refashion | Sewchet

July 1, 2015
by sewchet 21 Comments

Boys T-shirts From Love Sewing Magazine

A couple of months ago I refashioned and repaired an old T-shirt discarded by my father-in-law in favour of some new ones, and made a perfectly wearable ‘new’ T-shirt for No.3 Son. (Blogged about here.)

I also had these two still waiting to be transformed into something The Boys would happily wear.

I was flicking through my old Love Sewing magazines when I came upon this pattern in Issue 10: –

The last T-shirt refashion was drafted from an existing shirt but, stupidly, I didn’t make a paper copy of it, so when I saw this one in Love Sewing, I thought I’d give it a whirl.

(Talking of Love Sewing, look out for my feature in the next issue!)

The sleeves would have to be short though, and the neckline is a bit too wide and ‘girly’ for my boys.

I cut out the largest size age 8-9 as No.3 Son is 8 next week and No.2 Son is 9. Perfect.

The two remaining shirts were different coloured versions of each other, so I decided to funk them up a little by swapping the sleeves as part of the remake.

I left all the original hems attached so these were both whipped up within a couple of hours – including tracing the pattern!

I used plain cotton tape to face the neckline as it was all I had to hand and it works perfectly.

Here they are waiting for The Boys to wreck them – they are mightily hard on their clothes!

Yep, they fit a treat – thanks, Love Sewing, for the free pattern!

So that’s another two items upcycled and given a new lease of life – fun, this sewing lark, isn’t it?

May 11, 2015
by sewchet 33 Comments

Men’s T-shirt Refashion

Father-in-law needed some larger T-shirts, which meant a pile of too-small ones were destined for the charity shop – until I saw several holes in them.

I don’t know about you, but anything which is slightly damaged goes in the clothes recycle bin rather than the charity shop as I know lots of people are unable to make small repairs.

As the holes could either be cut around or patched, I decided to have a go at refashioning them into T-shirts for The Boys.

They were all polo-style shirts and the piqué fabric was good quality with plenty of wear in it yet.

Using a well-fitting T-shirt from No.3 Son’s drawer, I cut around the basic outline from the body of the shirt, cutting the sleeves from the original sleeves.

After sewing the shoulder seams, the sleeves were set in and the raw edges overlocked, then I sewed the side seams (right sides together) in one continuous seam from the sleeve hem to the bottom edge.

The raw edges of the seams and the hems were overlocked, then the hems were top stitched in place.

The side seams were reinforced at the bottom with some decorative stitching.

For the collar, I cut off a strip from the original polo collar, sewed the short edges to make a circle…..

….and stitched it to the neckline right sides together, finishing with some more top stitching.

Then to deal with the hole in the middle of the back….

I cut a square of left over fabric (about an inch larger than the hole all around) and pinned it to the inside over the hole.

Working from the right side, I used this stitch on my sewing machine (combined with a stitch length of less than one) to completely fill in the hole.

The repair is virtually invisible on the outside.

The inside looks like this: –

Trim close to the stitching for a neat finish.

No.3 Son was excited with his ‘new’ T-shirt!

I was just pleased to be able to make another wearable item from something which would otherwise have been discarded.

Now, onto the other two….

March 28, 2015
by sewchet 5 Comments

Refashion: Onesie To Slipper Boots

This the last in a three part series showing how I upcycled an old Onesie into three new garments.

First part: TRACKSUIT BOTTOMS

Second part: HOODIE

This third and final part shows how to make a pair of slipper boots!

These are the feet of the onesie that were remaining after the rest had been remade into other garments.

Some more leftover knit fabric was cut into a 5″ strip twice the width of the flat boot top, plus a seam allowance.

After sewing the short edges together to form a circle, pin to the boot top, right sides together and matching seams. Stitch in place.

Press seam up towards the cuff and overlock the raw edge.

Top stitch about 1cm up the cuff, catching the seam allowance as you go.

Turn cuff to the inside having the overlocked edge protrude over the seam by about 1cm. Pin in place.

Working from the right side, stitch in the ‘ditch’ of the seam, leaving a gap for threading the elastic.

Stitch again in the middle of the cuff, leaving a gap for the elastic as before.

Top stitch close to the top edge all the way around the cuff.

Cut four pieces of 1/2″ elastic to loosely fit the ankle…

…and thread them through each channel on both boots with a safety pin.

The ends of the elastic are hand sewn together.

Tadah!

A sweet pair of slipper boots.

These turned out to be the favourite part of the recycled outfit and are great for sliding across oak floors.

Hmmm, that reminds me of a ‘game’ we used to play when we were kids. Mum used to put wax polish on rags, tie them to our feet and ‘let’ us slide on the linoleum floor in the dining room.

Wonder if I could use that ruse on my boys?

Hope you enjoyed this post, how to make slipper boots from an old onesie – if you’d like to see more;

You can find the first post here: TRACKSUIT BOTTOMS

and the second post here: HOODIE

March 27, 2015
by sewchet 6 Comments

Refashion: Onesie To Hoodie

This the second in a three part series showing how I upcycled an old Onesie into three new garments.

The first post showed how to make a pair of tracksuit (jogging) bottoms and this one shows how to make the matching Hoodie.

I had previously emancipated the top part of the onesie from its lower body and was left with this: –

The centre front zip was cut out next…..

….and a new centre front seam was made by sewing right sides together and overlocking the raw edges.

Both sleeves were shortened by a couple of inches, overlocked and then hemmed leaving a small gap through which to thread the elastic.

The bottom of the hoodie was overlocked and hemmed in the same way, leaving a gap for the elastic.

Having measured loosely around wrists and hips, pieces of elastic were threaded through each of the channels and secured together by hand.

Finished!

A cute hoodie to match the tracksuit bottoms.

Not the most appreciative smile in the world….

That’s better!

So, that’s how to make a great little hoodie from an old onesie.

Previous post: TRACKSUIT BOTTOMS

Next Post: SLIPPER BOOTS

March 26, 2015
by sewchet 15 Comments

Refashion: Onesie To Tracksuit Bottoms

Have your kids (or you!) got one too many of those novelty Onesies that continue to be so popular?

We were given a couple of hand-me-downs from my nephew which would take my boys four or five years to grow into, so I had the idea to re-make one of them into something more wearable – Tracksuit Bottoms, Hoodie and the added bonus of a pair of Slipper Boots!

It’s not a complicated refashion, but I seemed to take quite a lot of photos so I’ll split this upcycle into three posts, this being the first.

TRACKSUIT BOTTOMS

First up, I took an existing pair of well-fitting tracksuit bottoms and roughly cut the bottom half of the onesie to size.

I left plenty of space to turn up a hem and put the feet to one side for later.

A couple of inches was left at the top to add a little growing room and the top was also put to one side for later.

I started by unpicking and removing the remainder of the zip, then sewed the centre front seam closed.

There was just enough knit fabric leftover from a previous project to make a new waistband. I cut 4″ wide strips and pieced them together to measure the same as the onesie and added a seam allowance. The short ends were sewn right sides together to make a circle.