Over-sized Shirt Fix #2: Sleeveless Tshirt

   Supplies needed:
1 shirt
1 pair of scissors
A needle and thread or(and)a large quantity of safety pins


   Okay, here is my second way to re-size a shirt, though you're still going to have more or less a tshirt this time(unless you get creative, who knows, let the inspiration flow if you want).  You could theoretically use this as a guide to re-size another kind of shirt, though I haven't tried it myself yet.  If you're re-sizing a too big button down, though, I definitely recommend making it into a vest, because mine is really cool, and you can learn how to do that here.  

   Enough of my rambling, lets get down to business.  I am, and will always be a fan of the tshirt, even the baggiest one, but some things I prefer to fit my body a bit better.  Honestly, I wanted to do something new that I'd thought of, and mutilating this shirt seemed like a good idea since I had a terrible time at the concert, so here is my tutorial.

Now, this is about as T shaped as a tshirt can be, very straight, and it kind of smells like weird chemicals.
I'm going to keep the sides straight in my re-sizing, but if you would want to curve inwards to fit a female shape, more, go for it.

Realistically, I am cutting straight down the side, starting about an inch inwards from the seem on the shoulder.  I have my binder there as a straight line to help keep me honest with my cuts.
Caution: Before you dig in, you should put it on and pinch it as tight as you want it on the sides to get a good idea of how much you need to cut.

If you cut and it turns out a bit jagged, don't worry about it, it's not noticeable with any rout you're going to close up this side with.  If it is, well, that just makes it a little more rock & roll.

Oops, well, can't take it back now.

 If you feel you've mutilated your tshirt at this step, even if you don't finish this, make a pillow or something, don't worry about it.  When I first got into altering/making clothes, I'd panic certain points thinking "WHAT HAVE I DONE?"
So, your tshirt is badly wounded at this point, and the other side probably knows what's coming, so go ahead and slice the other one, too.

Your shirt should look something like this, more or less a double sided apron.  Now comes the fun part, closing up the sides.

Ugh, this concert was awful

Ok, now, there are a few ways you can go about closing this up: You can safety pin it until it sees jesus(picture below), you can sew it(what I'm doing) or you could lace it up(like in my vest tutorial I linked before).

The picture looks kinda funky because it was too dark in the original, so I ended up messing with it to make the details visible and the colors became real wonky.  You're done if this is the rout you're taking.

We're gonna sew up the sides now if you're still with me, remember to turn the shirt inside out(if you're an old pro with sewing, I apologize for restating that), and remember that you're gonna need to leave room for your arm at the top if you have arms, but I'd really like to see a video of feet sewing if that is the case, that sounds awesome.

Once you've done that, just repeat on the other side the same way, though be careful to have the arm holes the same size, it probably wouldn't be visible, but I think it would be bothersome.
I ended up using safety pins to hold the fabric in place while I was sewing, it's a bit harder without a sewing machine.

See, jagged edges aren't visible after you sew it up

All right,  Now that you've sewn up the sides, your shirt should look something like this.  Now, you can do anything you want with it at this point, but this is the end of our journey together.  I've taught you all I know.  You can cut the neck out of it, you can attack it with a pair of scissors, anything you want, go ahead.  I hope you liked your results.

I'm so sorry for the pictures

 I became quite carried away with paint.

All right, if you have any comments, questions or just want to talk about things, drop me a comment or email me at homemadevk@gmail.com

Faux Safety Pin Piercing Tutorial

Supplies needed:

• 2 Safety Pins
• A wire cutter, preferably something smaller so you can be precise
• An emery board or sand paper

*Please note that I'm not telling you to pierce your ears in a non-sterile environment, encouraging you to back down to the man or to use unidentified metals in your ears if they are sensitive!
*Warning!  Like a lot of earring, if safety pins are yanked hard enough, you may have damage to your ears! (I've seen some things O_O) Be careful.

