Summerize Your Winter Wardrobe

Last Thursday, I showed you how I turned one of Firecracker’s shirts into one for Monkey.  I also mentioned that Monkey has lots of hand-me-downs that are either too big or Winter clothes.

I’m a cheapskate and I didn’t want to waste these clothes and buy new ones for Monkey.  So, I just refashioned them into Summer clothes.  I did it all while he took a nap. and it didn’t cost me a dime!  Sweet!

I turned seven pairs of pants into shorts, but I just grabbed two for these pictures.

All I did was cut them off at the knees, serge the raw edges and hem them.  I did a tutorial on hemming.  Check it out here if you want to see it.  The thing I like best about these two pairs of shorts is that they are size 12 months.  Monkey is really skinny, and these shorts are a perfect fit for him.  When they were pants, they were way too short.

I’ve used this same method to turn some of my jeans into capris.  When I do this, I make the hem a bit longer and use matching thread so it looks better.  Like this:

You could also cuff them if you don’t have matching thread.  Just serge or zig-zag the raw edge, roll the pantleg where you want it and sew it into place along the side seams like I did here:

Okay.  That isn’t me.  I didn’t get a decent picture of my cuffed capris because I am wearing them and I don’t want to take them off for a picture.  So, I stole this one from the internet.

I took ten long sleeved shirts and turned them into short sleeved shirts.

This is just three of them.  See that one in the middle?  That was the long sleeved romper I refashioned in the basic hem tutorial.  That $1.00 shirt has definitely been used!  :)  Ha!  That green striped shirt is also used in that post!  Welp, now they’re both short sleeved.  This is how I did it:

Since I was in a hurry when I was refashioning Monkey’s wardrobe, I’ll show you what I did with one of my own shirts.  I got this bad boy off of the dollar rack.  Shocked?!  Me neither.

Start with a long sleeved shirt.

Measure the sleeve length with one of your own shirts.  Cut off the sleeve.

Serge around the raw edges, or leave it raw.  Knit doesn’t fray.  Measure the hem and pin it into place.  Set the stitch length longer so that the fabric will still stretch.  I set mine at 3.1.  Stitch around the sleeve. 

You can double stitch if you want.  I did, but it was just for looks. 

Steam press the seams like crazy, and you’re done!  The picture above is in  bad lighting, but trust me, it’s the same shirt.

That is how you Summerize your Winter Wardrobe!  :)