Fabric Shopping in Your Own Closet

6 Materials

2 Hours

Medium

Have you ever fabric shopped in your own wardrobe? We all have clothes we don't wear often but can't get rid of. Maybe it's because we love the fabric. Maybe it's sentimental. Whatever the reason, sometimes clothing items just need an upgrade to start getting the attention they deserve. It's free and a great way to waste less.

Knit maxi skirts are a great place to start when looking for fabric in your own wardrobe. It's a lot of fabric so it's perfect for refashioning it into the Vera Top by Forget Me Not Patterns, which is a FREE pdf pattern. You just have to be ok with some extra accent seams here and there.

Print and Assemble Your FREE Pattern

The pattern I used is the Vera Top from Forget Me Not Patterns. This is a FREE, beginner friendly pattern with a v-neck, gathered puffy sleeves with either a short or long cuff. It has a hem that is a bit shorter in the front and longer in the back, which I love.

**For size reference: I used pattern size 38 and the maxi skirt I used was a size medium.

Grab your Maxi Skirt!

I had two maxi skirts with 4 way stretch that I really liked the print on. The fact that they are 4 way stretch made them perfect for this refashion since I have to do a bit of "pattern Tetris" to get the most out of all this fabric. I will be using almost every square inch of fabric.

Extend the Pattern Pieces

To help get the most out of all the fabric its a good idea to make the pieces that are usually cut on the fold a whole piece. That way you won't waste any fabric. You can then place them all on the fabric and know how you need to adjust the placement before you cut them out. To do this I traced it with tissue paper and then taped the pieces together to form a whole piece.

Prepare The Fabric

Using either a seam ripper or fabric scissors, remove the waistband and open one side of the maxi skirt. You will have one seam in the middle. It's important to leave that seam intact because you will need this exact amount of fabric.

Pattern Tetris

Now this is where you can't be too picky with fabric grain. I chose these particular maxi skirts not just for their prints but they are both extremely stretchy. I knew I could get away with cutting the pieces out in almost any direction. I was able to get the body, sleeves and neck band out of the skirt.

**Make sure you cut the sleeves out mirror image. To do that I just cut one sleeve pattern piece with the words up, then turned it over to cut out the other one.

The Cuff

The maxi waistband is the perfect use for the sleeve cuff. This particular waist band was more narrow and had elastic but was the perfect size for the shorter cuff. However, my other maxi had a wider waistband so I used the longer cuff piece for my second shirt.

Assemble Your Shirt

Once you have all the pieces cut out, assemble the shirt according to the pattern directions. They are wonderful and very beginner friendly.

Finishing

To hem your shirt and finish the neckline you can either use a zig zag stitch or a twin needle. I prefer to use a twin needle. It gives it the look of a Ready to Wear garment and looks really nice and polished. It has two rows of stitching on the outside and and a zig zag on the inside.

** When using a twin needle you will need to set your stitch length longer. I set mine at a length of 3-4. You will need to play around with it on your machine a bit but once you get it, you will love using it for your t-shirts.