Upcycling Challenge

I started this upcycling challenge by creating a Pinterest board to gather some upcycling inspiration.

Previously I created a research post all about upcycling called Upcycling Research .

I am going to be upcycling a long sleeve, crew neck Hollister t-shirt. I did not really have much choice of what to use for this upcycling challenge as we donate all our unwanted older garments or those, that don’t fit to charity shops.

This is the front and back of the garment labelled with all the original components on the garment.

My plan for this upcycling challenge is to give this 21 years old, well – loved t-shirt a new lease of life. So, I plan to keep it as a long sleeve jumper instead of repurposing it into a completely different garment to keep the authenticity of the original garment.

I have to make some adjustments to the length of the bodice and sleeves as the jumper is XL and is too big on me.

I am going to crop the t-shirt to the waist and add half an inch elastic into the waist band so it is fitted, I will then also add the same elastic into the sleeves, which I will shorten to fit me as well. I am finally going to add some colour and detail to my garment by embroidering around the logo on the front of the t-shirt and also down the sleeve. This will then finally become a cropped jumper.

I started by using my dressmaking scissors to remove both the cuffs and some of the excess fabric on the bodice.

I then put my jumper on and created a line of pins where I want the garment to go to on my waist, I then took the jumper off and I got a ruler and drew a line in permanent marker 1 inch down from the line of pins.

Next I cut along the black line using my dressmaking scissors.

So it looks like this.

I then turned the bottom of the jumper over and pinned a line one inch up to match the front. Next l turned the jumper inside out, and folded the edge of the jumper 1 inch up and then moved all the pins.

I then chose a bobbin and thread that matches the colour of the jumper.

I then set my machine up ready with the blue bobbin and thread.

I then sewed all along the 1 inch turned up fabric leaving a small gap for the elastic to be threaded through.

I then got my half and inch wide elastic and put it around my waist and marked with a pencil were I am going to sew the two ends together and also where I want to cut it.

I then added two large safety pins to each end of the elastic to help me feed it through.

After I had done that, I pinned one end of the elastic to the fabric and then I started feeding the other end of the elastic with the safety pin on it through the tunnel of fabric I created and as I fed the elastic through the fabric it immediately began to gather.

This is what the jumper looked like once I had threaded the elastic all the way around.

After I threaded it through, I safety pinned the two ends of the elastic together.

I then hand sewed the two ends of the elastic together and sewed up the gap I left for the elastic using my sewing machine.

Next I put the jumper on and pinned where I want the sleeves to end and then drew a line in permanent marker one inch down from the pins on both sleeves.

I then cut along the black line on both sleeves.

Next I turned my jumper inside out and turned up the end of the sleeve one inch and pinned it in place. I then also cut and marked two pieces of elastic to go around my wrists.

I then sewed both of my sleeves leaving a gap for the elastic. I then thread the elastic through on both sleeves so they became gathered, I then sewed the two ends of elastic together and hand sewed the gap I left.

Now the garment is fitting to my body, I added my embellishments using 3 different embroidery threads that compliment the colours of the jumper. I embroidered around the logo on the front of the jumper and down the sleeve on the jumper.

This is my finished upcycled garment.

One particular stage of the upcycling process that I found difficult was sewing the cuff part of the sleeve. As once I had fed the elastic through the end of the sleeves and then sewed the elastic together all the fabric was tightly gathered and the piece of elastic was not that stretchy. This meant that the hole was too small that I could not sew the small gap I left for the elastic with my sewing machine. So I had to hand sew it and the line of hand stitches are not that straight due to all the gathers.

I am very happy with how my upcycled garment turned out, it is not a extremely dramatic transformation but I still think it is effective and it is an improvement on the previous garment. This garment is still fully functional and is definitely something that I will wear.