Friday 21 September 2012

Clothes For Boobs, Budget Edition: Dumpster Sweaters & Giant Baggy Sweatshirts

Being somewhat ambivalent about the clothes from companies that design specifically for a busty figure, I tend to take a different tack with dressing myself. I've already posted about tailoring clothes that you have to wear that are absurdly ill-suited to big boobs and a smaller waist, but now let's look at this from a different angle. Specifically, I'd like to sing the praises of specifically seeking out giant shapeless clothes for the purpose of taking them in to perfectly fit your body. It's the cheapest way EVER to get a custom fit.

First: Dumpster sweaters. This is my affectionate term for sweaters that I have literally gotten for free from a town dump. Some towns have a section of their dump where people can drop off things that are still usable, usually called a "Swap Shop" or "Swap Shack". Residents of the town can then go in and take whatever they like. Whenever I've found myself in one of these places, I tend to grab all the men's sweaters I can find in colors I like. Obviously these sweaters are going to be very large and shapeless on me, but because they are free, I can fearlessly alter them however I like. Although not every town dump has a Swap Shop, you can also get large men's (or women's) sweaters for very cheap at Goodwill/Salvation Army/charity shops. Think $4 or so.

The process for this is just as I have described in my post on taking in my shapeless work polos: lay out the sweater flat, trace a sweater that fits you onto it, sew along the traced lines, and cut off the excess. And voila. I don't have any photos of me in my dumpster sweaters before I took them in, but here they are "After":






Not bad for the low, low price of $0.00! These still don't look quite as good as sweaters that are simply small enough to fit my waist, and stretchy enough to fit my boobs and hips, like this one:



But again, this is a sweater that I had to buy at a normal price ($25 or so, from H&M) whereas the dumpster sweaters were free. So it's a great way to triple your wardrobe if you're on a budget.

Next up: today's project of taking in a very large sweatshirt. If you're anything like me, you've probably acquired a sizable stack of oversized t-shirts that you get for free from races, companies, promotions, college acceptances, blah blah blah. I usually take in these t-shirts to get cute, longer t-shirts to work out in. But I've also had, for ages, this giant sweatshirt that I was given as a gift years ago. I finally decided it was  time to make it wearable, so I decided to try my hand at altering a zip-up hoodie. Here's what it looked like to start with:

Text blurred out to keep it secret where I go to school :)


I laid it out inside out and traced my purple dumpster sweater (which is a perfect custom fit for my body) onto it. Note that this sweatshirt is so much too big for me that I need to take in the sleeves, too, so I continued tracing the line onto the sleeves. But I didn't want to take in the cuffs, so I split the difference. This way, the finished product will have slightly oversized sleeves and an oversized hood, which will add up to cuteness when juxtaposed with the fitted body.



Next, I sewed up the sides.

If you're worried about testing the fit before you cut off the excess fabric, with something like this where you've taken in such a massive amount of fabric, your best best is to try it on inside out to make sure it's not too small. This looks pretty hilarious, but will give you a good idea of whether you need to take in more, or rip out the seams and re-do it a bit bigger. If it seems like a good fit, cut off the excess. Here's the finished product:




All the sewing described in this post was done on a sewing machine (I have a Baby Lock "Anna" which I love). But it could also all be done by hand, since these are just simple straight seams. It would just take a little longer, that's all.

I hope I've inspired you to feel as though you don't need to pay a lot for clothing, even if you have a tricky body type and want a custom fit. Let me know in the comments if you try a project like this!

20 comments:

  1. Great refashioning--especially the hoodie! There's a lot of us out here who sew our clothes if you need some more tips on how to alter for big boobs (cuz most of us have 'em!). I'd never heard of the Swap thing at the dump before, I'll have to see if our local one has something like this since our not-so-local Goodwills generally have sad clothes.

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    1. Sometimes even sad clothes can end up becoming cute when you take them in!

      Thanks for reading and commenting, I will check out your site :)

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  2. Oh, my gosh. Where was this tutorial when I was in college!? How many sweaters could I have salvaged from my Goodwill box!?

    What kind of thread & stitch did you use? I'm pretty new to sewing. This is so amazing seriously. Thank you for the idea!

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    1. I just used a basic thread and a straight stitch. I actually don't know a huge amount about the other stitches myself. Everything I do so far is with a straight stitch. I use a fairly small stitch length when sewing things like sweaters.

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  3. When you made the hoodie smaller, did you just do one continuous seam from bottom of the sweatshirt all the way to the cuff of the sleeve? Or were those different stitches? I'm just curious how that all pans out.

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    1. Yup! It's one continuous seam all the way. I could have done it with multiple seams, but I usually keep things pretty simple.

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  4. Loving the hoodie! I really need to learn how to sew.

