Life is Beautiful

Motherhood, Sewing, Family

altering tips and twelfth street by cynthia vincent

~ SEWING

i know i said i might start posting my DIY’s
on tuesdays instead of on mondays but
i just got too excited to post this top and couldn’t wait!
twelfth street by Cynthia Vincent $395

sequins are all around us especially during this holiday.
i think they’re so much fun but it’s usually very pricey and
will it be just a fad that lasts ’till just the end of this year?
so while i don’t mind spending a little more money on
something that is classy and will sustain many trend changes,
i don’t like to buy or spend money on something that is very trendy.
(this top wasn’t my inspiration, i just looked up a sequin top
right as i was about to post this top i’d already made.)
in my closet:
an oversized cowlneck sweater top.
do you like my “before” sad & unenthusiastic picture?
and i bought 1/2 yard of gold sequin fabric from JoAnn’s for $3.00

cut the cowlneck part off of the neckline. leave 1″ extra on the neck seamline.

cut the front and back so it’s 2 seperate pieces.

like this.

fold that 1″ extra seam you left on the neckline underneath and sew.

then i forgot to take pictures. my apologies. put the 2 pieces right sides together and cut according to your size and sew it back to a shirt.
lay the sequin on top
cut along the seams all the way around including the sides, bottom, neckline and the shoulders.
then pin it all the way around and sew all the way around.
*the fabric wasn’t wide enough to cover the end of the sleeves so i had to make a little patch afterwards.
after:

keep in mind the flash was used for picture taking
and it doesn’t show off the sequins as much.
it looks a lot prettier in real life.


it cost me $3 to make!
some other tips on altering:
*i’ve been asked if i pin the sides when altering. i don’t. i just try it on, pinch the sides and estimate how many inches to take off, then take off the shirt, flip it inside out and sew the estimated amount.
*but for a more accurate way, i would recommend laying out a top/dress you have that you want to mimic the shape of and put it on top of the soon-to-be altered garment and outline it with a marking pen. when cutting the fabric, leave around an inch for sewing.
*follow the outline of the seams. if it’s not just a specific area you need to alter like the bust but not the waist, then do what you gotta do. but if it’s generally big and you need to make everything smaller, follow the outline of the seams that’s already there like this picture below. this dress i altered was big in general so i altered about an inch and kept that inch distance all the way from top to bottom.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *