Customisations

[helena]

What have you done to customise your clothes?

My favorites are:-

- swapping buttons
- shortening skirts/coats
- dying stuff (although recently tried dying a lace top & it was a disaster - I used the dye you have to boil up in a big pan with loads of salt & my house stunk & i was nearly sick)
- dying shoes/boots with leather dye (always been quite good at this one - white spirit is the key)
- sewing sequins onto tops & jackets with invisible thread
- sewing lots of interesting buttons onto cardigans or jerseys
- sewing felt shapes onto doubled over scarves (good as presents)
- i recently cut up a long sleeved black top - to make a scoop neckline (not very succesful)


Would love to hear others experiences.

 

[softgrey]

very easy one...

swapping the handles on bags...usually vintage ones...because the handle can wear out...
i've switched to chain...purchased from a scrap metal store...
and suede...using a narrow suede belt i bought on sale at j.crew...



i regularly cut up t-shirts...sleeves...necklines...hems...etc...

i took my mom's vintage brn tweed=y blazer with brn suede piping and shrank it in the wash...then i cut about four inches off the bottom so it would be a little kickier...i opened up the two seams in the back...so now it's double vented...left the bottom edge raw...(verycdg)...and the collar stays up permanently...almost nehru...it now looks like it came right off the miu miu runway...but better imo...cause it's unique and authentically vintage...not a reproduction...
(the only tricky part was reworking the lining to fit the shrunken blazer...)

i wear it with a vintage brass pin and a cut off denim mini...also customized by me...i cut off the waistband and about 6 inches from the bottom......

i often buy full length pants and have them cropped...i've been doing this for years...cropped pants just look so good with boots...

i've dyed shoes before...but haven't for a long time...

 

[helena]

Originally posted by softgrey@May 31st, 2004 - 12:27 pm
very easy one...

swapping the handles on bags...usually vintage ones...because the handle can wear out...
i've switched to chain...purchased from a scrap metal store...
and suede...using a narrow suede belt i bought on sale at j.crew...



i regularly cut up t-shirts...sleeves...necklines...hems...etc...

i took my mom's vintage brn tweed=y blazer with brn suede piping and shrank it in the wash...then i cut about four inches off the bottom so it would be a little kickier...i opened up the two seams in the back...so now it's double vented...left the bottom edge raw...(verycdg)...and the collar stays up permanently...almost nehru...it now looks like it came right off the miu miu runway...but better imo...cause it's unique and authentically vintage...not a reproduction...
(the only tricky part was reworking the lining to fit the shrunken blazer...)

i wear it with a vintage brass pin and a cut off denim mini...also customized by me...i cut off the waistband and about 6 inches from the bottom......

i often buy full length pants and have them cropped...i've been doing this for years...cropped pants just look so good with boots...

i've dyed shoes before...but haven't for a long time...

Softgrey - very clever re the jacket. Making me rack my brain to think what jackets my Mum has...(by the way she got her purse stolen in Paris last week so couldn't indulge me with a Vanessa Bruno bag - so I've had to make do with a petit bateau t-shirt which is very nice).

How does the handles thing work though? Do you cut off the old handles? How do you attach the chain? I have a gorgeous suede bag that I got when i was at school with a big chain handle which I am thinking of resurrecting. Its got blue & plum & green sections on it & was for years a prized possesion.

I must admit I have often looked at pics of girls in mags with their cropped trousers & thought it looked great but have read so many articles on 'style rules' saying that cropped trousers are unflattering because the chop the leg in two. I think that it probably depends on what body shape you have though. I nearly bought a pair of cropped trousers for work last year but thought they would be deemed to risque - lawyers are a conservative lot! I have been known to dress inappropriately for a lawyer in the past though...so i might consider a pair for winter (if I can handle the stifled laughter).

 

[foxinthesnow]

I am always cutting up and reworking white tops which have become stained- ie, if the stain is on the sleeve, do away with the sleeve and work from there etc.

Patches - especially suede- I have a talent for tearing things.

Taking out boring linings from coats etc and having new ones put in

My mom always put grosgrain ribbon on the inside of my cardigans when I was little so sometimes I still do this.