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  5. What a great post! Do you cut off the excess with the sweaters too? My concern would be that if they are knitted garments they would unravel - does this happen?

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    1. I do cut off the excess. I find that if I don't cut off the excess, the extra fabric gives it so much bulk that it is very unflattering and not worth having altered in the first place. My mom also was worried that the sweaters would unravel if I cut them, but they don't. I imagine that would be a risk with a very open or crochet-like knit, but with your standard garden variety sweater, if you use a small enough stitch there is no risk of unraveling.

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    2. One thing you can do if you are really worried about fraying or unraveling is, after sewing with a straight stitch, sew with a zig-zag stitch on the outside of the straight stitch (where you would cut the excess fabric). If you do a narrow between stitches zig-zag (but normal from side-to-side zig-zag), then you will significantly reduce the chance of fraying and/or unraveling. Of course, you would want to do this AFTER you know the straight stitch is in the right place and BEFORE you cut excess, because it can be a pain to remove if you do it before the straight stitch if it is in the wrong place!

      The zig-zag sort of acts like surging (sp) does (that line on stretchy fabric that looks like two straight stitches on the outside but zig-zag on the underside) without needing a different machine.

      Hope this helps if you need it!
      Holly

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  6. I assume that I'm about 10 years older and since I was 15 I have my clothes altered, not all of them, but a lot. When I was younger I was doing it myself, I even made several pieces from scratch. Now it's all done by a seamstress, because I don't have time for this, but I still remember how to.

    The idea with oversized sweaters is good, in addition I can I suggest to undo shoulder seams and make sleeves shorter and shoulders more narrow.
    I also suggest to make sure that the cut is symmetric (when you using another garment to draw contour it can't be symmetric, small corrections are always needed).

    You may want to take in shirts. In this case you need a shirt that one or two sizes bigger then you can button, because your back is more narrow and chest is wider then default cut suggests. Women tailored shirts with tucks and additional vertical seams are the best candidates for that. More places where you take in mean better fit. You may also need to make shoulders more narrow and sleeves shorter, but with women shirt it's often not necessary (at least for me).

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    1. I know that the garments don't come out completely symmetrical, but I've never really found this to be a problem. Especially with clothes that have some stretch, it doesn't really show. And my body isn't symmetrical either! I usually do check to make sure I'm taking it in fairly equally on either side, using a tape measure, but I don't mind too much if there are small imperfections. I almost never attempt to take in woven/non-stretch items, for which these considerations would be much more important.

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    2. Yep, stretch is usually more forgiving ), especially if it's something a little bit bulky.

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  7. You are amazing! If I had better sewing skills, or the time to redevelop the skills I once did have, or access to my mother's sewing machine again, I would do this. At the very least, it gives me hope that this is possible.

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  8. I love this. I have a HUGE heavy and oversized sweatshirt I never wear because it is just so bulky. I can even do this with my minimal sewing skills (and the help of my handy hand-me-down Bernina.)

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  9. I LOVE what you've done with the hoodie! Amazing :)

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  10. You look neat in all those tops, you would pass I think easily for a much smaller bra size in the street wearing those as well as looking slim as well.

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  11. Wow, you are so good at this. Would you say sewing by hand makes it easier for the stitches to fall apart compared to using a sewing machine, or are they the same strength? (because I would love to do this, but I don't have a sewing machine)

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  12. I sew for my kids - and good thing too as i have a 6yr old who is taller than 90% of the kids in his brothers 4th grade class but can still fit his tiny butt into toddler sized clothes. Ive made a few things for myself but for some reason havent modified that much for myself!
    The issue i always have is length vs width. Even in womens clothes when things allow me to breathe and cover my butt gapage they are huuuge! If it fits my waist my boobs are flattened and its snug on my hips and gives off buttcrack views. Inspired!
    I was given a XXL tshirt that belonged to my brother and on me it looked like a kimono. I cut panels from front and back and added a new neckline and raglan sleeves and made a really girly custom tshirt that still sported the pacman ghosts.
    Thanks for the kick in the butt!

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  13. I sew for my kids - and good thing too as i have a 6yr old who is taller than 90% of the kids in his brothers 4th grade class but can still fit his tiny butt into toddler sized clothes. Ive made a few things for myself but for some reason havent modified that much for myself!
    The issue i always have is length vs width. Even in womens clothes when things allow me to breathe and cover my butt gapage they are huuuge! If it fits my waist my boobs are flattened and its snug on my hips and gives off buttcrack views. Inspired!
    I was given a XXL tshirt that belonged to my brother and on me it looked like a kimono. I cut panels from front and back and added a new neckline and raglan sleeves and made a really girly custom tshirt that still sported the pacman ghosts.
    Thanks for the kick in the butt!

    ReplyDelete