Alrighty, let's get down to business.  A very well known piece of the alternate life style would the be Safety Pin Piercing.  This practice has passed down from our punk lords in the 70's to the grateful little boys and girls in this day & age in many different substyles and subcultures.  We love to use our shiny, shiny safety pins in our clothes, and many people have them in their skin.  Now, there are a few issues with this to some:

-If you work, you might not be able to rock your safety pin for the world to see.-If you're a minor, your parents might have a panic attack(like I caused my parents frequently)-You might not want to deal with the pain.-You might already have a piercing in the ideal spot,
or many others.
I, for one, already have my ears pierced, and thus cannot shove a safety pin though them.  There is an easy way to get around this!  Hear me out.  I have been reading this autobiography of Anthony Kiedis, and he was around this amazing time in punk, and it inspired me to do something I'd been thinking about for a long time.

Faux Safety Pin Piercings

Now, you might think this defeats the purpose of the thing, but some people simply can't, so if you can't, you do the best you can, and a huge rule in any substyle or subculture is that you don't have to dress the part every second of the day.  You can veg in your sweat pants blasting some music, taking off the bracelets and undoing your safety pins.
Let's get started.

    To start off, grab yourself a safety pin, it should be about medium in the scheme of things, just put it up to your ear to make sure it wouldn't be tight on your ear if it was in your piercing.

I wouldn't recommend using colored or coated safety pins, even with the least sensitive ears, because I don't know what kind of affect it would have, and it may irritate your skin.

 

Grab your wire cutters

Here I'm just using pliers with wire cutters at the base, as a lot do

   Now we're going to cut off the sharp end of the safety pin so we don't end up with a new unintentional hole in our ears.  You'll want to get as close to the edge as possible, because if you cut too far the head of the safety pin won't be able to catch it and you won't be able to close it.  You'll want to cut right at the base of where the safety pin slopes down to a point, you'll be able to see it where I circled in red at the close up.

P.S.! Before I forget, dispose of the piece you cut off IMMEDIATELY.  Put that thing in the trash, you do NOT want that stuck in your foot or something.

  Now that you've cut it, it will likely be a bit jagged and/or sharp.  Mine looked like this, and this was the second time I'd been through all the steps though I've done it a few more times now.

   In this step, you can use sand paper, an emery board or realistically anything abrasive enough to take an edge off of this.  I'm using an emery board only because pretty much all of my sand paper is covered in charcoal.
With this, it might take a while, and it might at least partially destroy your emery board, but it will make it fairly similar to the end of an earring wire. 

All you really need to do is hold it upright(or near upright) and scratch it back and fourth on your emery board, simple stuff.

You're done!  You might want to give it a rinse or a little wipe if they're a little dusty, but that's it.  Now you just have to repeat these steps with another one and you'll have a matching pair(if you want more than one). 

Aww yis

I like to put my safety pins in what would be considered backwards for a normal earring, meaning that I put the end of the safety pin through the back, closing it in the front, but you can do it any way you want

                                                     

Back to the beginning for our final photo-

                                       

PLEASE comment with any questions(or any thoughts what so ever)

Thank you!

Vest Tutorial / Over-sized Shirt Fix

Supplies needed:
1 shirt
1 pair of scissors

String, yarn, leather, even shoe laces would do, anything you want to lace up your vest with
Not necessary, but recommended:

A seam ripper
Safety pins, for holding your place and finishing touches if wanted
Something to mark with, washable marker, piece of soap, chalk, what ever you might want to use.
(Remember to read through it before you start, you don't want to end up with an unexpected finished project :)

The shirt that I made this vest with came from a -wait for it- Give-away bag!  Free.  Stuff.  Proof that when I praise them so much I'm not full of it.  More specifically, a bag of clothes that my mother was giving away, but I stole before she really had the chance.  Let's get to vest making before I get way off topic, like I love doing.

My vest was created using a rather large shirt(I think my Mom herself got it from a give away years ago and thought she would do something with it), but yours doesn't have to be too large for you, you can just skip a step here and it will look just as fabulous.

The shirt we'll be using, remember that yours can be any color or style, as long as it's button down, and collars look much better.  Please excuse my dirty floor, my toes, my friend's suit case and any other things that may be distracting you in this picture.

Take your shirt, as shown above, and cut the sleeves off, just follow the seam, cutting just before it starts between the shoulder and the neck, or before it starts at crook of the arm.

I know this looks pretty awkward here, we will be remedying this in the next step, and if your shirt is your size, it won't look awkward here, and if it does it will not on you. 

