Thrift Pile 4Rs Style

Hi, been a while since I posted. Got alot of folks to check out my Swiffer cover, and started a flickr group for your creations, called Strut Your Stuff. More recently, I have been caught up with visiting the Good Will and performing my "4Rs" on what I find. I wrote a 2 part series on my Quest for Motherhood, and wove in some of my thrifting tutorials. Check them out, click Part 1 and Part 2 is here. You have to read through my saga of creating our family, but I promise, there are some upcycling tips you'll pick up. Please leave a comment, I love to hear your shared experiences.

Here is one skirt redo, you might enjoy.

I am a confirmed lace-aholic, I have lots of it thoughout my home, in the form of doilies and linens, and whenever possible, I like to add it to my clothes. I purchased this sheer poly/nylon rows of ruffles fabric, 3 years ago in the garment district in NY City. I love the look of a petticoat layer peeking out from under skirts, gives it a girly look and adds some inches when I feel the skirt show too much of my crinkled knees. I simply cut the fabric in strips following the lines of the ruffles. I then add this to the underskirt, or directly on to the edge of the skirt. No finishing needed, the fabric has a knit like quality so it doesn't ravel. I remember the fabric being around $10.00 a yard but I felt I could get alot of trim out of it for all my projects. The second last pic shows an application of a layer of straight eyelet. Here are some examples.

Included in my thrift pile (mentioned in the previous post) is a sparkly pale green cardigan sweater, that I may delay changing till fall, it is so pretty without altering...but there are 3 skirts of varied sizes, destined for myself and daughter. Attacking the tiered black and beige one my daughter claimed first.

 1. The Before picture, the skirt was cute, I believe a Mossimo size medium, from Target. 3 tiers, and lined with a layer of black cotton, it was cute but daughter didn't like that it was below her knees or that it was too big.

2.The skirt was an elasticized waist that was stretched out. I simply cut a piece of wide elastic, the measurement of my daughter's waist, and after altering, attached to the flirty skirt. (I purchased the 3 inch wide elastic from an etsy seller as I have not seen this type of wide elastic at JoAnns.) The picture shows me cutting a few inches off the top of the skirt, serging the two layers together, or zigzagging, as long as you keep the two layers even.

3. I placed marker pins equally spaced around the elastic, to help match up the side seams and evenly distribute the gathers by marking off in matching increments, so that the gathers are nicely distributed.

 4. I serged the cut edge and then stitched two rows of gathers along the top below the serged edge. Pull the gathers gently.

5. I stitched the elastic, right side to wrong side of waistband. Voil'a. No hemming needed, it is already done for you.  Took all of 25 minutes from start to finish!

6. After most of the skirt is attached, I took the garment out of the machine, and pinned the two cut edges of the elastic together, stitched at a slight angle, wider towards the skirt, narrower towards the top of the waistband, and then finger pressed open. I then finished attaching the skirt, to the elastic.

Daughter Kate is modeling for me reluctantly, as she didn't want to change her top to make this photo more attractive.. oh well...

This purchased skirt retailed over $25.00, at Kohls.  My redo cost around $5.00 total , $4.00 was for the thrifted skirt.
Try renewing some garments yourself!  Feel free to email questions or problems, the4rsRamblings@gmail.com