Refashioning Tutorials Archives

How to make a 1-minute DIY jean hem bracelet

January 7, 2019January 7, 2019

I love refashioning and repurposing jeans. We all have jeans and when they become unusable for one reason or another, the fabric is wonderful for using in so many ways. I love the different shades of blue and the fraying of unfinished denim edges. But …

How to make a neck pillow from a sweatshirt

December 31, 2018December 31, 2018

It’s funny how we can get super attached to an article of clothing, isn’t it? Sometimes you know that you can’t wear it anymore, but you just can’t bear to get rid of it. This was the case with my son and his banana sweatshirt. …

Refashion shorts into a DIY skirt with godets

June 19, 2017June 19, 2017

Hai dei pantaloncini vecchi che non usi mai? Trasformali in una gonna che vorrai indossare ogni giorno, GRATIS! Scopri come cucire una gonna a godet da un pantaloncino!

I love skirts so much! They are fun to mix and match with different tops, I feel free to move around without any leg restriction, and even very casual skirts look nicer than jeans. They are SO FAST to sew and often even faster to refashion from other unused garments!

Take the above DIY skirt with godets. Can you believe that this garment used to be…

…this unfortunate pair of shorts? Ick!

I’d bought them because I really liked the contrast color waistband and belt loops. (Oh, and also because they were on a great clearance sale!) I hadn’t quite considered the fact that I don’t wear my tops tucked in, so those details could never be seen. And I soon realized that I didn’t like the way they felt or looked either. Then one hem started coming undone, and they stayed in my drawer for years.

Inspired by some of the amazing jean skirt refashioning ideas I’d saved onto my Refashioning Pinterest board, I decided to open up the legs and add contasting godet panels. Because the legs were on the tight side, and also because I really love this green batik fabric, I decided to add godets not only in the front and back, but also at the sides, that way I could easily create an A-line shape and make the contrasting panels look more intentional.

And I LOVE how it came out! It’s such a comfortable skirt and I love how it looks. I actually made this about a year ago and I’ve worn it a TON since then.

One of the great things about making your own clothing (or refashioning them) is that you can make perfectly matching accessories! So I sewed a twisted turban headband with the same batik fabric to wear along with my skirt! I love it when people ask me how I got an accessory to match my skirt so well, and I can tell them that it’s because I made them myself!

So, what do you say? Do you have some old shorts or pants that you never wear from one reason or another? Let me show you how to transform them into a DIY skirt with godets that you will want to wear all the time! Let’s get started!

Refashioning for kids: turn old pants into shorts

June 6, 2017

Non buttare i pantaloni dei bambini troppo corti o con ginocchia strappate! È facile trasformare pantaloni in pantaloncini in pochi minuti con il braccio libero della macchina da cucire!

Kids grow so quickly. Sometimes it feels like I’ve just sewn or otherwise procured a garment for my kids and it is already small for them. Or stained. Or ripped.

That’s why I love quick refashioning sewing hacks to make clothes for children as quickly as possible. Oh yeah, I also love saving money that way.

And one of the most well-known and easy refashions is to turn old pants into shorts. This is truly one of the most simple sewing transformations possible.

And even better than a single refashion, is a DOUBLE refashion! Because the shorts that I’m showing in this tutorial were originally sweatshirts! (Check out my super convenient tutorial on how to make pants from sleeves here!)

And in addition to their being a double refashion, the holes in the knees were also patched up. Afterwards, of course, the other knees also tore. (Find out how to make homemade patches with machine appliqué here.)

How quick it is to turn old pants into shorts! And so easy that it’s a perfect project for beginners! And everyone loves getting a little more wear out of clothing that would otherwise end up in the trash, right? Even if the ones I show here are not the most gorgeous shorts in the world (the pants having been used a LOT), they are great for my little boy to play outside and get sweaty and dirty in!

Ready to prepare a bunch of summer clothes for your kids from their outgrown pants? Let’s get started!

Tutorial: Refashion a sweater into a cardigan in 10 minutes!

November 29, 2020May 23, 2017

I love knitting, but I am a really slow at it. So I love it when I can create with sweater fabrics without having to actually do the knitting myself! So today I’ll show you my super easy tutorial to refashion a sweater into a cardigan. …

How to make a 30 second infinity scarf and headband!

