Reforms You Can Do During Quarantine: Easy to Hard

Hello! :)

Today, I hope to provide some entertainment and fun for everyone! Many of us have a lot of free time during this quarantine, so I am going to share what I have been doing and give everyone some ideas for things they can do!

Relating to fashion of course!

For today's blog, though, I will focus mainly on reforms! I have had a lot of time and a lot of inspiration to work on this hobby and I hope maybe I can inspire some of you to start reforming as well. Of course, I know we are all at different levels here, or sometimes we just get unmotivated and don't want to start a big project.

S0, I am setting up this post in levels: easy, medium, and hard.

Easy will be things anyone can do and will not require many materials. They are quick and simple!

Medium will require some more unique materials, but I made sure that everything can be substituted so that you can use what you have around the house. They will be a slightly more difficult and longer.

Hard will be bigger projects that required more patience and time, or if you want to sit down an learn something new.

For each of these, I will show 1-2 things that I have created along with short how-to's. I will also mention some other reforms that would fit the level so that you can explore on your own, with some links for inspiration.

Ready? Let's go!

Level 1: Easy

This level is basically just drawing.

With whatever clothes or items you have that are old or getting boring, I recommend simply just drawing on them. You can use sharpie, paint, or anything else you have.

Here's what I did:

I used black sharpie on the sole of these shoes (since they're very thick). Drawing on clothing doesn't have to be tacky! If you keep it minimal, it's not as scary and still can match with the rest of your wardrobe.

Next, I would also recommend paint for this level. Just grab whatever colors, paints, and brushes that you have and do what your heart desires! It doesn't have to be anything crazy or complicated.

Here's what I did:

Again, you don't have to do this much, just paint whatever you would like! This is just an example of what I did.

I would also like to add, you might be a bit nervous about drawing on your clothes or shoes, and that's okay. My advice to you is to start with things you don't mind if you mess up, have a CLEAR idea of what you want to do, and practice on a piece of paper before hand. For me, I just winged it and went for it, but if you are nervous or maybe not as artistically inclined, please follow this advice.

(Make sure you parents won't get mad if you do this too...)

Fore ideas and inspiration, check here!

Level 2: Medium

Continuing with the jean jacket I showed in the Easy Level, I also used bleach. (You may notice the back section of the jacket is slightly lightened and blotchy, too) It's takes a bit longer to do and requires more steps than simply painting or doodling with marker, which is why it is in the Medium Level section. 

Here's the front of the jacket that shows a bit more of the bleach designs:

You can see in the vertical stripes it started to turn a bit yellowy because I left it for too long

To do this, I used an old paint brush, and a cup of half bleach and half water (this is important, don't just use straight bleach) and painted the sections I wanted to lighten on this jacket. 

I PROMISE IT IS NOT AS HARD AS IT SEEMS if it was too hard I wouldn't have put it in this section!

This is essentially painting, but with bleach instead of paint. If you would like full instructions on how to bleach please go here! (This site has steps for different styles of bleaching as well)

Some advice if you do this:

1. Do it outside 

2. You don't need as much bleach as you think you do, I used one glass full 

3. Use a paint brush you don't mind getting ruined

4. Don't let the bleach sit for too long as it will make your jeans turn brown

5. Wash immediately after it lightens to your liking

6. Do it in layers: paint some on, let it sit for 15 minutes and see if you like it, then you can add more or wash them

The next idea for this section is jewelry! This is not too difficult depending on what you do, but it will require beads and/or string which is why I put it in this level.

For this, I made a necklace (that actually ended up being too small oops).

To do this, I used thin wire and pearl beads in two sizes. Simply string the beads randomly spaced on the wire and repeat with 4-5 different wires. Tie all the ends together and wear it as a necklace!

Here is how I secured the beads along the wire:

Some other ideas for this: You can use stretchy string or any other beads and make jewelry as you wish. Earrings, necklaces, or bracelets will also be a good idea for this level! You can always search on pinterest for more ideas on this and inspiration as well. I would recommend starting here!

