DIY Your Clothes To Give Them A New Lease Of Life
With fashion moving as fast as it is nowadays, we quickly get bored of our wardrobe and are constantly craving the next big thing. Sadly, our budget doesn’t always cover the cost of new threads and we’re left to get creative with what we’ve got. In order to DIY your clothes and give them a new lease of life, you’ll need some basic tools and skills. Scissors are a necessity and skills like sewing are great skills are are things you should practice when you get the chance. However, things like iron-on options exist for you more practically challenged DIY-ers.
1) Alter the length
This can work in a variety of ways, you can transform that midi dress that makes your legs look 1ft long into a cute mini dress, or an old pair of worn jeans into cute summer shorts. Changing the length is a great way to DIY your clothes to either change up your look or transform a winter piece into a summer one. The toughest part of this is the hemming: the denim pieces can often look great just cut off and frayed but other fabrics will need to be hemmed to keep them from unraveling. Doing this with a sewing machine is preferable as it’s neat and efficient, however, you can also hem by hand or even with handy iron-able hemming strips if sewing isn’t your forte.
2) Get your dye on
Don’t chuck your favourite pair of black jeans away because they’ve faded to an awkward green/grey colour. Give them a new lease of life by re-dying them with a handy washing machine dye set. Its inexpensive and incredibly easy and will leave your clothes looking brand new. Tie-dye is also such a fun way to jazz up your wardrobe and it’s probably the most fun way to DIY your clothes. Get some friends involved and spend some time giving a new lease of life to your old t-shirts, tote bags and even wall hangings. Try and use natural, sustainable dyes where possible!
3) Patches+badges
Patches and badges are a fun way to personalise any piece, I love a denim jacket with some interesting patches that say something about your interests and personality. They’re also fun to collect, finding patches from places you’ve travelled or events you’ve been to and having them as wearable reminders are a nice way to remember good times. You’d also be surprised at what a good conversation starter they can be, imagine spotting someone in front of you in the queue at a coffee shop with a patch of the logo of your favourite indie band, I’m sure you’d keep to strike up a conversation!
4) Change up features
Changing up small feature accents on your clothing can often make it look like a brand new item. Try swapping over boring buttons for some beautiful vintage brass ones, or remove the material belt that came with a dress and add a chunky leather one. Changing small aspects of a piece is a fun way to DIY your clothes by adding a snippet of your personality and your style. You can go as simple as adding a cute bow to your zip, or as far as adding a faux fur collar onto a jacket, get creating and get stylish!
