Made By Lex

I did this shirt last week. I took this men’s shirt that I had gotten and tailored it down. With the excess I added ruffles to the front.
I’m excited to wear it under a jacket.

Or myabe I’ll give it to my sister. It looks pretty good on her.

I have some BIG changes coming to my blog! I can’t wait to show you all. It’s really exciting!
I’m working on some big orders this week so my posting may not be too exciting or frequent. Bear with me, my friends

I was inspired for this by a shirt I saw in J. Crew. Funny that I’ve never gotten a J. Crew catalog until yesterday. What have I been thinking??! They have some GREAT ideas.

Here is a way to refashion a shirt, again. You can cut off the bottom of the hem to do the flower so that way it is already finished. I cut off this pink one.
And this blue knit one that I got in my fabric exchange packet. (thanks rebecca!!)

Cut them about 16- 20 inches and about 2 inches wide. But vary them slightly so they look nicer and not so cookie-cutter.

I chose this palette because these are muted colors, and are almost all a neutral. I think when you thrown bolds in there or prints, that’s when things start to look crafty and home-made. I think this color palette looks like something you would buy in a store.

Now to ruffle your fabric. You can do it by hand, but you all know how I do it by now: set your length to the longest stitch and tighten your tension to the highest number. Just run it right through and it will automatically ruffle. Here’s what I’ve got.

Now to flower the ruffles. Since I’m not going to be washing this, I’m not going to sew it. I’m going to use my best friend, hot glue. Just wind the flowers up gluing as you go. Mold them to the way you like them. Here are all my flowers done.

Now we’re going to glue them onto the fabric. Just start with one in the center and glue it well.

Get a couple more, gluing as you go. Also glue around the sides of the flower so they are sticking together at the bottom and on the sides. Smash them up together nice and close so it looks full.

Here’s how they all look together. You can trim some if they look to high.

Now turn it over and trim the fabric backing. Make sure the flowers slightly overlap so the fabric won’t show from the top side.

Glue on two pins for extra security.

Here it is, in all it’s flowering loveliness…

Voila! Here are a couple styling ideas. I love it on this plain grey T.

Here it is on one of my favorite jackets.

It also looks nice in the center of a garmet, like this sweater.

I like it on a pin because you can move it around. If you sewed it on a shirt, it’s not going anywhere. But this way, the possibilites are endless. Some other ideas I had are on a purse or hanging on a chain necklace. Also, you could throw some vintage jewelry on the flowers, too.

Add any ideas to the Flickr pool. Enjoy!

I saw this western-y dress for kids the other day and it inspired me to do this one. Let’s get started! Grab a men’s shirt.
Cut off the sleeves.

We need to create a chest band for the dress. Measure your child at the desired width. I like to make it a couple inches larger then normal, and account for the small amount you will loose when you sew it together. I cut out two pieces, about 4 inches wide.

Sew the two end pieces together so it makes one circular piece.
Fold it over, with the right side out and iron in half. This is your chest band.
Now we need to cut out the straps. Measure your child from where the chest band will be, from front, over the shoulder, to the back. Cut out 4 strips, about 2 inches wide.

Sew the long pieces together and turn them right side out. Iron them flat.
Now for the dress piece. Figure out how long you want the dress. Measure from the bottom of the shirt up and cut it where you need it.

Trim the bottom hem so it is straight.(Some shirts, like mine did here, had that rounded trim but I wanted it straight.)
Now for pockets. These are optional. Another thing you could do is if the shirts have preexisting pockets, you could cut those out and use those.

I cut out two pockets and two strips for hemtape.

The first thing i do is get a lining for the pockets. You could use the same material, I just love contrasting pocket lining. Pin it, inside out, to the pockets.
Sew them around the sides, leaving the top open. Turn them right side out. Then press them with an iron. I slightly gather the top in the center.
Get your hemtape.

Fold it over once in half.

Then open it up and fold the two ends in towards the center. Then press it closed and it will look like this.

Open it up and pin it to the top of the pockets, as shown.

Stitch the hemtape onto the pocket as close to the edge of the hemtape as you can get.

Now find where you want to put the pockets and pin them in place, and sew them on.

Now we are going to attach the chest band to the dress. We need to gather the dress. I do this by lengthening my stitch and setting my tension to the highest number.(like ruffling) you can also do it by hand.

Pin your chest band to the dress, right side together. Sew it on.

Here’s what you’ll have.

Now for the straps. Place your dress on your child so you can mark the placement in the front. Pin them where you want them to go. Then stittch them in place.

Now find out where you want them in the back. I did a cross over, but you can do them however you want. Stitch in place.

The last thing you need to do is finish the hem, if needed.

Here’s how it came out!!

I love the angled pockets.

It looks really cute, too, with a shirt under it, like a jumper.

The back.

Happy in her new getup!

Is everyone sick of these yet?

Here’s another tank that I just added some pretty fabric to for a simple updo.
I added another piece on the back collar.

I really like this one! I took small strips of fabric and bunched them then stitched over them three times.

It will continue to fray a little more as it washes. I love this deconstructed look.

I did it all the way around the back, too.

I took this lilac shirt and added some color and a lot of texture to it.

I took this golden linen and placed it on the edges.

Then I stitched over it randlomly a few times.

I think the texture makes it look so neat.

I did a similar texture addition here.

I pleated an pinned this raw edge cream cotton.Then I stitched over it.

It adds a lot of interest to the neckline.

I really like this one. I can’t wait to try this technique on something else, too.

This is another shirt that I did for my friend. I feel like black is hard to refashion because other prints don’t look great with it, and finding a matching black is hard. So I took this shirt and added a removable floral pin. It is in vintage silk.
I love the two of them sitting there. And you can take it off and move it in other places on the shirt or on a different place, all together.

They have a slight sheen to them and I used this gold fabric for the center.

Sadly, I don’t think this next one is going to show as cool as it is in person. I took this grey shirt and cut up patching grey jersey.

I twirled, pinned, twirled more, placed strips, stabbed myself, put on a bandaid, twirled more… you get the picture. It was extremely labor intensive but I think it came out soooo neat.

I stitched over all the pieces a few times to create a mulit-dimensional look.

Then I wrapped it around the back ever so slightly. The shirt is on it’s side here. I really love this one.