Altering Pants From Flares To Skinnes

I had these two pairs of cords that I found in my stash...I was not feeling them with the wide leg. I got out my trusty sharpie and sketched out the basic shape...and them serged them up :) These are my new favorite pants!

BEFORE-These were very flared...and a bit too big.

I turned them inside out and rough sketched the shape I wanted with a sharpie.

AFTER-Serged up the sides :)

BEFORE-These fit alright at the waist,but I wanted to make them skinny on the legs.

Turned inside out and used the trusty sharpie again...

Only took in the legs...

AFTER-Serged them up the sides. They're cute on :) I'll upload a pic of that soon.

Jersey Dress

I found this jersey fabric. It's red and black with some gold. I wanted an easy comfy dress. I sewed the jersey together into a tube...then cut the torso off a black T...sewed that to size and attached it to the jersey tube. Easy and comfy :) I could live in this...

BEFORE-Awesome red fabric that I found for $1 a yard.

Plain black T

I cut the T and folded the thickness in half.

AFTER-Front. LOVE THIS!

and back. Seriously...I'm never taking this off. You NEED to make one.

Two T-shirts Into A Tube Top

This was a fun project :) I took a red oversized t and cut the torso off so it was a tube...then cut about 8" off the bottom of a grey t so I had a smaller tube. I sized that to my hips and folded it over. I gathered the red t on one end and attached it to the grey band. Then I put elastic in the top of the tube. I cut some 1" strips of grey and sewed them on into flower shapes. That's it :)

BEFORE- Plain Grey T

BEFORE-Plain Red T

I cut the red shirt under the arms...

Cut the band out of the grey...plus extra 1" strips for flowers

AFTER-This is the front.

Um...wtf? I found a stray thread.

And here's the back...thanks for the pics, P :)

Vest Out Of A Navy T :)

I saw this a few places and wanted to try it...it's THE easiest project ever. Take an oversized t...cut off the neck and arms...cut up the sides...and that's it! Then just put your arms through the neck hole and drape the fabric over the front of you. Pretty sweet.

BEFORE-plain navy T

Cut off the sleeves and cut out the neck. Then cut up the sides.

AFTER-here's the back. All I did was put my arms through the neck hole so one shoulder of the shirt is around my back and one is around my neck and the shirt fabric is draped in the front.

Front. I even kept the pocket on :)

Side view...THE easiest project ever. Seriously.

Funky Parrot Canvas Into Random Bloody Art

I found this ugly parrot canvas...I always try to buy ugly old art on canvas when I see it at the thrift store because I can always reuse it :) If you know me at all you know I'm incredibly frugal...to the point of insanity...and I will save a few cents EVERYWHERE I can (this includes unpicking elastic, buttons and zippers from old clothes so I can reuse them again lol) say what you will about me....but I haven't bought a zipper in since 2005. Lol. So, I used some white spray paint to return this to a blank canvas. Then I aged it with ink. I had some pages left over from the book wreath I made. It was a HORRIBLE political book and it had some REALLY messed up phrases. I cut them out and stuck them on...stamped a couple of images and made some fake blood. I splattered and dripped the fake blood all over the canvas. And that's it! It's one of my darker projects...which I like. But I feel the blood element of this project didn't turn out like I wanted it to. This is my first go with consistency and splatter technique...and I'll definitely do it differently next time. But that's how ya learn :)

BEFORE-I started painting over the parrot with white spray paint. This is after one coat. It takes a couple.

And it's a blank canvas again! It's like magic!

This is after I distressed it a bit with some brown ink.

AFTER-This was a wierd project. Lol.

Hot Pink Nightshirt Into A Halter

Um...hot pink silk nightshirt? Whatever, it was a quarter. This was a challenge for me...only because there were SO many possibilities! I decided on a halter. I wanted to use the back as the front. I cut out the rough shape...unpicked the sleeves and collar...sized it down....gathered the new front (old back)...reattached the collar and made a new button hole. It turned out great :) It looks kinda purple
In some of the pics because of the lighting in my studio.

BEFORE-Don't act like you don't like this...It's a keeper ;)

This is mid-way through this project. I unpicked the collar and cut the basic shape (I made the front into the new back, and the back is now the front...like I do lol) Then I gathered the new front and re-attatched the collar. After that I basically just sized it down and cut a bunch of length off the bottom to make it even. Uh...did that even make sense?

AFTER-This is the front...it's a fuzzy pic. For some reason the lights in my studio made this look purple. I assure you it's hot pink still. :)

Here's how the back turned out. Again...my studio lighting sucks.

And here's a close up of the top of the front since you couldn't see it very well in the other pic. This shirt is so girly! Not usually my style, but I'm loving it!

Black Men's T Into Fantastic Top!

This project was really fun! I saw a shirt sort of similar to this concept and i decided to make a version :) Basically I cut off the sleeves (and saved one of the hems off the sleeve) then I sewed up and down the front. This helped take it in for size purposes. Then I sewed messy stitches all over the front. Back and forth, up and down, left and right and everywhere in between :) When I was done with the stitching I gathered the back part by the shoulders and sewed the hem of the sleeve that i had cut off and saved into a circle to hold it all together. I LOVE how this turned out. It's a very unique looking shirt. One of my favorite things to wear :)

BEFORE-Boring black T...not huge but just a bit oversized.

I just started in the middle of the neck an piched a bit of fabric (sane people would probably pin this and measure them all out...but you know me...not gonna happen)I sewed 5 of those from the neck to the bottom hem. (I like odd numbers :) Then I sewed them down in one direction...went down about four inches and sewed them down in the opposite direction. I continued that all the way down the shirt. After that I started at the top and did a zig zag stitch in a zig zag pattern down the front. I'm pretty sure I may as well have been speaking Greek there. Eh?

Oh Snap! Guess what!!! I'm cutting off the sleeves. Bet you did NOT see that coming! ;) BTW, these are my favorite scissors...they are MASSIVE.

This is just the hem I cut off of one of the sleeves...I'm gonna use that nugget! We'll see if you can find it in the pics...it's like where's Waldo lol.

AFTER-Here's the front. LOVE this shirt!!!

Close up of the messy stitches...hopefully you can make them out a bit better :)

And the back...can you see the sleeve hem??? That's right I used it to gather the back on top of my shoulder blade area. You found Waldo!

The Powers That Be

I took a 10 minute break from sewing to eat some Chinese food and look what I got in my fortune cookie...who knew? ;)

Map Picture Frame

I had this picture frame I got at the DI for I think around $1. And I have a collection of maps that I picked up for .10 each. I cut a piece out of the map...wrinkled it up...unfolded it...distressed it with ink...and stuck it on the picture frame. There you have it! Missouri never looked so good ;)

BEFORE-here's the picture frame in all it's glory...

And here's a map of Missouri...didn't you recognize it?

I cut out a picture frame shaped piece and squished that bad boy up into a ball.

Mod podged that business to the frame.

AFTER-I just distressed it with some ink after I had stuck it down. Then I sealed it. And.....done. Much better (in my opinion)