i just came back from my mom’s house, which i’ve come to think of as my studio. i’ve spent a glorious day and a half there doing nothing but crafting. i finished up a shirt i had been working on the last time i was there, made some wristcuffs, a choker, & made a plain, boring pair of pants awesome.
first off, the shirt.
it was just a plain, striped men’s shirt i got from the thrift store. not too bad, but i already had another plain, striped men’s shirt from the thrift store which looked very similar & i tended to wear more. so i decided to make this one different.
i took an old converge t-shirt as the base for this transformation. it was a very white, extra large one which i had been meaning to make into something else for several years. i cut out the graphics & added some mesh, so the bright colours wouldn’t be so harsh against the dark background. i also dyed the ‘converge’ & pink square parts in tea for the same reason.
then i added some scrap materials i had lying around & replaced some of the buttons. i also rolled up the sleeves & added scraps & buttons there to hold them up. some of the pieces are sewn by machine, others by hand. i really like combining both methods for these sorts of projects.
overall, it was a pretty simple modification. i was planning on doing more to it, but with the striped base not that much was needed. i love how this shirt turned out.
also very simple, were these wristcuffs & choker:
i made the wristcuffs by layering stretchy lace, ruffling them smaller with elastic & then adding bows of velvet ribbon on top. the choker is made out of that same velvet ribbon, which i sewed some scrap already ruffled lace on, then a tier of rhinestones, & completed the whole with five small roses. only the lace was sewn by machine, the rest by hand. it closes by tying together some smaller ribbon. very gothy. the choker reminds me of something that a 90’s teenager with a small budget who was just getting into gothic fashion would make. kind of second-hand nostalgia? anyway, i love it for that reason.
& now, the pants. i got them from a thrift store & i never wore them because the top was a little too big for me & it kept falling down. this is what they looked like before:
& this is what it became:
i spent about twelve straight hours on it yesterday. when i look at it now it seems impossible that it took so long. twelve. then again, i had to figure out what exactly i wanted on them, i had to paint, wait for the paint to dry, sew a lot by hand…
i started by dabbing thinned down black fabric paint all over it. then i splattered silver fabric paint over that. then i thought about patches i wanted to put on it. of course, it is the alternative way to plaster band names & logo’s all over one’s clothes & provide all this free promotion while meaning to show the depths of one’s soul. whatever. i went with the first bands that came to mind & had interesting or easy to paint logo’s. all four patches are painted freehand. i’m pretty impressed with how they turned out.
go ahead; guess what they’re all from.
for an extra layer i added some more scrap mesh. most of that is sewn by machine, but it was rather hellish to get so far to the bottom in such narrow pipes. most of the lowest parts defeated me & i ended up sewing that by hand. at one part even that was too much & i just secured that with safety pins.
i also added some patches of striped fabric, more decorative safety pins, the obligatory studs & a d-ring. to fix the sizing issue at the top i added belt loops & hoped that wearing it well-belted would be enough. & now that i’ve been walking around in it all day i can confirm that yes, a belt is enough.
as you can see, all the patches were hand-sewn on. the patches were probably what took the most time. i don’t mind though. it was nice, easy work that i didn’t have to pay that close attention to. i could just watch videos & shows while i was working on them.
i’m so happy with these pants! worth all twelve hours. i keep looking down at them or in the mirror at them. they’re perfect. or almost. i would still like an extra pocket in front, for things like my public transport card. i think i’ll make a zippered one, with the pocket out of sight on the inside. maybe the next time i go to my mom’s house. first i have to stock up on metal zippers again.
these pants sort of compel me to similarly punk up other plain black items. otherwise they’re so lonely. however, i also don’t want all my plain black stuff ending up the same… i’ll see.
thank you for looking! i hope you enjoyed this post at least a fragment as much as i enjoyed making these. maybe even inspired a diy project of your own.
