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 :)