I can not believe that it is 2022 already! The busyness of the holidays has kept me away from this blog. And, my sewing machine has been busy making gifts! Once the holidays were over, I was able to get back to my sixth, and final, upcyling project. I am super excited to be sharing it with you in this post!

In previous posts, I explained that I have been taking a class which specifically focuses on creating a fashion collection, using only upcycling fashion methods. Over the past 6 - 8 months, I have been working on my pieces (off and on) and have absolutely loved this class. I will be sharing the projects and fashion line that I created in separate posts.

Incase you are new to fashion upcycling, it focuses on making new fashion from existing materials. This includes cutting up and re-sewing items you already have or using items found second hand - nothing brand new, or taking details from an existing garment and adding them to create a new piece. Really, anything that is made out fabric could be conceptualized into a new garment. In the past, I have used vintage sheets, towels and even curtains. It also includes dying, painting, stenciling and drawing on fabric, embroidery and other details.

For the line I created, I chose to make pieces for myself that I will love and wear for many years to come. As a reminder, my inspiration for this line was Avatar: Legend of Korra, specifically the Metalbenders aesthetic. All pieces for this collection are done in shades of green with accent colors.

Below is the original drawing and the color rendering I did for this sixth project. This look is definitely the most comfortable, and might be my favorite, in the line. I challenged myself with this project by making a completely new type of garment from the existing garment I found at the thrift store. In this drawing I am showing a slouchy, wide leg jumpsuit with a front zipper, oversized pockets and kind of a bolero sweater over the top.

When I drew the idea for these pieces, I did not have any of the garments I wanted to use yet. My idea was to make some kind of graphic details or design on the jumpsuit using dyes, paint and embroidery. I wasn’t exactly sure, but drew in some shapes just to get an idea. Once I find the garments for the project, my ideas become more solid. Below is the color rendering that I made for this project.

I was not sure how I wanted to create the jumpsuit but had the idea that I might be able to pretty easily turn an existing dress into a loose fitting, single-piece with pants. At the thrift store, I found a stretch-knit dress that was much larger than my size. This was perfect because it gave me enough fabric to work with. For my design, I knew that I would need to create a waist line or some tailing to create a flattering fit. The dress already had oversized pockets, which I wanted, and was a gray color that would be easy to dye and in my planned color scheme. It was a good length for cropped pants. The dress also had a sewn-on over-shirt, which I did not want, but looked easy to remove. As I studied this piece, I noticed that it already had a casing at the waist that I could run elastic through to create more shape and a good fit at the waistline.

These pictures show some more details of how the garment looked originally.

I started by removing the over-shirt, which left me with a sleeveless shell on top. This kind of fabric does not fray when cut or washed, so I was unsure if I wanted to leave it with an unfinished hem or to sew a finished edge. I decided to leave it for the time being.

Next, I opened the waist casing, ran some elastic through, and stitched it closed again. Creating the elastic waistline allowed me to be able to leave out the front zipper that I had planned on in my original drawing. I also took in the sides of the top, under the arm hole and down to the waist line, and shortened the straps. After that I drafted a pattern for cutting the skirt part of the dress into pants and sewed that in a single inseam. I used an existing pair of well fitting pants to draft my pattern for this. The bottom edge was already hemmed, so I didn’t even have to hem the pants. This ended up being a really quick and easy upcycle and worked out even better than I planned! I am really happy with the wide leg look I ended up. They’re like culottes, which I totally wore and loved when I was a little girl in the early 90’s.

After creating the jumpsuit, I was a little stuck. I had originally planned for some detailed fabric painting on this piece, but switched at the last minute and decided to tie-dye it instead. I used the same color palette of green that I have used for all the pieces in this collection and did tub dying in my washing machine. I was so happy with how it turned out that even though it wasn’t finished, I couldn’t resist wearing it! The jumpsuit by itself is so comfy, flowing and soft. It’s also perfect for riding scooters! (haha)

After the tie-dye was complete, I thought that I still might add some more details. I thought of so many options but wasn’t for sure about any of them so I sat with the jumpsuit as it was.

At the same time, I struggled with how to approach the top piece. Before finding the dress for the jumpsuit, I had found a sweater for the top piece. I started working on that before having direction on the main piece but was unhappy with how it turned out. I decided to start over and to wait until I had more solid ideas on the jumpsuit. The holidays came and I got busy sewing gifts, baking and decorating. In the meantime, I found a sweater at the thrift store that I thought would be perfect. It looks like a super basic sweater, but the color was perfect and I could see the potential. I just was unsure on the execution.

I got super lucky and unintentionally found a sweater that doesn’t fray when it is cut. This meant that I did not have to make a hem without stretching the sweater out of shape. Hemming and changing sweaters is really difficult, and I kept putting it off. When I finally cut into the sweater and realized that I could create the piece I wanted without sewing, I was thrilled! I cut a band off of the bottom and washed the sweater before moving forward, just to make double sure. No fraying or stretching!

Here is how the finished pieces look on me. I really love how it turned out and already wear it, probably too often! This outfit is so great because I can change it to fit all seasons.

That completes my fashion upcycling class. Thank you for being here and following along! Let me know what you think of this project.

I just signed up for a draping class, so I will probably post project from that class soon!