DIY Bleached Denim Shirt

So after I bleached my denim shorts, my friend & I went on the hunt to find denim shirts so we could bleach them as well. We used a different tutorial, so it was done a little differently than the shorts.

We simply filled a bucket with bleach, dipped our shirts in, making sure they were soaked an inch or two below where we really wanted the bleaching to stop, and set them out to dry on a plastic bag in her backyard.

I let mine set for a little over an hour and then washed it with vinegar & water and then in the washer when I got home. (A word of caution: my friend let hers set for a couple hours & they were torn to shreds like my shorts)

I am completely in love with this shirt. That is all.

TOTAL COST: $2 for shirt, $3.50 for bleach, $1 for Vinegar, and less than an hour of my time :)

DIY Bleached Denim Shorts

Bleached denim is something I really wanted for summer, but when I saw pairs online for over $50 I immediately turned up my nose & vowed to make a pair myself. I used this tutorial as a guide, but ended up doing it slightly differently.

I cut these mom jeans into shorts, but did not cut them as short as they are in the final picture. They were about two inches longer because I originally had them rolled up. This will be important later.

I did this in the bathtub in my bathroom, but as a word of caution, make sure you have a fan on & a window open. The smell spreads quickly. The ideal place would be outdoors.

I clipped the shorts on a hanger and put them over the edge of a bucket so that the bottoms of the jeans were just grazing the bottom of the bucket. This is where I differed from the blog's tutorial: I only poured in a small amount of bleach -- just enough to cover half an inch of the bottom of the jeans. (I was really trying to get the ombre effect, not just a clean line of bleach like the tutorial's was, so I decided to do a little experimenting)

I let that sit for 10 minutes & could already see the results. I decided to leave them in for another 10 minutes to see if it would spread farther up, but after seeing that it seemed to have spread as far as it would go, I decided to pour more bleach in so it covered about an inch of the jeans. This set for another ten minutes, and after seeing that it still hadn't spread as high up as I wanted, I frustratingly poured the rest of the bleach in the bucket.

In total, the jeans were in bleach for an hour. (If you know anything about bleach, which I didn't, this is a huuuuuge no-no. When I told my mom about my escapade, her eyes widened in horror) When I took them out of the bucket, I was pleasantly surprised at how great they turned out. Upon washing them out under the faucet of my tub, however, it was clear that the bleach had completely eaten through about two inches of the bottom of the shorts. I could literally just peel it off.

At this point, I angrily ripped the two inches of dead fabric off the bottom & continued washing with water & vinegar. (This is supposed to stop the bleaching process)

Hoping & praying that they wouldn't be torn to shreds (because I was hopelessly in love with them at this point), I stuck them in the washer alone in an attempt to wash out the bleach/vinegar smell & stop the bleaching process for good. I set the cycle to have an extra rinse to ensure they'd be cleaned thoroughly.

After the cycle was done, I hesitantly took them out to find the finished product...... Perfectly frayed & even semi-ombre'd jean shorts! The real moment of truth came when I tried them on to see how short they were. Luckily, with the extra 2 inches I had to account for the rolling up, they were acceptable to wear as is. I only wish I could find a way to get my other shorts as perfectly frayed at the bottom as these without practically dissolving the fabric with bleach.

TOTAL COST: $3 for jeans, $3.50 for bleach, $1 for vinegar, & about an hour of my time :)

DIY Men's Button-Down Shirt

I am addicted to men's button-down shirts. I have an oversized denim one that I wear at least once a week, so when I saw this pin-striped Van-Heusen dress shirt in the men's section at the Salvation Army I couldn't resist.

I used this tutorial to guide me, but I didn't follow it exactly. This tutorial would be helpful if the shoulders of your shirt were like hers, but luckily mine weren't too far off & I decided not to mess with them.

There were three problems with this shirt:

1. Sleeves: These were fine in length since I planned on rolling them up, but they were too big around.
2. Width: It was too wide & relaxed for my liking.
3. Length: Since I planned on making it more fitted & also wearing it this summer, I wanted to make it shorter.

Like the shirt dress, I cut the length of shirt a little longer than I actually wanted it. No hemming yet.

I put the shirt on inside out & pinned one side & one sleeve how I wanted them to fit. I measured the distance from seam to pin & pinned the other side as well. Make sure to try on the shirt at this point & button it up. I didn't do this step & had to restitch the sides.... Unfortunate.