 

[softgrey]

helena...i saw these pants on net-a-porter....i really wanted them in black...

then i found the same pair.... but full-length.... on sale at bergdorf for about 1/3 the price...

now all i have to do is crop them and i've got my pants at a fraction of the cost!!!

cropped pants have to be worn in the right way to work...it's all about proportion...i find they often make me look taller...i'm 5'4"....i never really wear them with a stiletto...the proportion doesn't work for me...and i need them to be kind of flowy or tailored...

i started wearing them way before the trend started and you should have seen the looks i used to get...hhahhaha...

 

[purplelucrezia]

The most I've really done are painting my shirts with fabric paints. I did attempt to cut up a tee once, but seeing as I can't really sew, it was pretty much a disaster. Here's one of my painted shirts, though, I still kind of like the look of it.

 

[Spacemiu]

hmm well i make t shirts (deconstructed, embelsihed, pritned etc.) , I do this to ajckets and shirts as well.

I doa lto fo things with customization

 

[tott]

I don't customize my stuff, I'm much too up-tight.

If I buy something, I might alter it slightly to suit me; hem trousers, re-inforce certain key points... Some stuff I make myself, so that's customized from the start I suppose... I love clean, perfect lines; I can do that myself if I work on it.

I also like the messy, dirty, deconstructed look, but I could never do it myself, in person, to my stuff because I'd feel so pretentious! But I have to say I got inspired by your jacket, softie!

 

[sbbbjm]

i take labels off of stuff

 

[nqth]

I'm making my Levis inside out so I can wear it in both sides :-). The inside has no "sewing" because the over lock of the legs now is on outside and it is not separate (like it was originally) but it connects 2 pieces of fabrics together. I hope I have writen it right :-)

So when I wear the inside out it looks like "normal" jeans, and when I wear it "right", it has the over lock standing off on 2 sides. I also made it "hipsters" :-) and leave the edge raw (very CdG, too :-)

I can't sew so a dress maker is doing it for me :-)

I also attached a piece of fabric in small flowers to my 2 year old white shirt at the front but it looks a bit pretensious :-) I should have also put the fabric in the place where the arms meet the body at the back (making "wings") but it would be too complicated :-)

Working on another shirt at the moment :-) The tie dye thread made me think of horizotal stripes at the upper front of the shirt and let the color "diffuse" a bit into the fabric (so the stripes won't be sharp) . But how to do it? Maybe I should do printing instead.

 

[Spike413]

The thing I do mostly is cutting something off, whether it's a sleeve, or the bottom of pants to make them shorts or making holes in brand new jeans....just basic stuff to make it feel different.

 

[brian]

Originally posted by helena@May 31st, 2004 - 10:01 am
What have you done to customise your clothes?

My favorites are:-

- swapping buttons
- shortening skirts/coats
- dying stuff (although recently tried dying a lace top & it was a disaster - I used the dye you have to boil up in a big pan with loads of salt & my house stunk & i was nearly sick)
- dying shoes/boots with leather dye (always been quite good at this one - white spirit is the key)
- sewing sequins onto tops & jackets with invisible thread
- sewing lots of interesting buttons onto cardigans or jerseys
- sewing felt shapes onto doubled over scarves (good as presents)
- i recently cut up a long sleeved black top - to make a scoop neckline (not very succesful)


Would love to hear others experiences.

i've done all of that! i love it!

 

[rayncloudx]

Originally posted by softgrey@May 31st, 2004 - 1:13 pm
helena...i saw these pants on net-a-porter....i really wanted them in black...

aah.. don't remind me. i wanted those from netaporter too but i'm so stupid that i listened to my friend. she said not to get it cuz it would look weird on me and i'm regretting it so much

think they still have the full length ones at bergdorfs?

 

[banana]

I once cut the collar off a t-shirt because it was bothering me. But then some of the other seems started to unravel and I had to sew them back together by hand since I'm too lazy to figure out my mom's sewing machine. I almost ruined one of my favourite t-shirts (I got it in England years ago so it is irreplacable). The stitching looks sloppy... but at least it's not unraveling anymore.

