DIY-ING OUR FAVOURITE FASHION TRENDS
Hey guys! So this idea doesn’t really have a theme to it, we have just been seeing some really cool + trendy clothing pieces that we totally wanted to try and DIY! We always try and DIY super trendy pieces to save our $$! Let’s get started!
tank top to bodysuit
This first project takes a tank top and turns it into a bodysuit! We love a good body suit, they’re super comfortable and make an outfit look super clean and refined. We’ve seen this idea floating around YouTube and the blogosphere for quite some time, but shout out to My Style Diary for the inspo on this particular technique! Now onto the DIY!
We grabbed a thrifted tank top that is a regular length (make sure it’s not cropped!). Next, grab a pair of underwear that you like the shape of and fold the crotch in half. Place the bottom folded edge of the crotch against the bottom of the tank top, and cut two slits on either side of the crotch, leaving a little bit of extra room for when we hem this later. Lay the underwear flat and line up the crotch with the bottom of the shirt again and trace out the bottom of the underwear and cut through both layers of the tank! Also go ahead and cut off the bottom hem as well.
Go ahead and fold your tank top in half (with the side seam facing up) and fold your underwear in this same way as well. Trace the front side curve of the underwear onto the front side of the tank top, and trim so that the front of the bodysuit comes in more than the back. Feel free to trim the sides of the body suit to achieve whatever shape you are going for.
Once you’re happy, go ahead and hem all of the raw edges and create a simple stitch across the crotch to finish!
We love styling this bodysuit with baggier pieces to get a relaxed/comfy but also refined vibe. Perfect for the sporty chic trend!
sporty tear-away pants
Speaking of sporty chic, who remembers this incredible tear-away trend?! We’ve noticed it’s back and decided to give it a try.
We started by picking up a pair of athletic pants from the thrift store in a size that was slightly too large. Put your pants on and measure to see how much of the pants need to be taken in on the sides to fit (this overlap will be used to add our snaps!). Lay your pants folded in half, with the side seam facing up, and fold the side your desired amount in order to fit the pants to your body. Make sure you are folding the pants from front to back, making sure that the top of your flap shows off any side stripe or detailing the pants may have.
Put your pants on and measure to see how much of the pants need to be taken in on the sides to fit (this overlap will be used to add our snaps!). Lay your pants folded in half, with the side seam facing up, and fold the side your desired amount in order to fit the pants to your body. Make sure you are folding the pants from front to back, making sure that the top of your flap shows off any side stripe or detailing the pants may have.
Next, grab some pins and pin along the flap to maintain this fold. Also grab some pins and pin along the fabric right beside your folded flap (this will show us where our flap and the rest of the pants overlap. Cut your pants open down the side right beside your folded flap. Repeat on the other side. Once your pants are cut, lay them flat and unpin the folded stripe side. Cut another half inch off of the stripe side. Pin and sew a rolling hem on all newly cut edges, leaving the waistband unhemmed. Moving on to hemming the waistband, instead of using a rolling hem, we used a zig zag stitch. This left everything looking nice and flat. Repeat everything on the other side. Now let’s add our snaps.
Time for a snap tutorial! You will need four pieces to create each snap, two clamped together on one side of your fabric and two clamped together on the other side. For the front side of the snap, you will need a cap and a socket. For the back side of the snap, you will need a stud and an eyelet. We need to start by punching a hole (with a leather hole punch) where you want your snap to go. Next you’ll need a snap setting tool (linked here!). Put the cap on the front side of your fabric, and place your socket on the back. Lay the cap in the base of the snap setting tool and use a hammer or mallet to flatten the tube of metal on the cap, locking together the cap to the socket. We put two snaps on the elastic waistband for extra support. For the back side snaps, we overlapped the back side fabric with the front side fabric, about an inch, and marked where we want the back side snaps to go. Place the back side snaps at the marked locations, where they would line up with the front side snaps. Go ahead and use your leather punch to punch a hole through the back side fabric. Using your snap setting tool again, place the eyelet inside of the punched hole on the inside of the fabric this time, and place the stud on top on the outer side of the fabric. Place the eyelet into the opposite side of the base of the setting tool and use a hammer to set the two pieces together. For the rest of the pants, we laid the front side of the pants flat and measured out the distance we wanted each snap to be from one another. This is totally preference, though more snaps will mean a more secure pant. We decided to put six on each side, after the snaps on the waistband.
Make sure your front side and back side snaps all line up all the way down the side of your pants. Keep repeating the front and back side snap process until you get all the way to the bottom of the pants!
SOME TIPS:
The base of the setting tool can scrape the caps of your snaps, we ended up using some felt on the base to protect our caps.
For thinner fabrics, the metal tube on the caps can be too long (causing a loose fit!). To fix this, you can sand down the metal tube on some regular sand paper to create a tighter fit when hammered into place.
Snap everything together, and you’ve got yourself a sweet pair of pants!
KELSEY'S CLASSIC STRIPED SWEATER
There’s this striped sweater Kelsey wears a LOT in videos that you guys always ask about. Well, the sweater is from Amazon (linked here), but we thought that it would be an awesome and easy thing to DIY!
You’ll need to pick up a plain white shirt! You can do a sweater, but we went for a loose long sleeve top. We headed over to the ribbon store, and picked up this red, white, and blue ribbon that matched the stripe perfectly! This pattern is pretty common, though any stripe would look super cool here.
Grab your ribbon and cut it to the length of the chest, leaving a bit of extra on each side (about a half an inch). Pin this ribbon into place to secure it for now. Flip your shirt inside out and, using a seam ripper, open up the seam beside the ribbon. We will use this hole in the seam later to feed our ribbon through to create a refined edge. Next, grab some fabric glue and glue your ribbon down onto the front of the shirt. Make sure to use a good brand of fabric glue (we like Fabri-tac, linked here!). Next, line up some ribbon on the arms, going up on an angle so that the ribbon lays flat across the chest when the shirt is on. Again, leave about a half inch of ribbon on the end where the hole in the seam is. Create another hole with a seam ripper on the back seam as well. Once you glue down the ribbon everywhere that you want it to be, push the ends of your ribbon through the seam-ripped holes and pin them back up. Sew along these holes, making sure to sew over these multiple times for a stronger hold.
And that’s it! Super easy and super similar to the other top!
shredded sweater
Our final DIY is this awesome shredded sweater! We’ve been seeing these all around the internet, and thought it would be super easy to recreate. We grabbed a sweater from the thrift store, but feel free to use a sweater that you already have. Lay your sweater flat and, using a seam ripper, cut one of the vertical pieces of yarn. Unravel the yarn, pulling the horizontal pieces apart creating a run. Wherever you make your first cut, the run will go downwards. Tie up the ends of the first piece of cut yarn to prevent any further running. We repeated this around various parts of the sweater, around the arms and bottom, and both the front and back. Something we learned mid-way through, was that flipping the sweater inside out and working there keeps the front of the sweater looking more refined. Also make sure to hand or delicate wash this project.
And that’s it! If you are more of a visual learner, check out the video below! If you make any of these DIYs, tag us on Instagram using the hashtag #SorryGirlsSquad!