Whether you want to dress up a plain t-shirt or you’re looking to rescue a favorite garment that has gotten stained, bleaching is a great alternative to dyeing – rather than add color, you can take it away instead for a different effect.  Over at Lil Blue Boo, Ashley did an entire series of tutorials on different fabric bleaching techniques, including how to use stencils to create a design.  You can use store-bought stencils, cut your own stencils, or even use various objects (such as a doily).  If you like this look, be sure to check out the rest of her fabric bleaching series as well!  [how to stencil fabric with bleach]

Project estimate:

• T-shirt, on hand or $1 and up
• Bleach, on hand or $1
• Stencil, on hand or $1 and up
• Spray bottle, on hand or $1
• Sponge, on hand or $1

Total:  Free and up

The post Stencil Fabric with Bleach appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

You know we love t-shirt projects.  Why wear something ordinary when there are so many ways you can jazz it up?  Over at UCreate Crafts, we found a guest post by Katy from Sweet Verbena showing how to use a simple resist technique to make a one-of-a-kind, completely personalized shirt design.  Use a favorite quote, song lyrics, doodles, or anything else you want to decorate your shirt.   Wouldn’t this make a fun activity for a slumber party?  [how to make a watermark t-shirt]

Project estimate:

• White t-shirt, on hand or $1
• Gel glue, on hand or $1 and up
• Fabric dye, on hand or about $3 and up

Total:  Free and up

The post Make a Watermark T-Shirt appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

When Emily from Blu Babes Create happened upon a picture of a skirt made out of a men’s button-down shirt at Grosgrain, she knew she had to make one for herself.  She searched and searched for a tutorial but couldn’t find one, so she took a stab at it on her own.  She came up with fabulous results, and a tutorial!  If you don’t have a long-sleeve shirt on hand, I think this would also look cute if you used a necktie for a belt instead of the sleeves.  [how to turn a men’s shirt into a skirt]

Project estimate:

• Men’s long-sleeve, button-down shirt, on hand or $1 and up
• Sewing machine, on hand

Total:  Free and up

The post Turn a Men’s Shirt into a Skirt appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Have you ever played with a bleach pen? It’s a small pen made for laundry use that contains a bleach solution that is a medium-thick gel. If you use it on dark clothing and let it set for an hour or two, you can create eye-catching one of a kind clothing. It’s a great way to give new life to old jeans that you’re tired of. Naja at My Closet Thrift Store made this cool pair of bleach-patterned jeans. [how to make bleach pen pants]

Project Estimate:

• A piece of dark clothing, on hand
• Bleach pen, about $5 – I found one for $6.75 on Amazon, but it’s probably cheaper at your local store: Bleach Pen

Total: about $5

The post Make Bleach Patterned Pants appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Little Green Dresses, Tina Sparkles
Taunton Press, $22.95 — $15.61 at Amazon

A lot of us Dollar Store Crafters are afraid of something: our sewing machines! Tina Sparkles’ Little Green Dress is the perfect book for the frugal crafter who sews or wishes she could sew to refashion clothing. The book is all about “green” sewing, which means it emphasizes using thrifted, recycled, remnants, or old garments for fabric to make fabulous new garments.

If the idea of refashioning clothing to make fab new stuff intrigues you, this book is a definite resource. If you don’t have the first clue about sewing, this book has a great introduction to sewing section that gives you a quick and easy-to-understand crash course in sewing: from choosing the right fabric, to basics of sewing that will help you get smooth and professional results from your first project.

If you’re not a sewing beginner, this book still has plenty to offer. It will walk you through how to make your own patterns (YES, from scratch!) to make garments that fit you perfectly. It will advise you on how to sew certain weights and types of fabric, how to modify existing patterns to work better, and how to combine patterns together to get the garment you want.

And then there are the patterns. Many dresses, some tops, skirts, and even rompers. Lots of good, solid patterns for women who are comfortable dressing in a youthful style (think Forever 21 or the hipster girls you see eating at that breakfast place down the street). Maybe I’m getting old (someone needs to write Little Green Mom Jeans for me, I guess), but I probably wouldn’t wear most of these dresses because they’re so short. The beauty of the book is, of course, that I can modify the patterns to suit the lengths I would feel comfortable wearing, and that is a very cool thing.

I had a few favorite pieces in the book:

Oversized Caged Hoodie by Peggy Noland

Such a graphic and unique look (especially over the red dress).

Bib Dress by Fredda and Jennifer Perkins

So cute & colorful, just like everything Jennifer Perkins makes! I didn’t include a picture of the whole look because I couldn’t get a good one, but this version is styled with fuschia tights, which is super fun.

