Gray striped plus size refashion

Well it has been a while since I posted but it was a stressful few months between no pain medicine, the one year anniversary of my mom's passing and the two year anniversary of my sisters' it was hard to get the enthusiasm to write. But New Year and new motivation so here is the latest in refashion plus size.

My sister and I have the same tastes in some clothes in others we are like WTF why would you like that. This is one of them.

But she loved it so time to make it looser and look good. I hate adding triangles to a shirt because nothing shouts "it didn't fit me until now" at least to me. I have seen it done and have done so myself but it is hard to make it look like the original design so I decided to save my headaches and try something new. I had a grey tshirt where the front was messed up with bleach spots but the back was perfect. So I folded it and cut two long trapezoid.



Then I folded the pieces in half lengthwise and laid it on the shirt the narrow side to the top. Bear in mind that I want the piece larger then what I will make the opening and the difference between the top and bottom is less then two inches.

Once it is lined up with the edge I used chalk to mark where the underarm goes then I rounded of the top end. I cut allowing 1/4" to be turned under. Then I cut along the fold of the shirt all the way to the underarm.

I began to pin the piece in place after marking how far I wanted to spread the opening. My bad I got a little enthusiastic about how big I wanted it but my sister was happy she wants to use it with leggings or tight leg jeans. So the opening can be however big you want it to be just mark with chalk. The easiest way was to fold the shirt with the cut edges closed  close the material around it with the underarm center joint and the bottom center joint in the right place. Place a ruler inside the shirt and push it right against the center seam of the add on. Then holding at the underarm pull the bottom of the ruler out to the side the amount of inches you want to add. I say use a ruler because it prevents the fabric from stretching out of place and keeps the edge smooth. This means there is no guesswork about the attachments edge. Move the ruler back under where the edge of the fabric overlaps the shirt and begin to pin it in place. The ruler I used is a quilting ruler but any one will do.

When you finish the inside will look like this:

You can see how enthusiastic I got at making this work. The outside will look like this:

There were some more changes first was the length of the sleeve that had to go luckily it was easy to cut off about two inches and hem it up.

Then because she is annoying that way she decided that she need a pocket to tie everything together. It is hard to put a pocket on a plus size person because if you put it straight according to a flat shirt it is going to look crooked once it is on. She came up with a good idea I made a paper pocket then kept adjusting it on while she wore the shirt.

Now you have the finished product:

 Next time a little less extreme though the addon will stay the same size actually I might make it wider so it comes out closer to the bust. Did not take long to do for a normal sewer you are looking at 2 to 4 hours only because t-shirt material curls when cut and can be annoying.

Extending the life of a hoodie

A friend of the family has a favorite hoodie that as you can see was on a downward slope to the trashcan. At first I figured that I could trim one layer and fold the other layer over to make the cuff but the damage was too much. So I decided to get creative.

First I removed the cuff and did a quick press to smooth the edge. I keep a bag near the sewing table of scraps that could be used, nothing too small because I have a hoarding habit when it comes to fabric and found 1/2 a heavyweight jersey tshirt and cut two rectangles.

I cut the fabric 4 inches wide and 1/2 inch longer then the sleeve. Then I folded each piece in half , sewed it shut with a small zigzag and serged the ends. So I ended up with a neat tube that stretched nicely.

I used a small zigzag stitch to attach it to the sleeve. I was not worried about unraveling I just wanted to be sure it would stretch as needed. Normally I would recommend a dye dip to refresh the color but she like the faded look.

Sometime it is the little things that can give a garment a new life. A 1/2 hour and small piece of fabric later you have a new sleeve. This is also a good idea for the one that fits but the cuff is just too tight or fits funny because it is meant for someone smaller. You will usually find that when you undo the seam the fabric will usually stretch a lot more then you expect so making the cuff bigger will not hurt anything. Measure your wrist for a snug fit and cut the rectangle 1/2 inch longer. Then ease the fabric to the cuff after the first wash it will look natural.