Alright, the next step is rather severe, so be careful.  I, personally, put my vest on my friend (who was lazily sitting on the couch since I was forcing her to watch the Fellowship of the Ring for the first time while I worked) so I could mark how much I needed to cut, so if you have a friend near your size, grab them, if you have a mannequin, put it on that.   If you don't have any of these,(like me, most of the time) put it on yourself and pin it to show how much is needed, don't worry about it being perfect, the less perfect it is, the more personality it has.
If your shirt is your size, don't worry about this step.
This step is necessary so you don't look like a potato sack, and gives you a longer look.
By putting it on yourself, friend or mannequin, you can see how much excess there is for you to cut off.  Depending on your shirt, you might have to cut off more or less than I did.

I don't suggest eye balling it for this one, if you have any thing straight you can lay down the shirt to give you a nice line to cut, do it.  I marked it, then marked down the shirt to show the entire way down how far in I was cutting.  Remember, more or less depending on the shirt and you, and how loose or fitted you want it to look in the end.  At this point I also removed the pocket, just because I thought it would be in the way, but you don't have to if your shirt has one or two.  After I finished this, I made another vest in another style with the two pieces I cut off.

Now for my favorite part, lacing it up.  We're going to lace up the now open sides we have(obviously leaving openings for our arms).
Our first step is to mark how big our opening for the arms will be, from the top(the shoulder) to some point on the side.  You might want to put it on(right now two flaps will just be on you) and pin it to how large you think is suitable.  I probably don't need to say this, but be very sure it's even on both sides, otherwise it will look and feel very awkward.
Now that we have a place for our arms, we'll be adding the holes for our laces.  Sadly, I do not have an eyelet kit at the moment, but if you have one, putting eyelets here would look really great.   For hole poking, you can either make tiny cuts with your scissors, use a hole punch, or take a seam ripper, make a stab and stretch it out a bit(I insert the tip of my scissors and open them a bit, it stretches out the fabric pretty well without creating a huge hole.

They don't need to be too big, but you'll need to take into consideration the kind of string you'll be using to lace it up, and that you'll need them to be even on both the front and the back.  Also, if you accidentally make a hole that is too close or too far away from another, just make another one, it won't be noticeable on your finished project.
If you're working with something that didn't need to be liberally sliced, you can either make these holes on either side of the seam and lace it up, or cut up the side and lace it up.

The next part of lacing it up is, well, actually lacing it up.  You'll need the aforementioned string, you could use a lot of things, leather, boot laces, other kind of string you might have(I do not recommend common yarn, though), but I used teeshirt yarn that I had made for another project.  I don't have a tutorial on how to make it, since I've only made it once, but the tutorial I learned from can be found here.

You can lace it up any way you want, but I went pretty basic with this.  Simplicity is less work.

Check out this vest you have to far!  Really, you could stop here, and if you choose to do so, I hope you love your new article of clothing, but I have a one or two more things to add.

I only laced it part of the way down, it just leaves you with some flow.

Ok, now that we have the sides laced up, the back felt pretty bare, so I cut up the back, a little lower than the top of the side lacing, and laced that up, too.

Somehow one of my cat's fluffy butts managed to get it's way into the top, right hand corner of my picture.
There is a bow a little over half way up, honestly, because I underestimated how much string I'd need, but I like it anyway.

Now, your lovely vest is complete.  Yours probably looks better than mine, here.  At this point, if you feel like it's missing a little something, add it!  I just put a couple of crossed safety pins on the collar, but you can add whatever you want, it's yours, after all.

Thanks for reading!

Opportunity

When it comes to making or buying your own things, you have to look at things for not only what they are, but what they can be.  

Give-away Clothes

I'm certain that at one point or another you have been presented with(usually a plastic garbage bag) of clothes that someone, somewhere, has deemed unworthy of themselves and decided to push on others.  These, my friends, are gold mines.  I know that some, if they even look at all, only take what they like and leave the rest for others to scrounge through.  
Nope.
You have to think in terms of fabric, of zippers to be ripped out, of buttons to be reused, of lace to be sewn onto something much better looking than an ugly shirt.  Sometimes I look back before I got into this kind of thing and want to punch myself in the face for all of the treasures I let go.
Don't turn away free clothes, my friends, even if they're horrifyingly ugly, you can pass them on to someone else.
Give away bags are treasures, sure, not everything can be saved, or re-purposed  or transformed, but it's an opportunity, a place to start.

