Faux Corset Top Tutorial (and what NOT to do!)

Okay, let's start with a disclaimer.  I'm not a seamstress.  I'm not a great tutorial maker.  And I had no idea what I was doing when I started this project, other than I wanted to use what I had to make a fake corset top for my pirate wench costume, which I don't want to spend any money on if I can help it...This fake corset is for costumes and such, not everyday wear.  SO.  While I will initially share my tutorial with you on how I actually made this, I will also share with you all the things I wish I had done differently so that you don't make the same mistakes.  But, even saying that, I still love how it turned out.  So here's a tutorial.  But you really ought to read the end if you want to make it better than I did. :)

YOU WILL NEED:

* black (or whatever color you want) tank.  The actual corset is just a tank top/spaghetti strap shirt or tee shirt with sleeves cut off...I have lots of these for undershirts that are getting kinda gross or worn out or boring and need upcycling.  So, enter the black tank top.  

* matching WIDE (at LEAST 1 1/2"...mine was 2 1/2") ribbon, at least 5 yards long.  This is the stiff paneling for your corset top.

* red (or whatever contrasting color you want) ribbon, skinny (mine was 1/4" wide) and shiny, at least 10 yards of it.  This is the lacing.  If you want to use something else, like shoelaces or yarn or something, go ahead.  :)

* Fabri Tac or other glue, or, if you want, you can use good ol' needle and thread.  I used Sew No More, because it was cheap and supposedly washable and flexible, but in the end I wished I hadn't (see notes) and just pulled out the old hot glue gun...it's just a one-day costume, right?  In the future, I'll take the time to actually sew, probably.  But this was fast.

*Optional: pins and cardboard for the glue, eyelets to make it more realistic, wide creamy-colored lace to put underneath the corsety part. 

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Determine what sort of shape you want for your fake corset. This will depend not only on your tastes but your body type.  I initially thought I'd go with a vee-shape, but once I looked at my actual body (so wide, especially at the hips) I decided I liked the straight better.  If you go with the hourglass/star pattern, you'll want to find out where your natural waist (the skinniest part of you) is so that you can mirror that with the shape of the corset lacing.  :)

My awesome drawing on Paint...so you can get a visual. :)

2. Put the tank top on to measure where your bust line is on the actual shirt.  That's where the top of your lacing is going to be.  Mark it somehow, using safety pins or chalk or something.  Take it off, fold it over at that line so that you've only got the front part below the bust line showing, and lay it flat.  If you want, especially if you're using Sew No More, place some cardboard inside the shirt to keep the fabric glue from seeping out everywhere.

3a. (If you're using the wide lace to layer/panel underneath your ribbon lacing, cut it to fit from the bottom to this bustline and glue/sew in the middle now!).

3. Take your super-long red thread and do your best to find the middle.  Pin that to the middle of the bottom of the shirt.  If you're off a little, it won't matter, though...so don't stress if it's not perfect!

4. However wide you want your laced section to be (the width of your lace panel if you're using it), glue or sew the ribbon down in a straight line so it's tacked there.  I glued and then pinned it while it dried so that it wouldn't shift with all the folding/moving I was about to do.  Again, hot glue or sew is best, depending on your purpose for making this. :)

5. Lay out the general shape you want.  Feel good that you're starting to see the vision!

6. Zigzag the ribbon back and forth up the shirt to that bust line and back down again, gluing or tacking or sewing somehow at each turn/"corner".  I started off making the lacing too wide--almost 2" apart--and then went back through the middles so they are actually about 3/4" apart now.  You can do more or less, of course.  The zigzag lines should be parallel to each other.

7. Cut your wide ribbon into two lengths (from the bust line to the bottom of the shirt) and glue/sew them down so that they are just overlapping the sides of the lacing.

8. Glue or sew the middle of a looooooong length of the wide ribbon (long enough to pull around and tie in back) at the top, where your bust line is.  I started using the hot glue gun here, and glued at the tops of the two previous wide, black panels and in between.  Also tie a bow with your red ribbon (with long, flowy ends) and glue to the middle here.

