Post Punk Kitchen Forum

(I searched a little, but couldn't find an appropriate thread for this...)

I have too much useless clothing! Clothes bought on a whim, clothes that are now the wrong size, or I've wanted to alter, or were hand me downs, or just some random buttons and fabric...I need things to wear! And I'm poor!
I thought I would try to re-purpose and upcycle some of my stuff! I am *not* a seamstress by any means but I'm willing to try it out!

If anybody has pictures of clothing they have re-purposed or good tutorials, post it here for inspiration!

P.S. I found this site and it's awesome: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?board=8.0

I think the first thing I try will be something like this: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=372898.0
Looks simple and right up my alley...

ooo! i just did something like this last week. my partner was throwing away some funky shirts that didn't fit him properly and i made one of them into a dress. i also made one of his funky african shirts into some pants for my toddler. will post some pics later :)

I'm not the most talented sewer. I don't really sew clothes. But vintage or used clothes are great resources for fabrics. When I'm at a thrift store I always scan the clothes looking for fabric. The prettiest fabric I own came from a home sewn blouse from a thrift store. Probably 1950's.

Check out http://www.newdressaday.com/ for inspiration.

I cut up some cute hoodies and shirts that no longer accommodated my curvy awesomeness and safety pinned the fabric to a plain tote bag. It looked like something I would have done when I was an angsty teenager (Emily the Strange logos, Alice in Wonderland) but I got a lot of compliments on it.

all our useless too stained, too holey clothing goes in a bin, once or twice a year I purge. First...I don't buy or wear anything usually other than cotton or silk or natuaral fibers, this makes most of my retired clothing re-purposeable.

I make upcycled unpaper towels and send the to the wildlifeworks animal rehab shelter about 12 miles from me. I make small cloths to line the nestlings beds with. Mostly out of cotton t-shirts.

For our home we are a paperfree house. I make family cloth out of t-shirts and sweats. Or unpaper towels for us or my dd's home or gift them to those I know will use unpaper. All natural scraps then become fuel for our woodburner. We waste very little in our home and find repurposes for just about everything or recycle and compost. being a good steward goes far beyond diet it also is taking good care of their natural habitat through conservation and gentle use of our resources. This is a way of life for our home, it gets a bit consuming sometimes but after 10 or twenty years it is pretty seamless.

^^ like that Studiobound! i do something similar with stuff that's too nasty to be repurposed for clothes- i make rag strips and in turn crochet rugs for the house, rags for cleaning, etc. Scraps go to the compost.

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=317009.0 here's a tutorial I made for some shirt re-con a while ago. it's super easy and requires pretty much no sewing skills :D

and I recently did this to an old shirt, using a dress pattern and some fabric left over from a previous project:

that is pretty cool, alina!

Alina, that chemical brothers dress looks awesome, I really really want one now.

My favorite sites for inspiration when I want to make stuff are http://www.cutoutandkeep.net
and Threadbanger http://www.youtube.com/user/ThreadBanger Look for old shows, with Rob and Corinne as hosts. They have tons of really good ideas.
Here's a really easy tutorial, if you like halter tops http://youtu.be/mNFr6xyODU0

A friend got me that Generation T book for my birthday last year, it's not something I would've bought for myself but definitely has some cool ideas in it.

One of my favorite things to do to make tshirts look less boxy/more form-fitting is just thread some ribbon up the back like a corset (an idea I believe I got from Vez many years ago! Woo Vez!), like so:



I also like making things out of shirts that are too small but have cool designs, I have a fairy bag and fairy pillow I've done from this. And skirts made from shirts!

I've never done anything like this, but I really want to figure out some good ways to make a baggy t-shirt something I can wear. i have this lavender shirt with glittery kittens on it that I would LOVE to wear in public

I love that dress Alina!

Hmm... I have a couple of tops that are in perfectly good condition but too short because of how clothes used to be cut a few years ago and some minor shrinkage. I used to have to buy things that were only juuust long enough and kind of tight across the shoulders or else they wouldn't fit my waist. The colours aren't even faded on a lot of them.

Question, I'm a fairly talented sewer but only by hand (I can do things people think only machines can, I've even sold items before) and I purchased an awesome shirt at a thrift store that says "Will Work For World Peace" but the fabric is so light everything shows! Any ideas? (I'd go with bag, but I have too many as it is)

wear a tank top or cami under it?

That dress is really cute! I've been trying to revamp my thrifted clothes as well, I will be following this thread to see what else you guys come up with! I am not a sewer at all, but I have lots of free time and patience!

I've made shopping bags out of t-shirts that don't fit well or are beyond wearing for some reason, it's pretty easy.

http://www.generation-t.com/t-shirt-pro ... reat-tote/
If you use a sewing machine they'd probably be stronger, but I've sewn all mine by hand and none of them have split open yet.

I've made a few skirts out of old trousers, it's super easy, just cut off the legs around or above the knees depending how short you want it, cut up the inner leg seams (and halfway up the outside seams too if you want a flarey skirt) and then sew triangles from the leg pieces you cut off into the Vs from the opened seams, then I usually turn up a big hem and tack that round, then cut the inside hem so it's neat and zigzag sew it so it doesn't fray.

I converted some old flare jeans to a straight skirt and for the most part, it worked fine. There are a boatload of tutorials on the internet for converting jeans to skirts but all of the ones I found use the old 1970s method of overlapping the crotch area and inserting large triangular panels of fabric in the front and back. I didn't want to go that route because I'm very self conscious about looking shorter and the crotch on my jeans had blown out completely so there was nothing to work with. My only option was to make them into a pencil skirt and cut away the worn out crotch areas.

Here are my tips and cautions if you want to try a pencil skirt rather than a-line:

1. Plan for hip width when figuring out how high up the slit in back should go, you need to be able to lift the skirt to use the ladies room. I'm going to have to redo the slit in the back to get this to work. Flare jeans cut in at the knee and that total circumference will bite you in the butt, so to speak, when you have to use the ladies room.

2. If you're not doing the traditional flap the crotch over and insert a huge triangle old hippy method, you'll have to rip the stitching all the way up to the zipper and maybe even the waistband in back then fold it over like it was originally and create fresh seams to contour your body better. It's more confusing than I expected but it looks better.

3. If your jeans have any amount of old spandex in them, even 2%, be careful when hemming or you could get a wavy hemline like I did. I have to rip this out and do it again without stretching the fabric as I'm feeding it through the sewing machine.

4. Use a size 16 or 18 needle and bigass thread.

Hope this helps anyone thinking of making skirts.

I am trying to figure out how to upcycle old jackets/cardigans that have magically become too small over the years. The arm length and shoulder width are fine. If I just buy larger jackets, I have to alter them anyway because the shoulders and arms are too big. So I'm toying with how to insert color-blocked panels either in the sides or maybe the back and front. Anyone ever play with this type of approach?