Deluxe Rectangle Skirt

I especially love the one with the wider waist, and it looks cute with the suspenders (although generally I’m not a huge fan of the girls-with-suspenders thing).

Additional Resources:

The Wardrobe Refashion Project: Pledge for 2 or more months to avoid buying new clothes and instead refashion what you have or finds from the thrift store. Then post your creations to the group blog to show off what you’ve done during your pledge. This is a super fun project to get involved with. Sign-ups are accepted every two months, so get your name on the waiting list if you’re interested in taking part. In the meantime, just check the blog out to get some refashion inspiration. [photo above from a refashion at Pull Your Socks Up]

New Dress a Day: Seamster Marisa pledged to make one dress a day for just $1. Yep, this is definitely down our collectively frugal alley! Check the blog here to see how Marisa is doing with the project (hint: very well!) To find out more (including hints and tips for refashioning your own dresses), check out this Craftypod podcast about New Dress a Day.

Cut out + Keep: A DIY community with tons of crafty and refashioning inspiration (you’ll find a lot of dollar store-ish crafts there, too).

Disclosure: Review Copy Affiliate Links

The post Little Green Dresses Book Review appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

I bought a suede shirt at the thrift store several years ago and have been hoarding it until the right project came along. A couple months ago, I realized that was silly — there will always be another unwanted leather garment to be found at a thrift store, so I might as well use this one. In the spirit of stashbusting, I decided to cut the leather shirt up and make a purse. This purse design makes use of the details already present in the shirt: the cuff (with seaming, as well as a button and button hole), the pleating on the cuff, and the nature of leather: it doesn’t fray!

If you don’t have a leather shirt available, you can easily add a lining to the purse design to add body to the purse and conceal any unfinished edges. I didn’t add finishing details for this purse because I made it as a play satchel (in the style of Indiana Jones) for my younger son. I really like the shape of the purse, though, and I think it would be a nice accessory for a woman! If I made a purse like this for myself, I would add a lining and one or two inside pockets (gotta keep track of the keys and phone), but keep the shape of the purse the same.

Key tips for working with leather:

• Buy a leather needle for your sewing machine (less than $2)
• Don’t use pins (use binder clips instead)
• Sew slowly

Project Materials:

• Leather or suede shirt, $5 or so at a thrift store
• 4 rings (about 1″ in diameter), 2 lanyard hooks, $1 or on hand
• Leather sewing machine needle, $2 or on hand
• Thread, sewing machine, on hand

Total: $5 and up

A note about the metal findings: The metal rings and lanyard hooks were just part of a large package of metal findings I bought at the craft store, so I just used what I had on hand. You can do different kinds of straps depending on what you have available.

To Make:

First, cut the sleeve carefully from your leather shirt, then cut up the underarm seam. Lay flat to see the shape of the sleeve. Cut two small rectangles (about half an inch by 3″)  to use as loops on the sides of the purse. You can also use any scraps from the shirt for this (for example, if you cut off the underarm seam from the shirt, a piece of the seam makes a great loop).

Fold shirt along any pleats to bring side seams in. You want to make the sides of the fabric as straight up and down as possible. Also consider how the pleats are laying at the top of the sleeve. This will be the inside front of your purse. I tried to make my pleating as symmetrical as possible, so I added a second pleat on the left top side. Clip pleats in place with binder clips.

Sew a straight line across top to secure pleats in place. Trim excess fabric above the sewn line. If desired, fold over and sew again to create a finished edge.

Fold the purse up to see how it’s going to look when it’s sewn together. You will fold it roughly in thirds, with the cuff being the front flap of the purse. The top of the shirt sleeve will become the front inside of the purse. Make a note of where you folded, and fold it inside-out in the same way. Insert ring onto loop, then tuck loops between fabric on each side – they should face inward toward the good side. Sew up the sides. When you turn the purse right-side out, the loops should be sticking out on the outside edges of the purse. You can attach a strap to these rings.

For straps, I just used a piece of nylon webbing and sewed each edge to another metal ring by folding the webbing over the ring, then sewing a square where the two layers of webbing meet. Then I attached the rings to each other with a small metal lanyard hook. I like detachable straps so you can adjust the length if desired.

Other strap ideas: Make a nicer strap out of leather. Sew a tube of leather, turn it right-side out and topstitch it, and then fold it around the ring and sew a square where the two layers of leather meet. Alternately, buy a couple of canvas belts at the dollar store and use the metal rings on the belts for your purse and the belt for a strap.

The post Make a Purse out of a Leather Shirt Sleeve appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Another great project from Amy at Craft Chi shows us how to reconstruct a t-shirt into a racerback tank top using 99-cent doilies.

