Upcycle Hand-Me-Downs, Summer Edition

It's such a bummer to have all these clothes for boys here and now I have a little girl that can't use them...or can she? I'm turning my boy's hand-me-downs into girl's clothes again! 

I pulled out the clothes from storage and found a few pieces that had potential for summer refashions...

Overalls Cut Offs...This is the easiest makeover of the bunch! Just cut off pants and pull apart the bottom a bit to make them fray more. I didn't really like the red patch on the front pocket so I pulled it off and replaced with a crochet heart applique. 

T-Shirt Make Over...This shirt is very easy and best of all, when you use knit fabric, you can leave the edges unfinished. Trim shirt as pictured, sew the tops of front and back to make a pocket for the tie. Tie is bottom cut off of adult tshirt. 

Tie Front Button Up...This shirt definitely took the most patience. I wouldn't say it was hard, but I had to go slow and I hate doing stuff slow! Carefully remove sleeves, and trim fabric up closer to collar. Measure and cut bottom of shirt leaving long sections in front for ties. I inserted some elastic in the back and then sewed up all rough edges. I added some lace to make little cap sleeves.

To see more refashions and all the projects I'm working on:

 Project Gallery

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Upcycle Hand-Me-Downs 2

Turning boy's clothes into girl's clothes...again!

So here is my second go at taking my boy's hand-me-downs and refashioning them for my girl.(see first clothing upcycle) I can certainly go and buy her new clothes and trust me, she has tons but it's fun to try something new and save some cash while I'm at it! I saw these shirts early in the season that had ruffled sections of sheer fabric in the back. I wanted to do something like that but since it's still winter, no sheer fabric over here! 

This is a boy's heavy, sweater-like shirt. I tried it on my daughter first to see what the fit was like. I wanted it to be a little more fitted so I cut off the sleeves and them trimmed excess fabric down the sides. I cut out a section from the back of the red sweater where I was going to insert the grey.

For the grey back section, I used a men's grey t-shirt and cut a section from the bottom of the shirt (keeping the original seam) about twice the width of the red sweater. Since I wanted it to hang a little lower in the center, I made the length longer in the center.

Ruffle this grey section by running the top edge through your machine with the stitch length and the tension settings turned all the way up. Now sew the top edge of the grey to the bottom edge of the back of the red sweater with zigzag stitch(don't forget to readjust the tension and stitch length back to normal).

Now you just need to put the rest of the shirt back together, sew the sleeves back on(I made mine a little tighter) and down the sides.

I cut out a heart from the grey t-shirt for the front and attached it with a zigzag stitch.

 See Upcycle Hand-Me-Down #1

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Upcycle Hand-Me-Downs

Turn Boy's Clothes Into Girl's Clothes

I have two sons and hand me downs are a wonderful thing! I have Rubbermaid bins full of boy's clothes and every six months I've always gone through the drawers and rotated clothes. Then, I had a daughter. This has left me with a pile of clothes leftover from son #2 and nothing for my daughter. I have a couple friends that send me clothes from their girls, which is always a special treat, but I still end up having to buy a lot. As much as we try to convince our husbands that they're crazy, the woman's section of the store is just as big as the men's, it's a lie. We just need more stuff and same goes for little girls!

After seeing the idea on Pinterest, I thought I would try to upcycle some of the boy's clothes into girl's clothes. Here is my first attempt and I think it turned out pretty cute!

I started with a striped, long sleeved t-shirt and a brown men's t-shirt. As usual, I forgot a before picture, sorry! I placed a shirt that fits my daughter well on top of the boy's shirt to use as a guide. I trimmed the sleeves and sides to make it more fitted(remember to leave seam allowance). Then I cut around the neck line.

Now pin and sew up sides and sleeves.

When I looked online how to make a cowl neck everyone said just cut out a rectangle and sew to make a tube. I did that and didn't like it. It didn't hang lose the way I wanted so Here's how I cut mine out. This shape made it hang down lower and made it baggier.

With right sides together, sew side A to side B. 

Now you're going to take the bottom, flip it up and line up to the top. The right side will be out and the wrong side together. 

With the shirt inside out, slide the cowl inside the shirt and pin the lined up edges to the neck line of shirt. Now just sew the pinned neckline, then turn shirt right side out.

Using a white t-shirt I made some fabric flowers and ruffles for the pockets.

I attempted to explain this as clearly as I could, please let me know if you have any questions.

*Upcycle Hand-me-down #2 is done!

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