Mary's Thrifty Chic

Upcycling thrift shop clothing/sewing

lace

Lace Sleeved T-Shirt

By 12 Comments

Hello Everyone!

The summer has raced by and I am not sure where all my time went. Before it ended I did manage to finish another project to share inspired by this trend from the luxury brand Johnny Was.

Inspiration Photo

Before

I found a cotton blouse with the same type of lace and salvaged the sleeves and a few panels from a too short thrift shop top

After

I added those pieces to a brand new basic cotton v-neck and I think it works just fine to give me the sam type of feeling as the inspiration picture.

Fitting the sleeve and the side panels was more of a chore than I bargained for but I think it was worth the time and effort. As always what do you think? I love to hear from you!

Happy Refashioning!

Lace top Transformation

By 34 Comments

Hi Everyone!

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Hello refashion fans! It is the middle of the summer ALREADY, and over a month since I last posted. My how times flies!!!

I am a lace fan, and when I saw the picture below I wanted it BADLY! But I wasn’t willing to pay $100. I had to find a way to make it happen for less…a lot less!

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Enter this little $6.00 beauty to save the day! I saw it and even though it was too tight,and it had long sleeves, not to mention it looks a little “Wedding”  the way it is. I knew there had to be a way to make it work!

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BEFORE

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Well, you know I did it… Here it is!!! Want to know how?

AFTER

 

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TUTORIAL

First I took off the sleeves . My plan was to cut a new sleeve from the bottom of the current sleeve. The bottom was in a bell shape and perfect for the extra room I wanted over the bicep. I simply used the top of the existing sleeve as a pattern and cut it from the bottom where the edges are already perfectly finished. The top of the original sleeve will now become the new side panels. Just watch…

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Below you see both of the sleeves I cut from the bottom.

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Here is what they looked like ready to sew in

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Once sewn in you can now see the secret of how I achieved the flounce in the sleeve. I simply left the gap you see here.

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Here are the new side panels. What was once the sleeve cap will now be the finished lace edge of the new side panels.

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I had to go in and cut out part of the old side panels to release the garment for the extra room.

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Here are the new side panels pinned in and ready to rock. The old sleeve cap is now at the hem.

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I love it! One of my new favorite pieces!!

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What do you think?

I love your comments

Let me know..

Love you all!

Mary

Tablecloth to Sweater and Coat Update!

By 22 Comments

Hi Everyone!

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I had a circular piece of a tablecloth left over from this prior project:

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This is what came out of it!!!!

Front

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Side

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Back

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I swear I put that piece of crochet on the floor and over the dress form sooooo many times until the answer finally hit me! Here is how I did it!

Step 1) First I draped the circle over the form and determined where I wanted the armholes.

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This is how it looked while on the floor. I had to be sure the armholes were cut evenly

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Here is a picture of the cowl drape of the back neck.

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Here it is ready to crochet the edges!

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While it was on the form I crocheted around the neckline, armholes and all of the edges of the collar to create a finished look!

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Add an antique button and crochet a loop and I was done!

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COAT UPDATE! I FOUND THE BLACK SLEEVES AFTER ALL!!! THEY DID NOT GET THROWN AWAY! MORE TO COME!

Let me know what you think!

’til next time

Love Ya!

Mary

Honey, I Shrunk it Refashion!

By 14 Comments

Hello Everyone!

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Don’t you just hate it when you buy something cute and it accidentally gets in the dryer when it needs to be hang dried? This is the case of, “Honey I Shrunk the T-Shirt” Refashion.”
If I had any guts and wasn’t so vain, I would try on this “Before” and let you see how shrink wrapped I looked in it!

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I couldn’t just throw it away as it was still so cute! It had to get bigger, but putting a contrast fabric down the sides would be too obvious. Then I looked at the sleeve… and what I came up with was this!

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After:

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This version is much more comfortable and I can officially call this garment “Saved.”

This may not be the most amazing refashion but it is a practical one. Just think of all the garments you could save using this trick. It is all about the sleeves…

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Tutorial:

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Step 1) First I cut off the sleeves leaving about 1/2″ raw edge.

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Step 2) Next I cut open ONE side seam. I didn’t worry about unpicking it. In my
next step you will be able to see why.

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Step 3) Using the sleeve, I created a new side panel. The beauty of this is that is was already the perfect length and the sleeve of the hem matched up with the hem of the t-shirt.

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Step 4) After creating one side panel, I used that to cut out the opposite side panel with the other sleeve.

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Here is the side panel pinned and ready for topstitching.

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Step 5) Because the underarm would be too unstable without support, I had to sew in a piece of bias tape to keep the underarm from stretching. I purposely used a contrast color of bobbin thread so I could show you the stitching.

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When all was said and done, I think it was a good use of my time.

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What do you think?

‘Til Next time!

Love Ya,

Mary

Lace Dress Refashion

By 4 Comments

Hi Everyone!

My Inspiration
My Inspiration

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I coveted this look for quite a while but could not even think of buying it new. The lace tunic pictured was $238 retail. Yikes!

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Finally, the perfect dress appeared at “Goodwill.” I had to pay $7.99 for it but I was sure I could make it work. Remember, this is LA and even Goodwill is expensive! I liked the fact that this lace had a stripe pattern. I don’t like lace to come off as “wedding” or look like a tablecloth or curtains. [Read more…] about Lace Dress Refashion