Whether it's fixing a shelf or making something entirely on your own; it gives you the self confidence to believe that you are capable of anything. It might be a skill that comes naturally to you, or a skill you want to learn and hone into something you can be proud of. If this sounds like you, you're in the right place. This monthly style guide is specifically about scrappy clothes and how to make them into entirely new pieces of clothing.
I will say I am no professional. The clothes I create from scraps are entirely random, and for the most part do not use a pattern.
This month DIY is a halter neck crop top which I made out of the hem of a ballgown which was far too long for me. If you are feeling inspired, I do want to add that although a sewing machine does make life a bit easier, you do not need one to do this!
I started by measuring out two rectangular pieces to cover my chest area. I wanted them long enough to hang over my shoulder enough that I could knot them without it looking too short.
When I had the right length I pleated them. You want to make sure that the fabric is enough to cover your chest while it is in pleats so I used clips to hold the pleats in place and held it up to my body to see if it worked. When I adjusted it and the material sat properly, I sewed a straight line through the pleats at the bottom of both of the pleated bits of fabric to hold them in place. You only need one end of the strip to hold the pleats in. Now you only need a third rectangular piece that can wrap around your core and be stitched together. You can have a longer rectangle shaped fabric which ties in the back almost like a belt that sits on your ribs, but I chose to make it into a loop so I don't need to tie it. You should now have three pieces of fabric that are ready to be put together.
This part is tricky because if you don't position the pieces properly according to your body shape it can ruin the design. So you want to take the two pleated pieces and tuck them into the waistband that you just made. I put mine next to each other in the centre of the loop waistband because that was what worked for my body shape. I sewed that. up and cut off the excess material from the pleats.
This is basically the whole top, but what I did throughout this process was keep trying on the top so I knew how it looked on a body at each stage.
When it came to putting it on, something looked off about the middle gap in between the two pleated fabrics. I tried hand sewing a small stitch so the fabrics would attach and create a little triangle gap but something still felt missing.
Finally, I got out my black ribbons and tied them into bows where I had sewn the stitch and it worked. A lot of DIY is about trial and error so if you do try something like this, don't be disheartened if it doesn't work. You might end up making something better than you had in mind
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