I confess, I love clothes! I love shoes and handbags, costume jewelry, and art. As a creative individual with limited funds, I have scoured thrift shops for years on the hunt for bargains. When my sons were young I clothed them in second hand, like-new clothes that saved us so much money and they looked great! I would look for interesting things, like t-shirts with cool graphics that could be cut and appliqued onto jeans, etc. to create entirely new and original looks.
As the oldest of six children, times were tight when I was a child. We often received boxes of hand-me-downs from others and were happy to get them. My grandmothers sewed clothing as well. It is no wonder that I learned to be frugal and yet use my own creativity to imbue freshness into older, no longer fashionable articles of clothing.
Today, as an empty nester, in addition to many other creative outlets, I continue to re-purpose outdated clothing. This also helps saves hundreds of pounds of fabric from ending up in waste sites. It is sometimes a slow process to find things that will work in a refashion project, but the results are worth it! I often find great items for as little $.50 that others overlook.
I encourage anyone who might never have considered it to give it a try! Get those creative juices flowing and strut your shine!
Source: ReFashionista
Re-use clothing parts to renovate clothes in trouble. For instance, if sleeves on a shirt are too short, cut them off just above the cuff and sew on some cut-off sweatshirt sleeves from a too-small or stained garment.
Use an old sweatshirt to repurpose into a jacket. Here is a great design for how to turn a sweatshirt into a jacket.
You don't have to throw away your favorite sheath-style dress just because you outgrow it. All things old can become new again with a bit of imagination.
This page is about shortening men's shirt sleeves. Altering the length of sleeves can add extended wear and save you money.
Some clothing can be repurposed into other articles of clothing with a little alteration. Here is a neat idea about how to turn a blouse and skirt into a dress.
Sweaters can be used in a variety of recycled crafts. This page has ideas for making new and creative crafts using sweaters as material.
This is a page about altering pants into capris. Give an older or unused pair of long pants a new lease on fashion life by cutting them down into capris.
This is a page about recycled summer tops. By reworking some of your other clothing, such as long sleeved shirts, you can make some really cute tops for summer.
This is a page about making shorts out of pants. Bring new life to a worn out or out of style pair of pants by making them into shorts.
I've been looking for tops for my white skirt and ivory skirt and looking for print skirts. One day, I found a dress with a print I liked and thought, "I wish this were a skirt." That's when I realized I could cut it in half and make a skirt.
I recently purchased a couple of really nice t-shirts, only to find they are too large. Nice problem, huh? I want to alter them to fit me better. The shoulders are much too wide as well, so will need to do something about that. Does anyone have directions for altering t-shirts that are too large? I have been sewing for years. Thank you.
I'm a seamstress (by trade, originally) and I don't have any "pattern" per se, but short of completely opening up the entire shirt and re-cutting and re-sewing, I've simply sewn new allowances where I need the closer fitting. I've done them as a baste-in 1st, checked the fit, made any adjustments necessary and then sewn them in permanent, afterwards cutting off the excess "old" seam allowance.