You have no idea how much clothing is in this picture, half of it I don't even wear, but I will!  I promise to make it awesome, and if it isn't awesome, I promise to learn from my mistakes.  Mistakes aren't a bad thing, they just make your future projects better(I'm willing to admit I make mistakes)

Thrift Stores

Usually people shoot me down when I talk about thrift stores, but if you know what to look for, they're amazing places.  One example, my friends, is a Prada dress that my friend found in the night gown section, bought it at a price that was obviously made without proper understanding, and sold it for a few hundred dollars.  They're magical places.
Even if it's cool, but not beautiful at first you can alter it to the way you want it.  You can add the chains, you can add the safety pins, the bows, the clips, the straps, the holes, the zippers, but there is a chance that it already has them.  With that, you might find something you didn't even know you wanted.
Sure, not every place will have this dream selection, but you have to look, if you don't, someone else might snatch that black and white striped long lab coat/jacket(that would be me, and I'm so proud of that thing)

The Dollar Store

Not all of them are gems(Dollar Trees are my favorite), but the dollar store is one of my main go-to's.  I buy teeshirts(to wear, tie dye, rip up, cut up, put on your animals), socks that I use to make gloves(which I will show you how to do in the near future), makeup, safety pins(the best deal in town), and lots of other random, yet very helpful things I find.
(Very soon will be a post about my magical pant straps from these supplies)

The Internet
Never underestimate the power of the internet.  It's a never ending fountain of useful knowledge and helpful advice(though you must be careful).  I don't usually recommend online shopping, especially since plenty of us are not able to do so independently, and a lot of things are much over priced, but there are great things that you simply can't find anywhere else.You have to be on your game to get good deals, and not all of us have time to stalk that fabulous pair of pants while 11 other people bid mercilessly.  Most of the time, if I'm planning to bid, I try to find things with the least amount of bidders.
For me, the best place to find deals on the internet are unlikely places.  I search for brands I love on my go-to's like Storenvy and Etsy,
(crap, I shouldn't have told you that)
My best deal has been getting a Living Dead Souls dress for 13 dollars on Etsy
(though I can't even wear it, I'm tall, it's short, I have a big butt, it doesn't want to cover it.)

Honestly, I have no idea why it's sideways.  Whoops.

Alright, rounding back down to my title-I really just wanted to show how important opportunities like these really are.  You never know if you'll find another pair of pants that would perfectly fit your idea with just a few rips and tears, to jump on what you can get.  Just remember that if you buy it or are given it and don't love it, you can give it or sell it to someone else, or you can alter it until you love it!  And even if you alter it and still dislike it- sell it or give it to someone else.  Pass it on.  Sharing is caring.
Don't be snobby, beggars can be choosers, but if you aren't willing to sift through junk to get to the good stuff, you aren't going to get anywhere.  Plus, you need supplies, you need all that you can get!  Even for things you haven't thought of doing yet.

An Introduction.

Hi, my name is Dee and I have a problem with spending money.  The problem is the fact that I do not have it.  In related news, there is so much you can do without it(or much of it, for that)

Realistically, with all of us VK lovers, and every other damn subculture to substyle, there is a great portion of us who are broke, or simply cheap.  And even if you aren't broke or cheap, this would still be good to read in on, I don't know, you might find a little something cool, maybe.  Let's just say I'd be flattered you did.  I'd be flattered even if you read the first sentence.

After falling in love with jrock, I went through the cycles, I made a fool of myself(in a good way, everyone should make a fool of themselves), I felt like I'd found my little niche.  Obviously, when I found Visual Kei, I immediately had he childlike thought "I want to look like them!"(Really, that was when I started making a fool of myself)  I've had quite a few problems when it comes to clothing, things have turned out fabulous and certain things... Not so well.  But I can say that things are definitely going better for me now in that area.

Ok, back to the topic.  I have a lot of tutorials yet to be posted, and I am quite excited to do so.  Since I found my way making the clothes, putting on the (fabulous) makeup that I never would have worn before, fantasizing about those Japanese guys and gals, I feel a lot better about myself, even though I have my upsets and insecurities.  I would just like to share my experiences, how-to's and what to do's.  Thanks!

                         P.S.  I am smiling under the mask, but it's hard to tell :)