I cropped a pair of excersise pants once because they shrunk in the wash. I usually hate cropped pants.

 

[helena]

Originally posted by softgrey@May 31st, 2004 - 2:13 pm
helena...i saw these pants on net-a-porter....i really wanted them in black...

then i found the same pair.... but full-length.... on sale at bergdorf for about 1/3 the price...

now all i have to do is crop them and i've got my pants at a fraction of the cost!!!

cropped pants have to be worn in the right way to work...it's all about proportion...i find they often make me look taller...i'm 5'4"....i never really wear them with a stiletto...the proportion doesn't work for me...and i need them to be kind of flowy or tailored...

i started wearing them way before the trend started and you should have seen the looks i used to get...hhahhaha...

Yes I see what you mean about proportion. Great that you found the trousers. Ok so what shoes do you wear with them - flats? I think I will definately try the cropped trousers for work in Autumn - worn with marc jacobs plum coloured boots. I'll ignore the remarks I get. As a side - one of my friends has just got back from NY and his imprssion was that it was much more 'dressdown' than London.

I also used to buy lots of metallic fabric paint & paint wrapover skirts with abstract patterns. in my uni days.

ngth - like your idea about the jeans - sounds difficult to do though.

 

[As You Like It]

I don't really customize ready-to-wear clothing that much, in large part because I don't buy that much clothing, but I do change commercial patterns around quite a bit before I use them typically. It may be something as simple as making a top longer or a skirt shorter, or I may re-design the sleeves oradd in allowance for pintucking, or change the placement of the buttons.

I am also in favor of trimming garments creatively, especially using notions that nobody else uses anymore, like rick-rack.

I think my most frequent modification to commercial patterns is adding more flare to skirts. I like my skirts to swing, swirl, and swish.

 

[softgrey]

helena...what your friend says is true...no one gets dressed up anymore...chalk it up to the denim craze...but everyone is trying very hard to look like they didn't try at all...and this summer this slouchy knitwear look is very big...

i am dressed...always...i am just more comfortable in a nice pair of pants or skirt...i don't find jeans all that comfortable for the most part...

i wear all my cropped pants with boots...which i have lots of ..my current fave is a pair of kitten heels with a rounded toe...or in the summer i will wear flat sandals...(raincloudx...i'm afraid i got the pants before x-mas...sorry)


anyway...i switch the handles on bags by attaching a metal ring to each side and then looping the new strap through the rings...

another tip is to put leather in the washing machine for a rick owens distressed look...it really works!...not the dryer though...!


i took a vintage dress that was very very big...about a size 24...you could literally fit two of me in it...i cut it in half...hemmed the bottom of the top half and made a cute cropped boxy shirt...

the bottom half had permanent pleats pressed in...i left the top edge raw and sewed a 1"grosgrain ribbon about 4 inches below the top...gathering slightly and curving in the back...then i gather the rest and tie the ribbon off centre...the result is a fan like burst at the hip w/ a ribbon hanging down...very japanese...i am really happy with this one and it was very very easy...the trick is getting someone to pin it on you...

i also have a vintage silk dress from the 50's that i cut in half and am working on making an outfit...i finished the top...and am working on the skirt...this is more complicated...but very cool...

you know how 50's dresses are very fitted in the bust area and full in the skirt?...well...i cut off the top of the top as well...and made a sort of bustier...then i attached staps which i sewed on top and left the ends hanging down...which i cut off the other dress above...and a piece of fabric at the bottom to make a peplum...i sewed a grosgrain ribbon around the waist and left the ends long so i can tie it in the back......ta da!!!..very very marni..it's two diffent prints..
the straps are blk/wht...the body is blk/brn.wht...the ribbon is blk and the peplum is ivory with a raw edge...i will layer it over a ribbed tank top to make it more casual...

let's see anything else?...hmmm...i'll get back to you...

 

[softgrey]

purple...your shirt is great!!!

 

[snowqueen]

Does ne1 kno ne gud sites wid ideas 4 customising on it ???

 

[softgrey]

i know there are more of you out there...please share!!!,....