Interesting ideas on how to remake clothes, secrets of professional fashion designers

Fantasy is the best way to look creative, stand out from the crowd and save a lot of money on buying new things. Every home has a closet, a chest of drawers, or several suitcases filled with old things that bring back warm memories. Sometimes, a thing was bought but never worn. All these treasures take up a lot of space, but it’s a shame to throw them away. For those who can’t bring themselves to get rid of unnecessary things, you can use such a simple idea as reworking clothes and turning an old warehouse into a fashionable wardrobe. Of course, you will have to put in some effort and, perhaps, spend money, buy some jewelry, accessories to achieve the desired result. If successful, the new thing will be completely unique.

New life for old things

It is not at all necessary to take cutting and sewing courses, have design skills and go to a studio to give an old thing a second life. You can turn an outdated model into something new by using your imagination and being inspired by ideas from the Internet or by developing a design yourself. You can do the alteration yourself, spending a little effort and, perhaps, money, or contact a master in a studio. But the second option is only suitable for those who are going to give a new life to branded, expensive goods or vintage, very rare items. Otherwise, the feasibility of alteration in financial terms is lost, because you will have to pay for the master's work, and this can cost a price similar to buying a new thing.

You can radically modernize an old thing by re-cutting the style and creating a completely new product. For example, it could be a stylish skirt made from jeans or a dress made from a T-shirt. Or you can take the simple route and add some accents, and as a result get an interesting new item.

What is the easiest way to remake new wardrobe items:

• trousers can be turned into a skirt, breeches or shorts;
• the T-shirt can be upgraded into a dress, a top, a vest;
• the skirt turns into a T-shirt, tank top, dress, top;
• the dress can be the basis for a skirt, a sundress or a T-shirt;
• a fur coat can become a vest or a collar;
• a leather jacket can be turned into a stylish vest, bag or clutch;
• the sweatshirt will turn into a T-shirt or tank top;
• If you have knitting skills, you can unravel an old item and create something new from the same wool.

There are several secrets on how to make new clothes from old ones. Before you start working, you will have to decide on a method for remaking clothes with your own hands. You can update an item from old to new in the following ways:

1. with the help of details. You can use buttons, sequins, beads, rhinestones, rivets and any interesting decorations that you can find at home or buy in advance specifically for remaking old clothes. Sometimes it is enough to replace the original buttons with something more beautiful, bright, shiny, so that the appearance of the thing becomes completely different, or add a few eye-catching accents;
2. with the help of patches, interesting fabrics and other inserts. A glued patch or lace, new lacing or a wedge of fabric will help transform an ordinary item from a mass store into a designer product;
3. slits, cutouts. An original cutout will completely change the appearance of a wardrobe item, making it more open or multi-layered with the help of additional materials to the slit;
4. with the help of a print, a pattern. It is not necessary to paint landscapes, it is enough to make unusual inscriptions, draw interesting symbols, hieroglyphs or figurative drawings with the help of special paints for fabric, as well as wash-resistant markers.

A changed style of a garment, new details, interesting inserts or unusual patterns can transform outdated clothing into a completely new designer wardrobe item. The following tools may be needed:

• scissors;
• hot glue sticks and a hot glue gun;
• needles and pins;
• tracing paper;
• threads;
• iron;
• scissors;
• sewing tape measure;
• sewing machine/overlock;
• set of needles;
• riveter.

Ideas for remodeling

You can find models for alteration in your closet, you can use old clothes from your mother's suitcase or even pick up a suitable item in a second-hand store. The latter option is a real treasure trove in which you can find interesting ideas for alteration of clothes. By the way, there are not only already used things there, but also completely new ones, sold at a very low price. Another advantage of such a store is that alteration of clothes from a second-hand store can become a real designer find if you manage to find some vintage item and successfully transform it. Create an updated image, turn old clothes into a stylish thing, perhaps due to small changes in details, adding decorations, or by re-sewing some elements.

Jeans

The most common wardrobe item that everyone has in their closet is jeans. Over the years, their number in the closet grows and accumulates. A whole but boring model can easily be made interesting with a new print. The current trend of recent years for torn jeans can be combined with bright summer details.

To make bright distressed jeans, you will need:

• jeans;
• a cutter, a stationery knife or a blade;
• a small wooden board that can be placed inside the trouser leg;
• construction sandpaper;
• colored permanent marker.

To create a bright print on denim pants, you will need to follow a few simple steps:

1. it is necessary to place the jeans on a hard surface and mark the areas that will be treated;
2. using sandpaper, sand down the marked areas;
3. we place the prepared board inside the trouser leg;
4. using a knife or cutter, make horizontal cuts with a step of a couple of millimeters inside the selected areas;
5. We color the threads on the slits with a marker.

Skirts

New life for old things often begins after looking through fashion magazines, blogs or TV shows. One option for updating a long skirt of an old style is to shorten its length, giving the hem the shape of a cascade. Bright colors and flowing fabrics are very relevant for the new season, but you can use any model at hand, the main thing is that it is not pleated. For a new skirt you will need:

• skirt length from ankle and below;
• sewing scissors;
• thread and needle;
• needles and pins;
• adhesive tape;
• sewing chalk;
• iron.

The alteration is carried out as follows:

1. fold the long skirt in half at the front;
2. lay out the fabric on a hard surface (table or floor);
3. using chalk, draw a round shape on half of the cutout to the required length;
4. cut out the selected area;
5. fold the bottom edge by 1 cm and secure with pins;
6. You can place adhesive tape inside the fold and iron it, or simply secure the fold with it, and then sew the edge by hand or with a machine.