March 13, 2017March 13, 2017

Be fashionable and warm in the blink of an eye with a pair of scissors and a T-shirt! You can make a matching infinity scarf and headband set in less than 30 seconds with just 4 cuts! Super easy no-sew tutorial on www.cucicucicoo.com

I am a total infinity scarf junkie.

I am also a junkie of upcycling old T-shirts.

And, even if I know perfectly well how to sew, I also love super quick projects that require no sewing.

Last year I published a great tutorial on making infinity scarves from T-shirts by sewing together strips of the cut shirts. But sometimes it’s nice to just keep things simple. Which is why today I’m sharing a way to create a matching infinity scarf and headband set in little more than a blink of the eye. Without sewing!

That’s right! All you need for this project is a T-shirt and a pair of scissors!

Are you ready? Let’s make a 30 second infinity scarf and headband set!

Refashion Tutorial: Make a T-shirt Infinity Scarf

September 28, 2017November 28, 2016

Some people are obsessed with clothes and have overflowing closets. Other people obsessively buy shoes and have dozens and dozens of them. I, myself, have a thing for neckwear.

Except for the hottest, most humid summer months, when I can’t bear to have anything on my skin, I love the feeling of having something around my neck. I have tons of necklaces (some of which you can see on my DIY driftwood necklace hanger) and tons more scarves.

About a year and a half ago I got hit by the infinity scarf bug. I have no idea just how many I’ve sewn, but I have more than I can possibly keep track of and have given many more away as gifts.

See? Here I am in May 2015 (May 30 from my Me Made May 2015 challenge, to be precise) with a series of light springtime infinity scarves that I’d made that day. (I was also about two months in out of the 18 months or so it took to grow out my short pixie haircut!)

I had some strips of fabric left over from these pant-to-skirt refashions that I did for my daughter, so those became scarves with one printed side and one solid side, an effect that looks wonderful when they get looped around the neck. (Find out how to sew infinity scarves with one or more colors here.)

But the infinity scarf that I got (and continue to get) the most compliments on was this Spanish-style one with red pompom trim. I cut up the entire shirt, right up to the neck and including the sleeves, and pieced the pieces together along with the trim to make a loop that was wide enough to fit over my head twice. You can see the bit of lace under the neck tie incorporated in the scarf in the bottom picture above.

A lot of people asked me how I made the scarf and I got more than one request for a tutorial. So now that I’ve explained how to sew knit fabric without any overstretching, bunching, snapped threads or holes, I thought that it was about time to finally explain how to make these!

I’ve given instructions on two styles of T-shirt infinity scarf. The first is a pretty simple two-color version that only takes about 15 minutes to make. The second is a more complex version of the first, using pieces from any number of shirt. You can get really creative and use up fabric scraps, or even salvage usuable parts of stained and/or ripped t-shirts.

These scarves are wonderful gifts, too, so raid your closet for shirts you don’t use anymore and sew up a colorful and unique T-shirt infinity scarf for everyone you know this holiday season! Let’s get started!

Refashion tutorial: make pants from sleeves

September 6, 2017October 17, 2016

Make pants for kids in a flash from sleeves! No pattern necessary! Refashion tutorial by www.cucicucicoo.com

It’s fall again and I’m having the same problem I have every. Single. Year. My kids have no pants that fit them correctly.

Both of my children are average height, but are very thin. This doesn’t create many problems in the summer because shorts and skirts don’t have to be long. However, when it’s time to wear long pants (or trousers for you British folk) again, we find that all their pants that fit fine in the spring are now too short. And most store-bought pants that are long enough for them are too wide in the waist for their long, thin build.

So either my kids go to school with ridiculously short pants (which doesn’t bother them, but it does bother me), I buy them some new ones (which rarely fit properly and anyway I decided years ago not to buy any new clothing), or I sew them new ones. However I’m usually particularly busy with the hectic start of the school year, and have a hard time finding time to find a pattern, modify it to fit their thin bodies, and cut it out.

That’s when this comes to the rescue: old sweatshirts. Because adult sweatshirts have sleeves that are a great length for pants for young kids (up to about age 5) and they already have a wonderfully comfortable cuff at the bottom. (Or, if not a cuff, a finished edge, like in the pair seen below.) So your discarded clothing (or a super cheap thrifted sweatshirt, like this one that I bought for €1 to make my son’s Minion costume) can become fantastic sweatpants for your child!

