DIY Jeans Refashion Ideas

Have an old pair of plain jeans that need some new life?

Here is some inspiration for DIY refashions you can do to spruce that pair of denim. Get your scissors, needles, thread and/or Beacon Fabri-Fix Fabric Glue ready! You can add printed fabric, lace trim, jewels, paint, embroidery...all sorts of embellishments. Now these are mainly ideas for the ends of the pant legs like cuffs but you can add details to just about anywhere on your jeans. Make them your own and make them stand out.

1. Cut out and weave other fabric through

2. Sew on colorful rhinestones

3. Hand embroider your own designs

4. Add metallic and patterned trims

5. Brocade silk fabric cuffs

6. Side split with fabric insert

7. Add embroidered floral appliques

8. Cut out the denim and stitch outlines

9. Split open sides and add in different colored denim

10. Split open sides of wide jeans to get breezy almost flared jeans

11. Hand paint all kinds of designs

12. Add grommets and ribbon

13. Cute bunny cuffs

14. Add embroidered floral mesh fabric for sheerness and flare

15. Shiny sequin fabric cuffs

16. Take a permanent marker and doodle

17. Add pom-pom fringe trim

18. Add flower and pearl details

19. 2 in 1 upcycled a skirt and pair of jeans to give them plenty of flare (tutorial by DIYbohemian

20. Add lace

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Reashion | DIY Statement Scarf Print Balloon Sleeve Thermal Knit Top

thee inspiration:

a waffle knit top with print balloon/lantern/puff sleeves

  

I had made this dress so long ago, it no longer fits. I only wore it a couple times so the material is still in like new condition. Rayon/challis fabric generally lasts really well and is easy to care for. Since the print is a patchwork I thought it would work great for this idea.

Most loose fit waffle knit tops come with dolman sleeves. A dolman sleeve is a sleeve made from the same piece of fabric as the bodice. Almost a bat-wing type sleeve, the dolman has a dropped shoulder and a wide arm hole that then tapers down to your wrist. So the sleeves are made in two parts. Take your waffle knit top and cut the lower sleeve parts off. That's what you'll replace with your print fabric and use them as your pattern. 

You want to cut the new sleeves whatever width for the amount of volume you want. I did double the width of the original sleeve. Although, the top of the new sleeve should be the same width as where you're attaching it back onto. The volume will be concentrated on the wrist with elastic. This is the shape I ended up with.

I added a black cotton lace trim to the top of the sleeves too because I thought it would look nice. Adding extra to the extra.

You can get so creative with your sleeves. You can do sheer fabric or add tie cuffs. You can mix different prints and lace too. If your waffle knit top had cuffs to begin with. Keep them intact and attach them back onto the new sleeve ends.

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DIY Boxy Button Down Shirt - Make New Clothes From Your Old Favorites

If you have an item of clothing you really like and want more of then one thing you can do is straight up copy it. Use that piece, in my case this boxy button down shirt and duplicate it. You already know the shirt or whatever fits decently enough. If it doesn't then this is where you can make adjustments and fine tune it to achieve your best fit. I've done this before with other clothes. It's an excellent learning experience for sewing your own clothes.

All you do to use your clothing as a pattern is turn it inside out, lay it atop your fabric and trace around. Make sure to leave yourself a similar seam allowance.

For my copy of this old Madewell embroidered cactus courier shirt, I went ahead and mixed in this piece of black and white check gingham. Reminds me of a picnic. I really liked the combination. I made this new top a bit longer but otherwise pretty much the same. This shirt uses a lot of double seam top stitching which I should have been using a double needle for but I couldn’t find the one I had so I did it one seam at a time.

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I try to post little time-lapse videos on my IG throughout the process. I ended up making matching fabric covered buttons for this. It's all about the details. Add things, take away, it's all up to you, make it your own. Get creative with it. I loved the result so much I'm already looking for more cotton prints to work with. I know it's not exactly upcycling but (#diydontbuy) I hope you give it a try.

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Refashion | DIY Upcycled Waffle Knit Top with Lace Insert Sleeve Cuffs

thee inspiration:

a waffle knit top with lace detailed sleeve cuffs

Just adding a little lace detail on the cuffs of a thermal top can make all the difference. Elevate that simple comfy top. You can make it really easy and just use lace fabric or use doilies or appliques. This is also a great way to use up tiny scraps of lace. Just combine them and make up a piece as big as you want to replace out of the sleeve.

I choose to upstyle this ivory colored waffle knit top by Lucky Brand with some vintage mesh lace trim I had as well as a cotton trim.

First, I used my seam ripper to detach the cuffs from the sleeves. The cool thing about most thermal type tops is the sleeve cuffs are usually an add on piece so it's easy to take apart and put back together.

I split the cuffs long ways, keeping the bottom seam that aligns with the rest of the sleeve. So the lace insert would show up on top of my arms/hands.

I wanted to keep the scalloped edges of the trim so I sewed them together. The width of the design was pretty much the width of the cuff piece I took out. It works for this top because the material stretches, if your top doesn't stretch make sure your lace does. I placed the cotton trim over the joining seam.

To get the raw edges inside the cuff, sandwich the lace insert in between the top layers. These cuffs were serged together on one end so I had to unpick that to open it up and make flipping it out possible. Now the cuff has a knit bottom side and top lace side that is sheer. Then just reattach the cuffs to the sleeves and you're done. Again it's such a pretty added detail to an otherwise simple top. 

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In case DIY isn't your thing: