Thursday, July 16, 2009

First Refashion

About a year and a half, maybe two years ago, I was losing weight and needed some clothes to get from where I had been to where I thought I was going to end up (hope springs eternal, and all that). Included in that set of clothes were two shirts that I got for $4 each on a clearance rack. They were a little too short for me (I am very tall) and I didn't like the collar, but I would only be wearing them for a few months and then planned to refashion them.
Well, it seems that my svelte body is on back order, and these shirts have not outgrown me yet. Sigh. They were identical except for color. I didn't take a before picture of the blue one but here is the pink one:
Pink Shirt not refashioned
I added about two inches of crochet to the bottom edge. Just several rows of double crochet and then an edging I got from the March/April 2009 issue of Crochet Today.
Crochet Detail
I cut off the neckline and folded it over and did a row of single crochet and then the beginning row of the pattern for the edging which is really just a simple picot stitch. The sleeves were edged the same way the neckline was but without any other modifications.
In order to have something to crochet into I first did an overhand stitch along the edges I wanted to crochet. I read about the technique on Crochet Me and wasn't sure how easy it would be to actually do the crocheting into the stitches, but it was, in fact, very easy. The only hard part of all of this was the overhand stitching. Also, I'm not real crazy about the way the thread cuts into my lead finger as I work, but I do like the results and I have now either built up a bit of a callous on that finger or have done enough nerve damage to that finger that it isn't so bad now.
Next time I think I might add some beads to the edge of the bottom band of crochet. Also, I will be trying other edging patterns. It is amazing, to me at least, how quickly this uses up no.10 thread.
Blue Shirt Refashioned

4 comments:

patti said...

That isbeautiful. I wish I could crochet.

PinkBalloons&Macaroons said...

very cute! I hope you have a fabulous weekend!! hugs!! Britt :-)

julie said...

I've always thought about doing this. Your shirts look great!

Anonymous said...

such a great idea.