black X-large t-shirt. I had already cut out the neck line.

3. I start by cutting the side seams and the sleeves off of my Evita shirt.

4. This what I am left with.

5. I cut further to make it look like one long, straight, column

6. I cut the sleeves off the other XL black t shirt.

7. Then I start cutting out the entire middle section

8. Until the entire middle section is all cut out. DO NOT CUT SHOULDER SEAMS.

9. Line up shoulder seams of XL shirt to the shoulder seams of the original shirt. Begin pinning going down.

10. As you pin down, also line up the bottom seam of both shirts and pin. You will definitely have more fabric from the XL shirt that you can begin pleating and pinning. This will make for a nice drape effect.

11. Turn it around to see what it looks like and make adjustments.

12. Now do the same thing to the back.

13. Place it over your head, wrong side out and, on each side, gage where it feels comfortable to start your arm hole seam and pin on each side. If it’s too difficult to do by yourself, have someone pin it for you or pin on a mannequin. Then stitch side seams all the way down.

So here it is! I have a fancy hem sewing machine so I did stitch the neckline and arm holes but you can definitely leave them unfinished as t-shirt material does not unravel.

I  wore this shirt everywhere; baby shower, kids birthday party, brunch with a friend. I just love it!


Here I am with our good friend Radesky at his sister's baby shower. Radesky was about twelve when my husband and I met him. He has turned into a fine young man.




Here I am with my good friend Karen at her son's birthday party. She is a wonderful friend and caring, compassionate public school teacher. And also a natural curly head like me!  

 This shirt is comfy, stylish and makes a statement in image and design. I will definitely make more! So what are you waiting for? Don't frown if your shirts got too small! They will look way better with this draped effect!

Tell me what you think!

Transforming Low-Waisted Pants to High Waisted Pants

If you're like me, I love skinny jeans but hate the very low-waisted variety that show off your undies when you ever-so slightly bend down. I'm not a prude, I just don't want to flash the world my undies. They are called intimates for a reason, lol. Anyway. I have a whole bunch of low-waisted pants that fit nice on my thighs but alas, again, too low waisted.

Here's my solution. I bought a pair of high-waisted bell bottom pants at Old Navy a couple of years ago. I outgrew this look, so I decided to transfer the high waist onto my low waist pants.


My low-waist pants



High-waist bell-bottom pants from Old Navy

I simply cut off the high waist part of the Old Navy pants below the seam, right above the zipper. Then I did the same thing to my low waist pants, cutt off the waist band right above the zipper.

I then attached the high waist to the low-waisted pants and voila!

My new high-waist skinny jeans



Looks great with a top over it. Will try to see what it looks like with a cropped top.

These are super comfortable, I love them! If you don't have a high waist part, you can also band the top of your low-waisted jeans with stretchy material but you would have to cut the zipper out too. However, if not done right, it could look too much like maternity pants. But I will try this method and report back.

Let me know what you think!

My First Tutorial: Make a Cuff from a Boot!

This is my first tutorial and I'm so excited! As some of you know who read my blog, I have a love affair with cuffs. I started out making fabric cuffs to give as gifts back in 2009. These were fun and easy to make. When my husband's leather coat got torn, I then then graduated to making leather cuffs.  For more about my cuff journey, read this post from 2009. 

This cuff I made from my old boot a long time ago.

My sister loved it so much that I decided to make her the same one from the other boot. I thought this was a great opportunity to take pics of the process to show you all. These are really easy to make and they open the door to a lot of possibilities.  So here goes:

Here's my boot. I re-heeled it several times but the last time I went to the shoe repair, the owner told me there was no hope. I noticed that it had such a cute design detail and I immediately decided to make a cuff out of it.

I believe these are leather uppers. The first thing I did was to cut the top off, cutting around the zipper.

  I then turned it around and cut all the excess seaming . This will make it easier to sew.

This is what you are left with at this point. Make sure you leave enough room on the top and bottom to fold in and stitch. Also note the tiny seam on the middle bottom. I decided to leave it in and just fold over which made it a bit difficult to get it on but I didn't want to lose the finished look it gave it.

Fold in and stitch the top and bottom. I have a factory machine and used a #18 needle. Make sure your machine is equipped to sew leather.

Since it already has a snap, I used that for a closure and stitched the other end.  Like I said, I left that  previous seam. This is what it looked like after the sewing. I guess you could also totally cut it but I didn't want to lose the finished look. Do you think my hand fit through it? 

Yes it did! With a little shove.

My sister and I wearing our cuffs. Now we're ready for action!

I hope this inspired you to turn those old boots into something useful. You can also look at interesting details on purses and belts. The possibilities are endless!  Tell me what you think.