9. Voila!  You're done!  Admire your work by pairing it with a peasant shirt or the like.

Imagine this with a tattered black skirt, red bandana  wrap, and boots?  Yes!

Okay.  Now the things I learned.

1. While Sew No More was cheap and is flexible, it makes everything UGLY.  Seriously.  See all that glue?

I thought, like Elmers, that it would at least dry clear and things would look fine in the end.  But it never quite dried clear and, even worse, it seeps through all the fabric and turns it ugly, too.  And, unlike Elmers, it doesn't come off your skin too easily...I was still picking at my hands the next day. I looked at reviews online after the fact, and it seems like Fabri Tac might be better about those problems (probably why it's more expensive), but I have no experience with it so I can't say for sure.  I ended up using the hot glue gun and wished I had done that from the beginning...but I also wanted some flexibility and washability, which is why I didn't in the first place.  Maybe I'll sew next time?  I don't know.  I was VERY disappointed...but I should have done my homework first.  Sew No More is really more for patching rips and hemlines, not major sewing projects!  Still, the edges/corners were covered in the end so the worst of it gets covered up, whatever you do...

2. I also, because this is a cheap costume for a birthday party and I didn't want to spend any money, didn't buy the wide lace paneling or the eyelets.  But both are great if you want it to look more realistic!  Some things to consider, though...first of all, the lace has to go down first.  Secondly, if you're using eyelets, I think what I would do is glue down the wide black ribbon-paneling first, then thread the skinny red ribbon through the eyelets...and then glue the eyelets down where I wanted them...it would be easier that way than gluing half of each eyelet down and trying to thread the ribbon through afterwards.

Eyelets...like this!

3. I should have done a little more measuring on this...especially ON me.  Tanks have a lot of give to them...especially if you have one with ribbing.  So what looks like the middle or the right width on a hanger might be a little different when you put it on.  And the shape may get slightly changed if you don't measure first...although, with the glue and such, it doesn't give TOO much where it counts.  I think next time I do something like this, I'll wear it, look in a mirror, and use chalk to outline the shape I want and where the true middle is.  If you look too closely, you can see that it's a little off.  :)

Still, not too bad.  Fast, cheap, and cute.  And for what will most likely be a one-night-wear, I can't complain!

If you end up making your own version of this, link up and let me see!  :)  Happy crafting!

Upcycled skirt and tee into children's dress!

Look what I made Caida!

It was a really easy sewing project...although I learned a few things I'll do differently for the other two dresses I want to make her.  And I had to do the sewing by hand...I think if I had a sewing machine, it would have EASILY been an hour project tops...instead of all day.  :)  But oh well.  A lot of love went into that dress!

HERE'S HOW:

Take a child's sized tee, some ribbon, and a skirt or long dress-type shirt or something that you want to add to the bottom.

$2.50 Shirt and matching brown ribbon for 47 cents!  Everything else I had on hand!

My pretty thrifted skirt.  No really, take a look at these details!

I loved the ribbon/lace across the top panel of the skirt...and just the pretty brown flowery print...

And the layered, loose flow of the A-line skirt at the bottom!  LOVE this skirt, but it just didn't fit right. But I didn't have the heart to throw it away.

Let's talk sewing materials for a sec.  You'll of course need the things you always need for sewing: machine or needles/thread, pins, scissors, etc.  Mom gave me a Singer automatic scissors thingy, which I like.  I also bought some Sew No More and Fray No More (also Singer products)...I think I should have splurged and gotten Fabri Tac and Fray Check instead.  But for this project, with such thin ribbon that I didn't know how I was going to sew on (1/4"), this worked well.  (My pirate costume...that's another story!)  I guess if you're just patching up a rip or seam it's not too bad.  Just know that it DOES bleed through the fabric you use and turn everything kinda shiny and weird.  But it's not awful...in small quantities.  You definitely need some way to keep the ribbon on your dress and some other way to keep the ribbon from fraying, whatever you decide.

Okay.  Now that that's out of the way, let's get to business!  (BTW, I'm sure some version of this process would work for grown-up girls, too.  I've seen a lot of tee-shirts-and-extra-long-fabric-skirts on Pinterest.)