They’re so comfortable for kids to play in and you don’t even need a pattern to make them! You can simply use a pair of pants that fit as a cutting guide!

What a time-saver! Last year I made four pairs of these pants in about one hour and my boy was set for that season’s pants! (Yes, that is a patch of white hair my son has. He was born with it. I didn’t bring him to the hairdresser to do it, as some people have asked me!)

So what are you waiting for? Let’s make pants from sleeves for your children!

Attach elastic to a waistband – no casing or twisting!

February 24, 2017October 10, 2016

Learn to sew the easiest elastic waistband ever- with no casing or twisting! www.cucicucicoo.com

Can you imagine what it must’ve been like to wear clothes long ago, before there was any elastic? Sure, there were buttons and laces to tie up, but my favorite garment fasteners, elastic and zippers, are relatively new inventions. I can’t even begin to imagine how hard it must’ve been to get children dressed… and undressed, and dressed and undressed… without elastic waistbands!

I LOVE elastic waistbands! They’re comfortable, give more flexibility in sizing, and are easy for kids to get on and off by themselves. They come in all different widths and even in awesome colors and prints, so you can make them part of your garment’s overall look.

Learn to sew the easiest elastic waistband ever- with no casing or twisting! www.cucicucicoo.com

As part of my Learn to Machine Sew series, I’ve already published two lessons on elastic waistbands: sewing an elastic casing and sewing an exposed elastic waistband. The technique I’m showing you today, which I’m calling an attached elastic, for lack of a better name, is yet another way to create an elastic waistband and, like the others, it has its pros and cons.

Elastic casing waistband:

Pros: elastic can be easily removed to adjust sizing, ugly elastic is hidden inside, no need to split elastic/fabric into fourths

Cons: must measure and iron fabric to create the perfect width of casing, elastic can twist up inside the casing

Exposed elastic waistband:

Pros: doesn’t require extra fabric to cover the elastic so is good if you’ve cut the garment too short, shows off cool elastic, no measuring or ironing of fabric necessary

Cons: possible lost stretch, need to split elastic/fabric into fourths, more difficult to remove the elastic if adjustments are necessary

Attached elastic waistband:

Pros: very fast and easy, ugly elastic is hidden inside, no measuring or ironing of fabric necessary

Cons: possible lost stretch, need to split elastic/fabric into fourths, difficult to remove the elastic if adjustments are necessary

I will be totally honest: this attached elastic technique is not my favorite way of sewing a waistband. In general, I prefer not to sew into elastic because some qualities can lose stretch when you stretch and sew over them. But the main reason is because I quite frequently have to adjust the fit of elastic waistbands. This can be either because the elastic has stretched out over time, my kids have grown or I made a measuring mistake when sewing the garment (hey, it happens even to the best of us, right?!). This is why I almost always sew a casing for waistbands.

However, do consider that this is my own personal preference and that there are LOADS of sewists who prefer this method over the others, so it’s really a matter of personal preference. I suggest trying them all out so that you can choose the most suitable technique for each of your projects!

Follow the links above for learning more about the first two elastic waistband methods, or keep on reading to find out how to attach elastic to a waistband in the third way!

Refashion tutorial: Turn pants into a skirt

November 5, 2016July 5, 2016

It’s such a clichè, but it’s also totally true: how fast kids grow! And that of course means that they grow out of their clothes so quickly.

But what a shame to get rid of clothes that still fit them in the waist. And that’s why every spring I go through their wardrobe and turn all their too-short pants or pants with holes in the knees (anyone with an active little boy knows what I mean) and turn them into shorts or skirts.

Turning pants into shorts is pretty straightforward: cut off the bottom of the leg and hem it. The only real difference in turning pants into a skirt is that you have to open up the leg seams and then close them back up again.

It’s so satisfying to make these adorable little skirts, which are perfect for summer playing and twirling. And it only takes about 15 minutes because the waistband is already made! Yah!

Do your kids- or you- have any pants that are slowly making their way up their legs as they grow? Well, then, grab your scissors and we’ll fix them up right here and now! Now I’ll show you how to turn pants into a skirt!

