DIY Style UP: How to transform his clothes into your treasures

Last week I was telling you on my FB page that I discovered a sweatshirt in my husband’s closet that he wasn’t wearing anymore and I wanted to try to restyle it and see if I can transform it into a new cool item for me. There’s something about stripes that makes me want to keep them, but also I think there’s a part of me that likes a fashion challenge like this.

So, these are the before and after photos of his sweatshirt,  and I don’t know about you, but I love the result and I already wore it.

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The sweatshirt was pretty loose on me and the sleeves were long, so those were the first things that I wanted to adjust. I raised the shoulder line by simply folding the fabric and pinned it with needles; this created a fold that looks like it was meant to be there. I sewed 10 cm of what is now the new shoulder line and yes, I did it manually.

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You can do this too if you have a little bit of experience with hand-sewing, but if you think you can’t, just take it to a seamstress.  I shortened the sleeves by shoving the wristbands inside and sewed them also. I did the same thing with the bottom hem.

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Phase 2 of my project was about adding something to make it stand out. “Classy and Fabulous” comes from my favorite quote:

“A girl should be two things: Classy and Fabulous” (Coco Chanel)

and I guess now you understand why I chose pearls for this restyle project :). Plus, I kind of liked this contrast between a basic sportswear piece of clothing and the elegance of pearls and I think they highlight each other very well.

Obviously, you have to write the words on the fabric before you start sewing the pearls or anything else you might want. Use a pencil in a contrasting color, decide where you want to write your words and measure to make sure they are straight and centered. You can use your computer to print the words in a font you like and then you have 2 options: handwrite it or just cut the words out from the printed page and use the paper as a stencil (RO: “sablon”). After that is just about sewing pearls.

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In the end, I added a few pearls on the shoulder to complete the whole look. You can choose to only sew a few beads on the shoulders, or just a word, or you can try to sew some beads on the neckline, etc. The idea is that you can restyle clothes and you can DIY. It’s up to you if you can do a complex project like this one, or just a few accessories here and there.

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I would love to read your thoughts about it and I hope you feel inspired to do your own restyle projects…

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