Level 3: Hard

For this level, you may needs things like a sewing machine/needle and thread, some skill/openness to learn something new, and patience. These will be longer projects and things that you may have to sit down and learn (Which I did for this section too! I am not a pro by any means, don't feel bad if you don't know how to do something. Google is your friend and learning a new skill may just be your next hobby in quarantine!).

First, I have my #1 thing I always show you guys: sewing reforms! Take an old piece and make it something new by taking it apart and sewing it back together. For this, I had an old (and kind of ugly) wrap-around skirt that I made into a pair of shorts. This actually ended up failing miserably because I ~cannot~ measure correctly for the life of me, but I am going to show you what I plan on doing to fix it!

I really just want to show you that it's okay to start something a little challenging and it's okay if it fails miserably! I think 85% (and I'm not exaggerating) of the things I try to make end up being too small or ugly or just not working how I wanted it to. For me, even if the final product LOOKS like it's successful, there is definitely a story behind it about something went wrong or didn't work out the first time.

Basically, it's the process that's fun and you really do learn a lot from your mistakes, so I encourage you to just TRY even if you're scared. You never know what it will turn out to be. Plus, sometimes when things DON'T go according to plan, they turn out even better.

Anyways, here's what I did:

Step 1: Find a wrap-around skirt, open it up and lay it flat, and cut it vertically into 2 different sections. (This is where I messed up because I cut it into 4 sections RIP)

Step 2: Remove a half U-shape from each side of each section like so. Also, If you look at my last blog, I did a sketchbook tour and there's a spread on turning something from a skirt to pants. It applies the same for shorts too, so if you want illustrations you can look there.

Step 3: Sew all the corresponding ends together. Again, look at the spread on my last blog to see where the corresponding pieces are. Or you can use any other pair of shorts you own as a reference.

like, these shorts would fit NOBODY

Step 4: Realize you screwed up at Step 1, put the shorts at the bottom of your closet and pretend they doesn't exist.

Just kidding!

I did do that for a while, thoughm until I realized where I went wrong (I cut 4 sections not 2, like I mentioned in Step 1), BUT I realized how I could fix it.

Because the problem here was that I cut too much out of the hips and waist, I am going to open up the seams on the hips and put eyelet holes down the side, like pictured above. Then, I will string ribbon or some kind of cloth/string down like shoelaces :)

Like so, but like less scandalous because I actually want to wear these out an about!

Sorry this section is getting so long!

Finally for Level 3, I learned how to embroider! *clap clap clap*

If you look back at my last blog post again, you will see one of the pages of my sketchbook had a shirt that was based around the song Dazzling Light. Well, I made some final revisions to my design and finally made it!

Well, almost. Embroidering takes much longer than I thought so I only finished one letter of the main text.

Ta-da!

I decided to go with the title of the song as the main text in a computer-like font. I kept the stars/sparkles I had originally sketched. If you looked back at my last post, I had originally drew it with the lyrics "who you who am i" as the main text in a lower case cursive. Instead, I put that text and font on the sleeves, where I was originally going to put the title of the song. Basically I just swapped the two texts.

These were the sleeves:

I used pen to sketch out the words, but when I messed up and tried to use a Tide pen to erase it, it just smeared the ink more

Anyway, I have never embroidered before, but I thought it would be fun to try to learn!

I used this video to learn some of the different stitches and basics of embroidery. It's only 4:35 so it's not that long and it's a very well put together video. Some things I changed: I don't own an embroidery hoop so I just didn't use one. I also sketched what I wanted to do on the shirt before hand, since I wanted to make sure nothing went wrong. I also had some left over material of the shirt I used (I cropped it to match the sketch prior to embroidering) so I used that to practice!

I will try to show you if I ever finish, but this is definitely a project that will occupy me for a while...

Some other things you could embroider would be jeans, backpacks, scrunchies, or shoes! Google will be your friend if you need inspiration for anything in Level 3.

Anyways, that concludes this blog post! I hope you try to make your own reforms this quarantine if you find yourself bored. Don't be afraid to try something new, whether it's something from this blog post or another hobby you've always wanted to start!

That's all for today!

Bye everyone :)