Easy no-sew T-shirt bracelets tutorial

May 9, 2016

Got some old tees? Turn them into these super easy no-sew t-shirt bracelets! The tutorial shows you how to in less than two minutes! www.cucicucicoo.com

In the years that I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve collaborated with lots of other blogs and websites. And today I’m so pleased to announce that I’m starting a new collaboration with the Italian handmade learning website Make It Land! I will contribute an eco-friendly refashioning tutorial every month for my special column of sorts called “Refashion Cafè” and, seeing as the website is only in Italian, I will publish the tutorial in English here on Cucicucicoo for everyone to enjoy!

I decided to start off with a very simple refashion that anybody can do, even if she doesn’t know how to sew, crochet or do any other sort of handmade crafting: no-sew T-shirt bracelets!

The idea is pretty similar to the no-sew t-shirt sleeve necklace tutorial that I published a few years ago, except it uses a different part of the t-shirt and I’ve figured out a better way to bind all the strips together.

These bracelets are ridiculously easy to make and it’ll take you about two minutes to make one, but they’re still really cute, especially when you make them colorful and with matching necklaces! I love wearing these in the summer because they’re light and don’t stick to my skin like most other accessories.

They’re also a great gift and, because you just use old t-shirts and they’re so fast to make, you can whip some up for all of your friends!

Want to find out how? Then keep on reading for the t-shirt bracelets tutorial!

How to Sew an Exposed Elastic Waistband in 5 steps

November 14, 2016February 23, 2016

Sure, you may know how to sew an elastic casing or how to install a zipper, but do you WANT to? Sometimes you just want to do things the fastest and easiest way. And sometimes you just don’t have enough fabric to do so. This is when you can resort to the easiest waistband method ever: the exposed elastic waistband!

This waistband is exactly what it sounds like: exposed elastic, which is sewn directly onto the top edge of your garment as a stretchy waistband. I’ve started using this solution a lot when refashioning because sometimes I’m just too lazy to pick out the old over-stretched elastic and just cut it off, or because I’m on the tall side and often need to add a little bit of length to my garment, and this method allows you to actually add on length instead of removing it to sew in a casing.

For example, when I totally screwed up a pair of leggings, which ended up too tight and too short, I added an exposed elastic waistband to avoid making an elastic casing that would end up halfway down my bum. A perfect fix!

Today, as part of my Learn to Machine Sew series, I’m going to show you how to sew an exposed elastic waistband in just five steps! You can practice this technique on any tube of fabric or do as I did, and add it on to a skirt (or pair of pants, shorts or leggings) that has an old elastic that needs to be replaced. Then in the next tutorial on Cucicucicoo, I’ll show you how to sew a skirt from scratch with this type of easy waistband.

Are you ready? Let’s start!

Evening Primrose Pajama Pants Pattern (for women)

February 29, 2016October 16, 2015

I am thrilled to present to you my very first multi-size clothing sewing pattern: the Evening Primrose Pajama Pants for women! Yah! I’m so thrilled, that I’m offering a discount on all of my patterns! (But more about that in a moment…!) (update 05/02/16: this …

Refashion tutorial: Turn a dress into a skirt

July 8, 2016September 17, 2015

Earlier this week, as part of the Learn to Machine Sew series, I taught how to sew a casing for an elastic waistband, and also how to calculate the seam allowance for the casing and the elastic length. So for today’s practice tutorial, I’m going to show you one of the most common refashioning techniques: how to turn a dress into a skirt!

This is a really useful and easy refashion, even for beginners! If you’re a woman, or if you have a daughter, you most likely will have an ill-fitting dress somewhere in your closet. This dress was a hand-me-down and, while I love the fabric and the garment itself is pretty cute, it never really fit my daughter quite right. Now that it finally fits around her torso, it’s too short for her.

So the easiest way to make this into a garment that she will actually wear was to refashion it into a skirt! She loves skirts and wore it as her first day of school skirt, as you can see above! (Hence the boring white t-shirt, which is her school’s warm weather uniform.) Do you have an old dress hanging around, too? Well, then read on to find out how to turn a dress into a skirt the super easy way!

