Sewing To-Do List

Lately, I've gotten into the idea of upcycling. If you've never heard of upcycling, here's the short version: you take some clothing you don't want, and stick needles in it until you've turned it into something you do want. Bam, new clothes. And you kind of get the bragging rights of having made them yourself. Sick!

Most of my old clothes have already gone winging their way to the charity shops. But hey, there are still a few things I'd like to play with upcycling.

Let's take a look, why not?

Here's a skirt I bought during my impressively long goth phase. Some people suit a goth look. I am absolutely not one of them.

The skirt is really nice and still holding together, but a) I'm not super into the all-black thing any more, and b) I've grown a bit since I bought it. Sideways.

It zips up one side, and the waist tie is attached on the opposite side. So I figure it would be simple enough to cut up the middle front, and insert a stripe of contrasting fabric to make it bigger and more colourful. Maybe something red or green or gold. If I can get hold of something with a pattern that'd be awesome. Maybe even buttons!

Okay now THIS gem I made during my even more impressively long Bioshock phase. (Spoilers: it's still not over.) (Spoilers: it will never be over.)

It's huuuuge. I love it, but when I wear it it's kind of baggy and shapeless. And if there's anyone who doesn't need to look any more shapeless, it's me.

I'm wondering about cutting out a scoop neck and doing something something something with the arms. Then if I find some fabric that'd go with the image colour-wise, I can make it into a high-waisted dress or something.

Either that, or I could cut the shirt itself to a more tailored shape. I know I've seen a tutorial for that floating around Pinterest.

So I got these really comfortable jeans in the January sales, and they're SO COMFORTABLE, but they're kind of a lot too long. So this is just a reminder to myself to turn up the hems, really.

Moving along!

I adore this shirt, but I rarely wear it any more. So it would make a pretty good one to experiment with,  I think. You know, dress-making-wise.

A yellow and/or red and/or white skirt would do just the job. With spots for extra credit. Green and yellow aren't my usual clothing colours, so heck yeah, let's get some of that in my wardrobe.

Now here's a dress I'm not sure about. I love the design, and the pattern up on the top part, but the fabric is a bit weird and the skirt always feels too heavy when I'm wearing it. Also, the cut is really weird on me.

New skirt, I'm thinking. Maybe black, maybe black and white, probably definitely a solid colour or blocks of colour.

Yep, there are no clothes in this picture. That was a test and you passed!

But for real though, the last item on my to do list post (yes, it's over soon, I can hear you breathing that sigh of relief) is storage rather than clothes. I dug out an over-the-door clothes hanger while tidying, but I already had one on my bedroom door, so I slung this one on my wardrobe instead.

And the more I look at it, the more it seems like it would make a perfect place to hang a few small storage bags.

I'm under strict instructions not to fill my room up with clutter. And for the purposes of this discussion, storage boxes/baskets/drawers/etc count as clutter. Enter hanging storage that can be easily folded up and put away! Gets stuff off the floor, and it doesn't have to stay in the room any longer than necessary. The best of both worlds.

If I can find some acceptably nice purple fabric, I could even colour-match the storage to the room, who knows?

Okay, there's my to-do list. And this post is out in the open now. So you can all yell at me if I don't get round to any of the projects.