Dresses

A must-have item in any woman's wardrobe is a little black dress. From an old item that has long since lost its relevance, you can easily make a universal fashionable dress suitable for going to a restaurant, a party with friends, a get-together in a cafe or even work in the office. To change the appearance of the product, it is enough to make slits in the chest area and insert lacing, creating a beautiful neckline. For this craft you will need:

• a dress of any style with a tight top and a round neckline;
• leather cord;
• tailor's scissors;
• threads and needle;
• tailor's chalk;
• needles and pins;
• sewing machine.

The recycling of an old dress is carried out as follows:

1. on the dress in the chest area we draw a straight line to the desired length, depending on the depth of the future neckline;
2. using scissors we make a cut;
3. we fold the edges inward, forming a cutout in the shape of a V symbol;
4. we pin the folds with needles and pins;
5. visually divide the length of the slot into 5 equal parts and make marks in them with chalk;
6. cut the leather cord into 10 small pieces of equal length for the loops;
7. we form loops by folding the pieces in half;
8. we secure the pieces with pins in the marked areas;
9. using your hands or a machine, we sew the sides of the cutout, fastening the fabric and fixing the loops on it;
10. We weave the remaining leather cord through the loops, forming a beautiful weave.

Shirts

In the process of reworking old clothes, an ordinary boring shirt can be turned into a designer item with original cutouts or a completely different style. As a simple and quick option for how to rework an outdated shirt, you can use the method of creating slits in the form of a collar. To create a stylish solution, you will need:

• a classic plain shirt of any shade, with a button-shaped fastening line;
• sewing scissors;
• tailor's chalk;
• needles and pins;
• sheets of paper;
• pencil;
• needles and thread to match the shirt;
• hot glue and hot melt gun.

A shirt with a neckline is created according to the following scheme:

1. Try on an old shirt and mark areas on the chest as a false collar, keeping the row of buttons in the middle. Using tailor's chalk, outline the area to be cut out;
2. cut out the template and copy it as another area next to the buttons, resulting in two symmetrical patterns;
3. we make cutouts with an indent of 1 cm from the lines applied to the fabric;
4. Using scissors, make notches at a distance of 1 cm along the entire perimeter of the cutouts so that folds do not appear during the bending process;
5. We bend the resulting slits and secure the edge using a blind stitch or hot glue.

Fur coats

A fur coat is a source of pride for every woman. Fur products do not wear out for a long time, but the style itself can lose its fashionable characteristics. In this case, you can look for useful alteration options on the Internet. Advice from craftswomen will help give a second life to old things, but fur is a capricious material. To ensure that the altered items are of high quality, it is better to contact a studio or a professional seamstress. In order to change the style, you should prepare the following materials:

• stationery knife;
• a special needle for leather;
• strong threads;
• tweezers;
• adhesive tape for fur and leather;
• pattern;
• viscose for lining;
• fittings.

Any fashionable alterations of a fur coat can be made according to the general scheme:

1. It is necessary to make sure that the fur does not fall off the product. This can be checked using water. Part of the product should be wetted and after half an hour the skin should be pulled in different directions. If parts of the fur fall out easily, it is better not to remake the product. It is not suitable for modernization;
2. rip the fur coat along the seams and remove the lining;
3. compare the expected style of the product with what is available;
4. attach pieces of fur to the pattern pieces, taking into account the allowance for seams, and cut along the lines with a special knife;
5. connect the parts of the cut out pieces using a special needle for fur;
6. reinforce all seams with adhesive tape;
7. then we wet the seams and put a weight on them until they dry completely;
8. comb the fur parallel to the seam against the growth of the villi;
9. we sew on a viscose lining.

Children's

As you know, children grow up very quickly, leaving a large amount of clothes sometimes completely unworn. It is not necessary to throw away supplies, you can use old clothes to get interesting designer models. With the help of appliques, it is possible to fix difficult stains, and add length with multi-colored pieces of fabric. You can change any format of clothing: from slips to dresses and trousers. Many mothers resort to alteration, their interesting ideas can be gleaned from blogs on children's forums and specialized sites.

To make a remake, you can use any pattern of adult clothing taken from special master classes. Children's clothing differs from adult clothing only in the abundance of colorful fabrics and additional decorations, appliques. In addition, mothers can use ideas for sewing new wardrobe items from old adult clothes.

Examples of practical alteration ideas for babies:

1. increasing the length of a T-shirt by adding a horizontal strip of fabric in the middle;
2. creating a dress from a small bodysuit using its top part and an added skirt;
3. the size of the bodysuit can be extended by sewing a strip of fabric at the bottom;
4. It is easy to lengthen a denim sundress with new straps and a strip of fabric sewn on the bottom;
5. creating an interesting T-shirt from a short bodysuit. The bottom is cut off and beautiful flounces are sewn on the bottom;
6. we remake a stylish long sleeve from a T-shirt and rompers. It is enough to sew the legs to the sleeves from the inside and the fashionable wardrobe item is ready.

There are many options for altering clothes from old things. The Internet allows you to find all the necessary information with step-by-step master classes, photos and video instructions. You can find a suitable idea and start altering yourself. If changing the format of the model is difficult or you have to alter an expensive branded item, you can ask a professional seamstress in a studio for help. Alteration of old things is the best way to make your wardrobe unique and save money on buying new things. To achieve the desired result, it is enough to show imagination and find an interesting version of the future model.

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