How to sew a refashioned DIY lace t-shirt top

July 4, 2015July 3, 2015

How to sew a DIY lace t-shirt top from an old tee! A sewing tutorial by Green Issues by Agy for www.cucicucicoo.com!

Welcome back to the newest tutorial in the Cucicucicoo’s Eco Crafters and Sewers series! If you follow me on Facebook, you might have seen my notice that, due to the transfer of my website’s hosting and domain to a better, FASTER, service, I wasn’t able to publish earlier this week. But now everything is back up and running better than ever, and I’m thrilled to have Agatha Lee from Green Issues by Agy as our guest today!

Agatha is an eco-designer and passionate environmental educator, combining her love for making and the environment. She previously worked as a policy maker at the National Environmental Agency, Singapore for over 10 years before founding Green Issues by Agy, where she transforms textile waste into creative wearables. She holds regular talks and shares how you can get more out of your old clothes at workshops such as Fix It Friday and DIY Your Clothes. Her current blog series is Fix It Friday and Fashion Designers Do Good.

You may remember Agy’s name because I was fortunate enough to participate in two of her fascinating blog trains, “I didn’t throw it away” and “Making good.” I love Agy’s ecological spirit which shines through in her creative re-use of materials. So, without further ado, here’s Agy’s tutorial for a lovely hand-sewn upcycled lace top using an old t-shirt and a mended piece of lace!

How to felt wool sweaters in the washing machine

February 4, 2019May 13, 2015

With summer just around the corner, it’s time to pack away all those warm woolies and bring out light hot-weather clothing. So what do you do with those sweaters with little moth holes or stains, or with the ones that are stretched out or a bit shrunken? Put them in a big pile and get ready to make some awesome crafting/sewing material because they’re perfect for machine felting!

Say what? Felted or boiled wool is super easy to make and can be used for a gazillion crafts and sewing purposes! It’s all natural and, by upcycling unwanted garments, you avoid wasting fabric and spending money on new supplies!

Everybody’s accidentally shrunk a wool garment at some point, so don’t deny that you have. Boiled wool is basically wool that’s been shrunk til it can be shrunk no more. This process changes the fabric completely, giving it totally new properties. Felted wool is super thick and warm, so it’s great for cold-weather clothing. It doesn’t fray, so it’s fantastic for crafting with or creating embellishments with unfinished edges. It’s also waterproof, so a fantastic natural resource for those who want to avoid synthetic waterproof materials in cloth diapers or menstrual pads. And some people simply prefer its thick and rough texture to that of regular knit wool.

So today’s Learn to Machine Sew lesson is not actually about machine sewing, but about creating an excellent fabric to sew with! If you want to learn more about how to felt wool sweaters in the washing machine and how you can use this fantastic material, just read on!

Making Good: Creative patches for jeans

September 8, 2020May 2, 2015

Making Good: Fix rips and tears in pants with creative patches for jeans! Use reverse appliquè for imaginative repairs! www.cucicucicoo.com for www.greenissuessingapore.blogspot.com

In January I participated in Green Issues by Agy’s blog train “I didn’t throw it away,” which was all about why you keep certain items for decades. It was really interesting to read what was important to the participants and most of us tended to keep things embedded with emotional value.

So I was really excited to take part in Agy’s new blog train, “Making Good,” in which participants write a tutorial about how to fix something and why they decided to fix it. I’m really looking forward to learning how to repair a whole variety of things! Yesterday Agy wrote about using a substance called Polymorph to fix a plastic water jug, and today is my day to participate with a clothing fix that is super useful: fixing rips and tears with creative patches for jeans!

Everyone loves wearing jeans, but the production process for them is actually very harmful to the environment, in terms of water usage, pesticides used on cotton plants, and the dyes polluting water. So this is why I like to keep our jeans useful for as long as possible. Then, of course, there’s also the fact that well-worn jeans are way more comfortable than new ones!

I’ve already written a tutorial on machine darning holes in jeans, and I use that technique VERY frequently. But sometimes it’s nice to add a bit of pizzazz to your repairs, and that’s when you can go all out with creative patches!

And how much fun is it to make patches for kids?! My little boy was thrilled to wear his “new” pants!

You can, of course make classic patches with regular appliqué shapes (see my tutorial for that here), but I sometimes like to make patches even more visually interesting with the technique of reverse appliquè! Let me show you how!