Use a t-shirt that doesn’t quite work for you and therefore sits in your drawer unworn, but that initially had high hopes for when you got it. Or, if you don’t have any t-shirts to sacrifice, check out your local thrift store, or the clearance racks at your favorite clothing store. Or, if you just want a virgin tee to craft with, craft stores usually have an aisle devoted to personalized t-shirts, and sell colorful blank tees for $2-5.

Project estimate:

• Doilies ($1 each) = $3 or so
• Old t-shirt = free

Total cost: $3 and up
[I’m taking the day off. This archive post originally appeared Nov 11, 2008]

The post Reconstruct a T-shirt with a 99-cent Doily appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Ali from Found it in the “Ali” used the Plastic Bag Decal idea from Filth Wizardry for this great t-shirt makeover. She got the gray shirt from the dollar store, ironed a plastic bag decal on it, and snipped and tied it into a cute halter top. She has how-to instructions on her new blog, so [check out how to make a t-shirt into a halter top]

Project Estimate:

• T-shirt, on hand or $1
• Scissors, on hand

Total: FREE and up

p.s. Visit reader Susan’s blog and comment to enter to win 24 different colors of glitter!!

The post Make a Quick T-shirt Halter Top appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Thanks to Polly from Helping Little Hands for contributing this great tutorial for busting your stash and improving your kiddos’ wardrobes! She’s brilliant, and has a lot of great ideas, from her Hand-Me-Down rehab series, to a whole lotta adorable felt food. I’ll let her tell you more below. Thanks again for guest-posting at Dollar Store Crafts, Polly! — Heather

p.s. This tutorial is really detailed and has lots of pictures, so I split it up into a few pages.

Hi, I’m Polly and I blog over at Helping Little Hands.  I was super excited when I heard about the Stash Bust because those are generally the kinds of projects I do anyway.  I’ve got some of everything on my blog  from sewing to cooking, to home preschool, to felt food and everything in between and on a budget.  For the last little while, I’ve particularly been focusing on what I call Hand-Me-Down Rehab–fixing clothes up to make them wearable and cute, and I hope you’ll come join me!

Hand-me-downs and Goodwill half-off finds are a way of life at our house.  With three small kids and hubby just out of graduate school, we’re always pinching our pennies.  We’ve been blessed with a lot of wonderful, generous  hand-me-downs at just the right times…but the pieces we’re given don’t necessarily match.  While our 5-year-old doesn’t feel the need to dress-up quite as much as Fancy Nancy, she does love to wear clothes with fun designs on them.  Our 2-year-old doesn’t care all that much about what he wears…but it is easier to get him to change into clean clothes when there’s a fun dinosaur instead of just a plain red shirt.

So I’m here to share some of my tricks for using homemade appliques to make coordinating outfits out of mismatched hand-me-downs for next to nothing.  Appliques are great because they can be added to virtually any piece of clothing and can help cover up stains or holes and make clothes look like better than new.

Materials:

• Clothes to decorate, on hand
• Heat’n Bond Lite Iron-On Adhesive (or there are “no sew” versions you can use), $2.96 or on hand
• Scraps for applique, on hand
• Fray Check (optional depending on the fabric you choose to use and the look you want), $2.55
• Basic sewing gear (needles, thread, sewing machine helpful, but not essential), on hand

Total: FREE and up

Types of Material to Use:

Almost any type of fabric can be used for appliques.  I used woven cotton fabric for years with great success using a satin stitch edging.  Recently, I tried using knits from old T-shirts and have fallen in love with them because they are so much less prone to fraying there are more possibilities for them.  If you’ve never done appliques before, I suggest starting with knits.

Go to page 2 to find out more

HeatnBond Ultra Hold Iron-on Adhesive 17”x36” at Joann.com

The post Mismatched Hand-me-downs + Appliques = Coordinated Outfits appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Jacinda at Prudent Baby posted directions for transforming a plain child’s t-shirt into a tunic, and it’s supposed to take just five minutes! I love the idea of just adding onto a shirt to make a unique (and longer) top, but I don’t think it should only be for kiddos. I want  one of these for myself! Either way, this is a great way to lengthen last year’s shirts and get a bit more use out of them! [click here for 5 minute t-shirt tunic tutorial]

Jacinda used a lovely vintage scarf for her t-shirt transformation, but you could easily use a dollar store tea towel, a bandanna (they have lots of variety at the big blue store), or hey, even doilies would be cute! I don’t have little girls, but I wonder if it would be cute to use the bottom of a dress shirt on a t-shirt for boys? Just an idea.

Project Estimate:

• Old t-shirt or tank top, on hand
• Scarf, tea towel, or bandanna, $1 or on hand
• Sewing stuff, on hand

Total: FREE and up

The post Make a Five-Minute T-shirt Tunic appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.