1. Cut your tee shirt under the bust line, about 1/2" lower than you want the actual bust to fall to allow for folding and sewing.

2. Cut your skirt as well so that it's about the same width (again, plus about 1/2" seam allowance) at the top as the tee shirt. (Although, in hindsight, I would have made it a LOT bigger and sewed some elastic in it to give it some stretch...this method doesn't really have much "give" in it.)  Since this skirt had a beautiful A-line shape, I tried to keep that shape as symmetrically as I could as I cut with some eyeballing and some LOOSE measuring with my metal ruler.  So I used most of the bottom of the skirt, still.

I pinned where the width of the tee was, and I cut outside of that about 1/2".

Then I just sewed up my new side seam (right sides together, as always) for my skirt (tip: fold the seams over TWICE before you sew so that you don't have fraying edges...especially if you're going to be hand sewing, too!) and sewed the top of the skirt to the bottom of the tee!  In hindsight that was kinda stupid...DON'T DO THAT! I mean, I had cut off the zipper side, and there wasn't any elastic...so how's she supposed to put it on?  Thankfully she's little and stickish (no curves yet) and the shirt was a little bigger than her size and she can shimmy into it fine because it's so wide...and that's where I added some ribbon along that bust line (just measured and glued it down with my sew-no-more) to help it tie behind her back and give it some shape. BUT.  WHEN I make the other two dresses, I'll invest in some wide elastic paneling and sew a wider skirt bottom to it, then sew that elastic section to the bottom of the tee...that way everything will have a little give but it will also still have a great shape at the waistline and no ribbon will be needed.  So I can avoid that fabric glue altogether!

Still, all in all, it's a quick and easy sewing project.  It still worked this time (thankfully!) and was sooooo worth it. Now Caida has a one-of-a-kind dress, hand stitched by her aunt who adores her.  :)

And SHE likes it...that's all that matters, right?  :)

It still needed something, I thought...so I used some of that scrap fabric, a little felt, a button, and a pin backing to make a fabric flower for the dress.

MY FAVORITE PART!

It can go here...

Or here...

Or, my favorite, here!

Can't wait to try more and perfect the process.  Thanks for reading!  Now, go thrift-store-raiding and upcycle some of your own clothing...for your kids or even just yourself.  :)  Cheaper than new clothes, and you'll know it's one-of-a-kind!

Felt Belt!

So, among my Good Will finds this morning was this cute, simple tee shirt dress.

It is actually one of those longer shirts for women, but since I found it in the girls' dresses section, of course that's what I thought it was.  And I thought Caida would love it, since she's on this purple kick thanks to Tangled. :) It is definitely too big for her, though...even with black leggings or skinny jeans underneath it still needed something to give it some SHAPE so that she didn't look like a homeless stick dressed up in her mommy's old clothes.  A cute matching belt would do the trick...but I didn't have one of those on hand.

So I made one up!

And now it's shapely and cute and will grow with her until she wears it out.  :)

I love it.  It'll be perfect for lounging around on lazy Saturdays or dressing up for field trips, with her little black tights.  I don't know why, but I envision a girl curled up with a cup of something hot and sweet and a book on a fluffy couch when I see this.  Maybe it was a commercial?

Sorry I don't have pictures of the step-by-step process...I think it'll be pretty clear/obvious to most people how I made it (braid long strips of felt together and glue on a flower), but I'll write the directions in detail in case it isn't.  :)

1. All I did was find some felt sheets in my stash that were coordinating colors--you'll want up to three colors (though you could easily do just one, or two if you want one to pop).  I cut three long strips from each color about 1" wide down the whole length of the sheet--so each was about 11" long.

In case you're confused already, I had 3 11"x1" strips of purple, 3 11"x1" strips of gray, and 3 11"x1" strips of black.  :)

2. Then I used my handy dandy hot glue gun to glue each separate color into one LONG strip.  So one 33" strip of purple, one 33" strip of gray, and one 33" strip of black, give or take.