How to applique a t shirt to cover logos

November 14, 2016April 10, 2015

My last lesson for the Learn to Sew series was about how to machine appliqué. Normally I publish a practical tutorial for each technique in the series a few days after the lesson, but life got in the way and almost a month went by. Whoops! In the lesson, I showed you how to use an iron-on adhesive (I recommend Heat’n Bond Lite*) to keep appliqué pieces in place while stitching them down. Today I’m going to show you how to use the same technique on t-shirts (or other jersey items) to cover up ugly logos, stains or tears!

So grab your jersey garment and some jersey scraps, and I’ll show you how easy it is to applique a t shirt!

A Flowy and Flowery T-Shirt Dress Refashion

April 1, 2015March 30, 2015

I’m super excited because today is the first guest post for my Cucicucicoo’s Eco Crafters and Sewers series! And who better to start off with, than my blogging BFF Irene, from Serger Pepper with a super cute refashion!

Irene and I share a passion for refashioning, sewing with upcycled clothing and other fabrics, and using fabrics creatively. I have quite a collection of projects sewn from her patterns* or tutorials, such as the girls’ Basic Leggings, the Hands-Free Asymmetrical Bag, the Everyday Tank Top, the One Cardigan, Big Girl Briefs, and pajamas from t-shirts. And she’s published a guest post of mine (on turning men’s t-shirts into women’s fitted t-shirts) and published a guest post on Mammabook using two of my tutorials, not to mention has been a valuable pattern tester for me!

You can find lots of great sewing tutorials and patterns on her website, or check out her Facebook group, Serger Pepper Patterns. She has just started collaborating with Craftsy*, writing for their sewing blog! (Wow! Go you, Irene!) Her first post was published there just yesterday on differential feed on overlock machines, so you should go take a look at it if you have a serger. Irene is probably the most Pinterest-obsessed person that I know (she calls herself Pinterst-addicted), so if you ever want some great ideas, check out her Pinterest boards!

Incidentally, I also finally met Irene in person just two days ago in Milan for the Blog Italiani di Cucito meetup of Italian sewing bloggers. (On the right in the picture above. Isn’t she adorable?!) What an amazing experience, to spend a day with 30 women with the love of sewing in common, and how many amazing new friends!

Ok, enough, you want the tutorial, right?! So let me pass you on to Irene! (And when you comment to tell her how much you like this project, compliment her on her English, too! Isn’t it great?)

I am really excited to open this new awesome eco-series by Lisa @ Cucicucicoo… what an honor! This series is all about how we can love our Mother Earth re-using materials instead of throwing away everything after using it: this is more or less my whole life purpose! People who know me jokes me about toilet paper… which is probably the only disposable I admit in my house!

Being a sewing blogger, I will focus on how to refashion pre-loved garments: and this garment has been truly loved! It wasn’t in my refashion pile, also if I have worn it the last time a long time ago. I am attached to it because it is what I wore at my matriculation exams in the middle of the 90’s!

I have always been a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl and this has been my first long dress… I felt so feminine and grown-up when I have bought it! But… it’s totally un-wearable now: too 90’s! Since I am unable to throw away garments, it stayed hidden in my closet until my friend Lisa asked me to create something for this series… and the proverbial bulb turned on!

Why not using it to make a not-so-boxy T-shirt I can actually wear?

Follow me into this step-by-step tutorial to create your own!

Sweater refashion tutorial: cardigan slim down

February 29, 2016February 19, 2015

Sweater refashion tutorial: How to slim down a huge maxi cardigan... the EASY way! www.cucicucicoo.com

When I was last in Bologna, a bit over a year ago, I couldn’t resist stopping by a higher-end used clothing stand in an open air market. And I grabbed up a gorgeous wool maxi-cardigan…

…that was WAY too big for me! It was obviously supposed to be very long, but it was too wide around the torso and in the armpits. With it buttoned, I felt like a giant metal tube, because it clearly suffocated the little bit of body shape I have.

But we were talking high quality original Irish Aran wool, and I couldn’t bear to pass it up. Plus I figured that it couldn’t be too hard to slim-up the cardigan. Do you have a gargantuan sweater, too? Or you just want to see how I easily transformed this one into something that actually fit right? Well, then read on!

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