Making & Modifying Your Clothes

[Slayer Igraine]

So for the first time in about 11 years I sat down at the sewing machine the other day with a collection of my plain black tees and decided to make them more interesting. Here are the results:

This was the first one I did. It's a bit of a crap photo, but I can't be bothered to take another one right now. I'll take more photos of all of them when I can find someone who will take photos of them whilst I'm actually wearing them. Anyway, the safetypins in the middle are holding together the sides of a box I cut into the top there, dunno if you can really see that or not on the photos.


This one is technically not finished yet, since I want to replace the safetypins with D-Rings. Unfortunately the last batch of D-rings I ordered are far too big, so it'll have to wait a while until I can order more, hopefully smaller ones.


Bright/neon green is one of my colour schemes, but I'm having trouble at the moment finding anything in that colour, so I figured I'd make my own top.


This one ended up being a cardigan since I cut the front too short and you get to see quiiite a lot of my bra when I lift my arms, but eh, *shrug* Life and learn. smile

So:
-if anyone has feedback, tips, suggestions, etc, they're welcome. But please bear in mind that this is the first time I've really tried to do stuff like this. smile
-at Christmas I want to make a skirt with a bustle - if anyone knows where I can get cheap/free patterns, that would be great
-feel free to post your own clothing modifications/works from scratch.  

[Angel of the End]

Awesome, I love them! heart
I love to customize my clothing, too. Sadly, it always takes a bit because I lack a sewing machine...  

[Keevan Draco]

excellent work! keep on stitching....

hmmmm.....bustle question. At the moment, I have no references for you...give me a few days to contact my sewing circle, and i'll hope to have at least either a website or book reference you could find to suit your needs.
From memory, there were two types of bustle. one, the under-bustle, was a sort of permanent attachment to the frame of a hoopskirt (an assortment of wooden or whalebone hoops covered in fabric and arranged as a latticed undergarment that held the skirt up and out. This was widley used to keep the skirts out of the muck and mud of the timeperiod), that the skirt itself rested over.
The second, an over-bustle, was a gathering of material (usually pleated with either a set bow, or wide ties that could be tied into a bow) that rested on top of the outer skirt by means of a belt like attachment. One could almost consider the over-bustle a sort of ancestor to the modern belts we wear today.

If pyramid pleat rings any bells for you, then try that. If not, the best description I could give you:

Quick and Dirty Over-bustle

take a large triangle of material ( start small to get a feel for it, use a bandana)
fold in half and crease the fold. (if using a bandana, fold twice, open once. most bandanas are square, you need a triangle for this project.)
open it up.
starting at the crease you now made, fold the material to either side of the crease towards itself, using the crease as the centerpoint for the work. (general rule of thumb is to use the two-finger rule, take the first two finger of either hand and fold the material over/under to set the pleat width) and pin the pleats.
Continue pleating and pinning till you run out of material.
Sew the pleats with either a sewing machine, or hand stich the tops of the pleats.

now for the difficult part:

fold the top 4 inched of your pleated overbustle over and stitch closed (the end result is basically a very large beltloop.
(ok, if you are going to practice on a bandana, use one finger width to set the pleats, and 2 inches to make the beltloop, savvy?)
Build a bow using another piece of fabric and sew it to the top outside of the main bustle.
Find a matching belt and enjoy your new fashion trend...

I built an entire skirt using the pyramid pleat (about 9yards of fabric wide, and at the point about 1 yrd long, but depending on the size and width of the material, one can make a mini bustle that can be worn over another skirt or jeans by means of a belt. (try a triangle of material that is 1 to 2 yards wide, by 1 yard long at the point to make a mini-bustle)

I still think that many are unclear what a pyramid pleat is, in short, you are going to fold the material inwards towards the crease in wider and wider pleats till you run out of material. when securely stitched, the end result is a stack of pleats that look like a stepped pyramid when viewed face up.

enjoy, and happy sewing...  

[Slayer Igraine]

Thanks for the tips, Keevan Draco, I'll try that. :3  

[Sulphuric]

I'm currently in the process of silkscreening a design on a shirt and some other odd items and the nuclear radiation symbol on a hoodie, if that counts. I'm kinda interested in modding clothes, but more so in putting my own designs and such on them rather than anything that would involve sewing.  

[Spike23080]

Makeing your own clothes can be prity fun if you fined the time and very rewarding to know that you made your own clothes and no one will have extacly the same stuff as you. Heres a list of vids on youtube that show you how to make all kined of stuff that can be modified for your own look. Your shirts looked good and hope you get into makeing your own clothes.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=22C5EAC81912C7C4  

[the_forgotten_thought]

i really liked the second and last one.

so far, i'm just into putting designs on clothes. like, i make designs and stencils and then paint them on (but it's sometimes hard to find paint that'll show on black). i want to try this sort of stuff, too, but i'm almost positive whatever I do will fall apart in a washing machine. haha.