Dye Job

Maybe its because lots of mom’s clothing dates back to the 70’s, maybe its because we line dry things, or maybe its just because we don’t easily part with clothing unless it has a gaping hole in it (and usually that hole has to be somewhere important like the crotch before we’ll actually throw it away), either way we have lots of items of clothing that are faded but still structurally sound.

In an attempt to salvage these items mom and I decided to re-dye them. The skirt that I dyed was one that I had picked up at the Salvation Army several years ago. It is a very nice white cotton skirt with embroidered eyelets that is lined. It was a little on the dingy side when I got it and somehow it has gotten much worse (I say that as if I’m not really sure how it happened, even though I spill something on whatever I’m wearing several times a day).


I don't have a great before picture of the skirt but this closeup shows the nice embroidery and one of the scary stains I may or may not have been responsible for.

For this project we were extra frugal and fished out a whole bunch of packs of dye that we had lying around from previous projects. I decided on coral for my skirt.

One of the downsides to dying skirts like this is that while the skirt itself was cotton and absorbed the dye just fine, the liner was synthetic so it, along with the zipper, stayed perfectly white. In this case it doesn’t bother me but it might have been an issue had I chosen a much darker color.

In the end I think the color came out a little streaky. Perhaps I had too much fabric in too small a container which didn’t allow it to all evenly get exposed to the dye. I’m hoping this will even out as I wash and wear it. But other then that I am happy because it turned what was a structurally sound but ugly skirt into a far more useful one.

I hope that the fact that the skirt is in dire need of ironing will distract you from the fact that if you zoomed in on the photo really really close you'd probably be able to see that my legs desperately need shaving.

T-Shirt Skirt

I know, you're thinking "not another t-shirt refashion project!" But I have so many old t-shirts lying around I needed something to do with them! You didn't expect me to just throw them away did you?

Although my project was inspired by ones I had seen online I decided to just make up my own pattern as I went. First I decided how big around my waist band would be (I did this by measuring the waistband of a favorite skirt). I used this measurement not only to cut the piece for the waistband (with an extra inch for seam allowances) but also to decide on the length of the top of each of my trapezoids. Since I planned to do 6 sections I divided my waist measurement by 6 and then added an inch to that for seam allowances. For the bottom of the trapezoid I just added a couple inches. You could change this depending on how much flare (and flair) you want. For the length of the trapezoid I measured to where I wanted the skirt to end and then subtracted the width of the waistband (which I had decided was 4 inches).

I then found three t-shirts that I could cut out 2 trapezoids from each. It was important that the bottom of each trapezoid could fall on the bottom hem of the t-shirt because this saved me finishing and actually made the skirt look much more professional.

I sewed all my trapezoids together and then sewed the two waistband pieces together at the side. I then sewed the top one inch of the waistband down to make a channel for a drawstring. Then I sewed the waistband onto the skirt inside out. Then I seam ripped the entire thing off and sewed it on the right way. I used two strips of t-shirt to make a drawstring. A handy trick for getting your drawstring all the way around is to put a safety pin through the end and use this to push it through the channel.

I decided to use the logo from one of the t-shirts in the skirt (although you can't see it in this picture) because…well I don’t really know why but it looks cool.


Ta da! This skirt is so ridiculously comfy it is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Expect to see more t-shirt refashions in the future whether or not you like it! And no that is not Toaster the cat, that is actually Wiggin the cat and this is his first appearance on the blog because he is the least photogenic of all my cats (sorry Wiggin).