Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Aztec Upcycle Tutorial

GrayScale has hit a milestone! My first ever Clothing and Upcycling Tutorial!
I saw this cute fabric and knew that I had to come up with something fun for it, so I grabbed some extra supplies as well. This tutorial DOES NOT use all this stuff. Haha! I went a little crazy, but I know it will get used. After all, I bought 2 yards of fabric and have only used a tiny corner so far. It can all be justified. ;)
This upcycle is perfect for Spring, because we get to chop up some old jeans or capris and convert them into shorts. So we need:
Old jeans
Fabric paint
Paintbrush
Plain tee
Iron-on Studs
Fabric
Fabric for lining

Grab your jeans and figure out where you want to make the cut. I kept some extra room, because I knew I wanted to fold them a couple times and still have Bermuda length shorts (so keep folds in mind). If you would like a shorter, cut-off style, then you can do that also. 
Next up, grab a seam ripper, exacto knife, or a small pair of scissors, and take apart that side seam all the way up to the pocket. Don't worry, we will stitch it back...easy peasy.
Now, that your jeans are ready, grab your fabric and lay it on top. Use a pencil or chalk to trace around half of your leg. Make your fabric is a little larger than the piece by leaving about 1/4" extra on all your sides and cut out your fabric. You will need that space for the next step. My second picture didn't have the 1/4" seam allowance. I was on the fence about how I was going to make these and forgot to take a pic of the RIGHT way. Sorry, but the picture still gives you an idea of what you are doing.
Place your piece face down on the fabric that you are using for your lining. If you have muslin or plain colored cotton, that is perfect. Cut out an identical piece and sew them right sides together. You can leave the bottom and side seam open (like I did). After you have sewn them together, turn them right side out and press with an iron...making the piece look nice and crisp.
Pin your fabric panel to your shorts and topstitch the top and along the inside seam of your shorts.
Turn your shorts inside out and pin the edge of your side seam and fabric panel together (along with the pocket you took out), and stitch that up too.

Now, when you took the side seam out, the edges were serged together. This prevents fraying. If you don't have a serger, zig zag stitch along the edge of the fabric after you do your topstitch. This pretty much works the same way.
 If you wanted your shorts folded, make your folds and do about 4 little stitches on each leg (see pic and include one on the back side) to keep your folds in place.
If you would prefer the cut-off look, then I would recommend doing 2 rows of topstitch about half an inch from the bottom. Make the rows about 1/8" apart. It will fray after you wash them.

Had enough of me yet? Well, TOO BAD! Here comes the fun and easy part:

You will need some arrows. There are a couple ways to go about this. You can decide on some images and free-hand it on some cardstock (what I did), or you can find some images and print them out on cardstock. The one thing you need to keep in mind is their simplicity. You will be cutting these images out to make a stencil, so you need them to be fairly simple. Here is where people get confused...do NOT worry about perfection. Look at a lot of prints with arrows. Many of them are not perfectly straight, so don't think that yours have to be.

Cut those babies out and tape them to your shirt. Make sure you have another piece of cardstock or a piece of cardboard inside your shirt (just in case the paint goes through). Grab your fabric paint and paint away!
 Your arrows will look like this. Don't worry about perfection here either. You don't have to have perfect coverage. After I started, I realized that I liked the more distressed look and I stopped worrying about perfect coverage. I recommend not putting a TON of paint on it. It dries pretty quickly.

Now that your arrows are on your shirt and the paint is dry, you are ready for the final thing. Your studs. I found mind at Hobby Lobby. I have made 2 of these shirts already and I still have quite a few studs left. I can't remember the price, but I THINK it was $5.99. Grab that handy 40% off coupon and go to town (if you didn't use it on your other stuff). Follow the directions on the package and you are done.
 You are now dressed to impress. You could have went to the mall and bought a similar outfit, but why...when you can make it. My daughter thinks she needs these sunglasses for every photo shoot now. I think it's cute.


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