Guest Post: Sew Much To Say

Woo! I'm so excited guys - my first guest post is here!! Who knew that all I had to do was click the html button for it to work! (You wouldn't believe I'm a child of the 90s and a blogger given my minimal internet knowledge) :P

This is the first of the monthly guest posts I've lined up for the 6 months of my Op-Shop Challenge. The idea is to hopefully inspire you all a little more, give you some great thrifty ideas and get you excited about pre-loved wares!

A massive, massive thank you to Amanda Rose from Sew Much to Say who has written about altering thrifted/op-shopped clothes (which she is wonderful at!) for me. It's something I've never done but always admired, and if you're feeling like it, it gives you a massive advantage when it comes to thrifting! Make sure you head over to her blog for more rad ideas :D I'll shut up now, over to Amanda Rose! :D

Hello, there! I'm Amanda Rose and I blog over at Sew Much To Say. I'm into everything from trying to learn to bake something new every week to making quilts for my dorm room. Rhi asked me to share a little with all of you about altering thrifted clothing to make it your own. I am honored to be doing a guest post, especially on a topic that I am so passionate about! 

First of all, a little bit about me: I am all about good style at an even better price. Believe it or not, I only go shopping at a store about once or twice a year. Most of my clothes are either given to me by other people or thrifted. A lot of the time people give me clothes that fit them but, have a little something wrong with them that they don't know how to fix themselves. So I take the misfit clothes, sew them, hem them, and then wear them. 

This dress is made out of an old 1950's dress and brown denim jeans..given to me and the latter was thrifted.

This dress I made entirely out of thrifted ties. 

Today I'll tell you how to make your own lace shorts from thrifted jeans. First of all, you have to find a pair of jeans at your favorite thrift store! They don't have to fit your legs lengthwise, just your waist. For example, I bought a pair of flared jeans for about 5 bucks that were too short on me. So, I made them into these shorts.

Next, measure with a fabric measuring tape exactly how long you want them. Look at your other pairs of shorts and decide based on how long you like your shorts to be. Take into consideration whether or not you want the bottoms of your shorts folded up at the bottom. Then, put a mark on each leg the same length down. I usually measure from the inner seam down and from a mark on the pocket down. This way you have a measurement on the inside and outside of the leg. Remember, measure twice, cut once. This ensures you don't cut them crooked! 

Finally, use a ruler and cut from your outer mark to your inner mark on each leg. The back of the leg will end up a little longer than the front. This is normal.

Last but not least, fold your hem under and stitch it with a basting stitch on your machine. This just means the biggest stitch your machine has. If you don't have a machine just loosely stitch the hem by hand. Next, take your lace strip and line it up with the hem, lace side out. Sew over your first row of stitching with a smaller stitch. Try to get some lace that has folded over edge for your to sew, that way the lace doesn't fray when you wash it.

Enjoy!

Let me know if you try it and how they turn out!