Jeans - cheap enough I can justify hemming

I picked up some pairs of jeans back in the summer at a yard sale for $1 each.  Plus recently I was at the Goodwill and happened upon another 3 pairs of jeans in my size and got them for roughly $2.50 each.  Of the yard sale jeans, I hemmed 2 of them almost right away so I could wear them while the third pair languished in my pile.  I finally got around to hemming the last pair this weekend.  5" off the length - 4.5" cut leaving 1/2" for the hem.  Of course they came out about a half inch shorter than I would have liked.  Even though I cuffed them while wearing them to confirm where they'd hit.  Figures.

Of the Goodwill jeans, two pairs didn't need hemming!  Miracle of miracles.  One of those did need a small patch on one of the legs.  The denim was wearing through.  Since I didn't want to draw more attention to the spot, I patched it on the inside using hem tape to seal down a patch over the whole area.  Feels a little weird when I first put them on, but I don't notice it while I'm wearing them.  Victory!  The one pair that did need to be hemmed still needs hemming unfortunately.  Haven't gotten around to it yet.  Probably have to cut off the excess since they need around 3" taken off.  Will measure twice to avoid the same fate as the yard sale jeans.

Hemming jeans is my least favorite alteration.  My sewing machine isn't powerful enough to sew through denim at all, let along multiple layers.  That means I have to do the top stitching by hand.  So tedious.  I could just use hem tape, but I like the look of the top stitching around the bottom.  It camouflages that I had to hem them in the first place.  I was only willing to go through that effort since I picked the jeans up for cheap secondhand.  If I was willing to pay new jean prices - they better fit me without my having to alter them.  This way I'm reusing jeans, which is environmentally friendly, and saving my money, which is frugal.  Win-win

Free dresses!

Hey there, sorry for the long hiatus from posting.  Life intrudes when you least expect it - and then it won't leave you be.  Between moving and illness I wasn't able to get much done, but I did get in some alterations and such small projects.

I was lucky enough to be the recipient of some free dresses from a friend of mine.  They didn't fit her anymore.  They fit me, but I am significantly shorter than she is.  So hemming was definitely going to have to happen (story of my life).

 This sundress was the easiest to hem.  It was only roughly 1.5" too long so I was able to fold up the existing hem the extra margin.  I machine sewed the new hem and catch-stitched the rest of the hem up so it wouldn't fall down and look weird.  The bottom line of top stitching is the new hem.  The middle line of stitching is the original hem that is now hidden.  Then along the top is the catch stitching to keep the excess up out of the way.

The second sundress I haven't attempted to hem yet.  It's current length is roughly 6" too long for me and will require cutting to get it knee-length on me.  I'm hesitant to cut into it because I'm concerned about cutting the new bottom edge evenly.  Not sure how I'm going to do it.  Here's the original length and what it will look like after hemming - I pinned it up a little haphazardly to get a feel for the new length.

The third sundress I managed to not take any pictures of.  I will remedy that once it's dry (washed after hemming).  It's a halter top style, blue flower fabric.  The length was similar to the plaid dress.  I only had to take it up 2" so I used the same strategy of simply folding it up, topstitching the new hem, and catch-stitching the excess.

The fourth and last dress I was given is very different.  It's a shirt dress in an eye-catching light teal and brown colour combo.  It has a self fabric belt that disappears into the dress.  Besides that it also needs hemming, but not too much I think.  I'm going back and forth on whether I like it since the fabric isn't a pattern I would have bought for myself for a dress.  Plus I've never owned a shirt dress before.  I think I'm going to keep my eye out for a wide dark brown belt to pair with it.  I think that would ground the pattern a bit more.

So out of those 4 dresses, 2 are hemmed so far.  Two to go.

Busy Day at Home

So I'm staying close to home today for the most part today.  Just don't have any errands to run or places I absolutely need to be.  So while waiting for a friend to call with a fabulous adventure, or just to summon me to hang out, I figure I might actually get some things done around my apartment.

So far I've been fairly productive.  Not as much on the cleaning front as I'd like (not being a fan of cleaning), but I've done much better on the crafting front. 

Gardening: I got a 5 pot pyramid thing from my mom that I filled with potting soil and actually planted some seeds in.  The seeds are a bit old (a bit is being generous) so we'll see if they germinate.  I'm keeping a positive outlook though.

Cooking: No cooking yet today, but I did heat up some of my leftovers from last night for lunch.  Just a stir fry, but I had garlic scapes this time which I picked up at the farmer's market near my job.  Never cooked them before so figured I'd give it a shot.  Definitely a bit tough, don't think I cooked them long enough.  Instead of rice I made some quinoa to mix in at the end.  Other than that, just half a yellow pepper that was on its last legs, some onion, and the ever present garlic.  Those glass jars I've been saving came in handy for the extra cut-up veggies.

Sewing:  Two parter here.  On the business front I finished the second piece of a recent commission.  The first piece was just replacing some clasps on a pair of dress pants that had come loose.  The second piece had me pausing for a bit to make sure I was sure on my strategy.  Basically the pants have a pretty white stripe in a navy fabric.  Unfortunately one of the seams has the fabric meeting at an angle so there was a spot of a lot of white where it looks like the fabric is pulling apart or something.  Not nice.  So I took in the seam just a touch so you saw the navy fabric instead and you can't even tell.  Much better.