The tricky part was getting the armpit curve to appropriately fit & not look super awkward. I was lucky enough to get it on the first try. After you've pinned how you want the curve to be, stitch along the pins. Set the stitches on your machine to the longest/loosest setting. I had mine set at 3 when it really needed to be set at 4. The sleeves ended up being kind of ruched, but I didn't worry too much about it since I stitched it underneath my arm & rolling up the sleeves helped hide it.


Since I didn't have an overly large amount of fabric left over on the inside after I fitted it, I decided not to cut it closer to the hem, but you could if it was too much. As usual, the last step was hemming. I made sure to hem the flap of extra fabric on the inside down to avoid unraveling & whatnot.

This was one of the harder DIYs I've had to do because of the structure of the shirt, but it was SO worth it.

TOTAL COST: $2 and about an hour of my time :)

DIY Collared Tank Top

I love collared tank tops for summer, but I don't love the almost $20 price tag. When I saw this sheer, collared, button-down shirt at a small, not-for-profit thrift store in my hometown, I couldn't help but see the potential past the shoulder pads & oversized sleeves.

This was really simple. After cutting out the ridiculous shoulder pads, I cut off the sleeves, leaving some extra fabric around the edges so I could hem it. I folded the sleeves over, pinned, and sewed. I liked the relaxed, loose feel of the shirt, so I didn't mess with the width at all. My cousin's 3-year-old son decided to model with me.

TOTAL COST: $0.50 and 15 minutes of my time :)

(Compare to this tank on Forever21.com for $17.80)

DIY Shirt Dress Tutorial

I've only been wanting a shirt dress for 234893 years. So when I saw the dress on the left at my local Salvation Army (for around $3), I immediately snatched it up. It was literally a square piece of fabric with buttons down the middle & some sleeves stitched on. Originally a size 14, it was really shapeless & unflattering on me.

I had to address two main problems with this dress:

1. The length: Unfortunately it wasn't long enough or the right fabric/cut to keep as a maxi dress, so I needed to make it a more flattering length. I decided on cutting it to just above my knees.
2. The width: Since it was a size that was quite a bit larger than I am, there was way too much extra fabric on the sides. Also, I wanted to make it more fitted & less boxy, so I decided to take in the waist a little bit.

The very first thing to do was to cut out the shoulder pads. Easy.

I decided to cut the dress to the general length I wanted next. I put it on and marked with a pin the approximate length I wanted, making sure to pin it a little longer than I actually wanted it to account for the hem I would later sew. I then measured how far away from the bottom of the dress that pin was, and marked with a pen the same distance all the way across the dress to provide a guide for cutting. Just cut along the marks!

The next step was to adjust the width. I put the dress on inside out and pinned one side so that it was the fit I wanted. I took the dress off, measured how far away the pins were from the original seam, and pinned the other side the same length. I tried it on again to make sure it it fit in the hips & legs. Luckily, I didn't have to do any adjusting. Keeping the dress on inside out, I marked where I wanted the dress to curve in to fit my waist better and give some more shape to the dress. I carefully took off the dress.

This next part was sheer luck. Since I had pins marked straight down the dress and only one pin to mark the waist, I needed to somehow create a gentle curve from the armpit down to the waist pin & then back out again (if that makes any sense at all). I pretty much eyeballed it, starting at the seam where the sleeve & armpit meet and then marking with pins the curve I desired. I was lucky that it turned out. Trial & error is the best method here; you can always take out seams & resew if it's too small/large.

The last step is to hem the bottom to avoid unraveling & stray threads. I marked 3/4 inch all the way around the bottom of the dress, pinned, and sewed.

That's it! The hardest part was creating the curve to make it fitted in the waist. If you wanted to avoid that step, you could sinch the waist with a skinny belt to add some more definition.

TOTAL COST: $3 for the dress & about an hour of my time :)

The Beginning

So, I have no idea what I'm doing. At all. Basically with anything, but more specifically with this blog.

Some people said I should make one & post my DIY projects & thrift finds on here. So here I am. A college freshman with way too much time on my hands who likes to save money. My posts will probably be pretty sporadic since a college dorm isn't an ideal space to bring all my supplies, but I'll do my best!

(These first couple of DIY tutorials will probably be pretty vague & confusing since I didn't take pictures during the process. Sorry in advance!)