3. I glued the three different colors together at one end (right on top of each other in a stack), braided it the length I needed (21" in this case, Caida's waist measurement), and then cut off the excess and glued them together again at the end (again, stacked).

4. Add a cute matching felt flower onto one end, and hot glue either velcro to both ends (so they'll stick together when they wrap around the waist) or snaps, or, like I did because of my plethora of pins, just a pin backing to the flower.  No one will know.  :)

VERY easy, and very cheap.  About a 10 minute craft, but it really adds a cute personal touch to whatever you're wearing.  I will have to remember this for some of MY shirts that need that extra "something special."

Happy crafting!

4th of July Bandanna Skirt and Shirt (TUTORIAL)

I started out with (something like) this...

$3 shirt on clearance at Walmart.

$5 skirt on clearance at Walmart.

 Added some of these...

$1/each bandannas

 ...and came up with this!

4th of July outfit for GROWNUPS for under $20!

Hahaha, okay, it was a *little* more complicated than that...especially without a sewing machine.  But it was still an easy project, and if you have a sewing machine it'd take you like 2 hours, and I *LOVE* how it turned out.  Can't wait to wear it on Monday!  Here how you do it! (Disclaimer: I'm not a seamstress, so none of this is technical.)

YOU NEED: 1 skirt, 1 red-white-or-blue shirt, 8 red-white-or-blue bandanas for skirt (I did 2 blue, 3 red, 3 white), and 2 bandanas to rip up for shirt flowers--I used red and blue for my white shirt, but you could do blue and white for a red shirt, etc..  Also: scissors and measuring tape and chalk and pins.  And stuff to sew it up with.  And maybe some pin backings and a hot glue gun.


FOR SKIRT:
1. Using chalk and a measuring tape, measure out the circumference of the bottom of the skirt and divide it into 8ths (I used the seams as 4ths and just measured halfway between each of those).  Draw a vertical line up at that measurement.  (See picture below)
2. Measure halfway in between your vertical lines, and mark a notch at the hem with the chalk or safety pins (this is where my pins are).  Now measure half your bandana's width, and draw a diagonal line from the notch to your vertical line that is that length...when finished, you should have 8 "triangles" or wedges, like shown below.  NOTE: this skirt is very long on me...pretty much brushes the ground as I walk...so make sure however long your skirt and bandanas are together is only down to your ankles, and make adjustments as necessary!

 3. Cut out your wedges.

4. Starting at center wedge, pin right sides of bandana and wedge together, first one side...

 ...then the other.  (A little awkward to pin, but it should look like this:)

5. Do another one, alternating colors.

6. Pin the right sides of the other half/flowing parts of the bandanas together (you don't HAVE to if your original skirt was long enough, but the skirt was too short for me as it was, which was why I decided to do this in the first place!).

 7. Continue around, alternating colors as you go.

 8. Sew everywhere you pinned!  Be extra careful about not leaving holes between the denim and your bandana up at the corners.  (This is what took me two full days, because I sewed BY HAND...a sewing machine would have been really nice here!)  Your skirt is finished!

FOR THE SHIRT:

I wanted to keep my white shirt plain so I could keep using it as an undershirt, so I made my ripped-bandana-rag-flowers/rosettes into pins so I could rearrange them and take them off when I'm all done!  If you want something more permanent, you can just sew them on.

1. SO, take your extra bandanas and rip them into long strips about 1/2" to 1 1/2" wide (I did varying widths for a little visual appeal).  Make those strips into fabric flowers of your choosing (there are a million tutorials of how to do this online, but basically make a basting stitch along one side and pull the fabric together tightly into a raggedy flower).  Make as many flowers as you want to decorate your shirt.  (I only used about half of a red and blue bandana, and I made 5 of each color.)

2. Hot glue a pin backing on to the back of each flower.

3. Pin them in whatever shape/form you desire.  I would have LOVED to make a ton of red ones and turn these flowers into a flag shape...maybe next year!

That's it!  Now your 4th of July attire is all set and you will look FABULOUS!

If you do your own take on this, share the link so I can see it!  Linking up HERE and HERE!