As for personal sewing - 1) I had a soft t-shirt fabric dress I picked up to wear around the house but it was too long so it has been hanging since I bought it.  Had to hem it 3", but hopefully now I'll wear it since it is super comfy and does me no good on a hanger. 
2) I took in the necklines on two shirts (identical with different color patterns) that gaped open if I bent forward AT ALL.  I just took in each neckline an inch only along the actual neckline.  I did not do anything to the shoulderseam or top-of-sleeve.  The patterns are so busy that you wouldn't notice.  I used the same technique on this shirt and it is even less visible on these shirts because the fabric is more loose and drapey.
3) I replaced two buttons, one each on the back pockets of a pair of jeans.  The way the pocket flaps hung outward was driving me nuts, but I've been too lazy to fix it.  Step in day of being a homebody - two buttons added and I feel much better.
4) And speaking of replacing buttons, I have a pair of linen capris that I haven't been able to wear for over a year because both buttons above the zipper had come off and I never bothered to replace them.  Since it is getting hot here as summer rolls in, linen capris might be handy.  So I found two (non-matching) buttons in my stash that are roughly the right size and sewed those bad boys on.  One is slightly too big, but works.  I'm trying to not be bothered by the non-matching-ness of the buttons.  Casual pants, and who is going to notice besides me.  Or if they do notice, care at all.

So that is the roundup so far.  I apologize for the lack of pictures of all this productivity.  My computer is down so I am using my old netbook.  Which is finicky.  So I don't like to ask too much of it.  If I'm lucky and the company sends me a new motherboard then we'll be back in business on pictures.  If not, then, I'll try to figure something out.

Altering everything

So I get home from work tonight and think, I should get some sewing project done tonight.  I haven't been too productive the last few days.  So suddenly it is several hours later and I've altered three pairs of dress pants by taking them in at the waist and made more "no progress" on a pair of grey dress pants that might wind up going back to their original state if this keeps up.  Three more pairs of pants wearable without worrying about how tight my belt is.  Thus I can keep avoiding buying new clothes.  Why buy new when you already own something that can fit with a little tweaking?

No pics yet, but I was trying to alter them from the inseam instead of the outer seams like I usually do since I wanted to take in the leg width as well.  It is turning into a disaster, and I may give up altogether if I can't figure out what is going wrong.  If I can remember to I will try to take more pictures along the way.  The fact I haven't torched them in frustration should be a win all on its own.

It's Spreading!

I am slowly corrupting my friends.  I was hanging out with some friends when one, S for this discussion, started talking about a pair of dress pants she had bought a year ago that didn't quite fit anymore.  I immediately jumped in with the tale of altering my own dress pants with not too much fuss.

Success!  She pulled them out, tried them on, and it turns out that all they need really is some taking in at the sides and hemming the legs.  No problemo!  So I'm now taking in the sides (by hand since my machine is still in box) and luckily they didn't need to come in too much.  With how heavy the fabric is, I don't think I am going to split the fabric to press the seam open.  It can probably be pressed to the side, not that there is much extra fabric in any case.  The top edge of the dart only came in 1/4" folded.  Her call really.

But I am totally excited that I am slowing spreading the idea of altering clothes to fit instead of buying new.  Quick fixes that I can do with a needle and thread save money and the eco-downside of more new clothes.  She has a sewing machine of her own, but she pretty much sews from scratch - not altering and mending existing clothing.  Hopefully if these pants come out well she'll be hooked.

Salvageable?

I'm thinking I might have to just get rid of some of my jeans.  They're too big around the waist now and unfortunately my sewing machine is not powerful enough to sew multiple layers of denim.  I'm not 100% sure it can handle one.  I could hand sew my dress pants, but I'm not sure that would work as well on denim.  The alternative is to set aside a day to go to Goodwill and look for smaller sized jeans and donate my larger sized ones.  The issue is setting aside a day to try on pants.  I'm not so patient with long bouts of trying things on, especially after you have to comb the racks for your size in the first place.

Maybe I need a thrifting buddy.  Someone to come with and help keep it fun.  Has anyone tried to hand sew denim alterations?  Is it hard?

Alteration - Michael Kors style

So I had picked up a shirt at Macy's from their Michael Kors line.  Softest fabric I have ever felt - thank goodness it was on sale because I just had to have it.  Only one problem I didn't notice until I got it home and put it on to wear it.  The cowl neck has a little too much extra fabric.  If you stood up straight it draped beautifully.  Unfortunately, if you leaned forward or even hunched your shoulders at all it gapped to show way too much.  Hmm, dilemma.

I decided to try taking the neckline up at the shoulder seam.  But only at the neckline.  I did it that way to try and avoid ruining the cowl neck, and because I wasn't sure what to do with the extra fabric.  It would distort the seam at the arm if I took the adjustment all the way across, or so I was thinking.

SO here is the view from the front of the shirt:

And since you can't really see it in this picture because of the pattern, here is a closeup of the shoulder area:

It creates kindof a starburst effect of folds.  Not sure if it looks deliberate or just sloppy.  Can't decide if I want to try and fix this, or try to figure out how, or just leave it as is and brazen it out like I meant it that way.  Any thoughts or suggestions?