Category Archives: Upcycling

Again I forgot to photograph the ‘before’ but this was a standard, crew neck sweater, another charity shop purchase cost about £3.  I forgot to mention that the first step I take with any of these charity shop purchases is to throw them in the washing machine.   If they don’t survive, well shrug….. but they do need to be clean!

I cut out the crew neck, made a small pleat in the centre front and covered the raw edges of the new neckline with a strip of lace from an old skirt.

I chopped off the sleeves that were VERY long, then reattached part of them to form a faux cuff.

I opened up the side seams, chopped off the sleeves from a cream lace blouse and cut them into long triangles.  I sewed the lace triangles into the side seams.

I cut the ribbing off the bottom and attached the lace and satin panel from the skirt.  Et voila a new bohemian style top with a bit of swing.  I still think there’s something missing from this one.  Tempted to make a fabric flower to sit on the neckline at the top of the pleat.

Edit: here’s the finishing touch.

one.  No, nothing to do with romance – more about splicing a couple of old cardigans into something wearable.  I forgot to take the ‘before’ pics but imagine two plain small cardigans, bog-standard, button up to the neck, one black, one grey, picked up at a local charity shop for 99p each.   These were very small, so I cut halfway up along the sleeve lengthwise and then, without stopping for breath, cut a curve across the front and back.  I did this to both cardigans with the curve of the black cardigan being slightly smaller than the grey.  I sewed them together along the sleeve and curves, slashed the side seams and added a generous triangle of lace, cut a V neck and trimmed with lace.   The side seam lace came from another charity shop top – cost £1, so total was just under £3.

I wasn’t happy with hanging up clothes to photograph them, this dress/tunic looked weird and stretchy so I bought a dummy.  It’s not a fancy pants adjustable dressmaker’s dummy, just a polystyrene display model but it does the job for photos and I can stick pins in it.  Result!