Tired of the clothes you’ve worn a million times, but don’t have the cash to renovate your closet? I feel that! Good news is there are so many opportunities for you to turn some of the old pieces laying around your room into a trendy look. All it takes is a little creativity and a lot of fabric glue and your outfits will be looking fresher than the spring break air.
Up first, turning an old three quarter sleeve mini dress into a cute two-piece ensemble.
It might hurt to cut up your favorite dress from middle school but you’re doing no one any favors by sporting the same look as Miley Cyrus from her Hannah Montana days. The only things you’ll need to achieve this look are fabric scissors, a ruler and a pen.
Step one: Try the dress on and mark where you want to cut the top and bottom
Step two: Use the ruler to make a straight line where you made the mark
Step three: Cut it and don’t look back!
Step four: get creative with the sleeves, I chose to follow the hem on the shoulders but you can make it into short sleeves, a tube top, or halter straps.
Next, making scrap fabric into a skirt
If you have any fabric that is at least a few feet long then you have a potential new skirt on your hands. All you need is some fabric glue, a button, and minimal sewing skills.
Step one: Hem the rough edges of the fabric by using the fabric glue and folding over about half an inch of the edge.
Step two: Wrap the fabric around you and make a mark where it crosses over
Step three: Sew the button where the mark was made
Step four: Make a quarter inch slit in the part of the skirt that overlaps the button for the button to go through
And there it is, a new envelope style overlap skirt!
Now here is something that will liven up any old shirt… a zipper!
Zippers can take anything from 0-100 real quick. They are fast, fun and trendy. All you need to put a zipper on a shirt is fabric glue, no sewing necessary!
Step one: Use a ruler to mark a line in the middle of the shirt that is the same length as the zipper.
Step two: Cut a straight line where your mark was made
Step three: Put fabric glue on the fabric edge of the zipper and press down a little at a time for 30 seconds
Step four: Cut off excess zipper that overlaps the top
Step five (optional): Cut the bottom of the shirt to make it into a crop top
BONUS- use extra fabric as a headband
Finally, if you have any old jeans, shorts or denim skirts that aren’t being worn then I don’t know why you haven’t started cutting it up!
There are so many opportunities to distress and remake denim into something totally new. My favorite style right now is the destructed hem.
Step one: Use a ruler to make a straight line on the front and back about two inches above the hem
Step two: cut tassels around half an inch in width and bring it up to the marked line
Step three: Take each tassel and shred the edges using the inside part of your fabric scissors
Step four: shake out the skirt to loosen up those denim fibers!
Now you are ready to take on everything your spring break vacay has to offer- while looking chic and stylish! I know it’s nerve-wracking to try out some of these cut and glue tactics on clothing you think you might wear again, but I always like to remember that if I am not wearing it now then why not try to give it a chance at a second life? And if you completely botch the production job… well, you weren’t wearing it anyways!
