20 January, 2012

Tiny DIY: How I turned a romper into a shirt & a pair of shorts

Yesterday I was up at 4am for work, which was not lovely. Not quite lovely at all. Why you may ask? Well, simply it was because at work we had to do inventory. Taking inventory of the store went smoothly, considering my coworkers and I were quite sleepy. I had been working at UO from 4:45am-1pm yesterday, and even though it was only an 8 hour shift I was ready to curl up in a ball and go off to dream land. But I wouldn't allow it. I had to keep myself awake until a decent hour to actually go to bed. So what did I do? 

Well, after hanging around at work I decided to go to the Levi's store that is a level below UO. Sadly, that cute little denim store is closing. Apparently the entire company is downsizing, and this location has been getting rid of their stock. I've been putting it off to check out what they had left, and luckily, right now it's 75% off the sale price. You betcha I got some great deals.  One of the denim items I bought was this cute little romper:

It's a size small, which is fine up top, however it doesn't provide enough room for my booty. At least enough room where I would be comfortable to wear them in public. The back pockets are so cute I almost didn't have the heart to cut up the romper.

But the romper was on sale for $54.90 with an additional 75% on top of that. So I came to terms of cutting them, and decided on keeping the shorts for a hot day. Also, I realized that whenever I wear rompers I either experience droopy bum syndrome and/or unfortunate wedgies.

I paid for the romper a little over $14 including tax. Sounds like an excellent deal to me to get a pair of shorts and a shirt. Oh, and to iterate how much of a deal it was, it's the Levi's brand. Totally worth it for me considering the price of cotton is going up.

Yes, of course, I have to include an obligatory pet-getting-in-on-the-DIY-action photo. Here's Berkley making sure that I don't screw up as I prepare to cut the romper.

I cut the fabric right above the elastic waistband. I decided to keep the edges raw because I feel it just might be extra gnarly once it has more wear.

Unfortunately, after I cut the romper in half it left a funny puckering blouse-y poof in the back. It was cute when it was still one piece, but I figured that the shirt would look small on me if I left that feature. So I came up with a solution to tame this silly poof.

My solution was to measure up two inches along the side seams and cut. Then I stitched across the seam above where I made the cut to prevent future ripping.

Then I measured an inch from the slit, and then drew a diagonal line from that point to just below where I sewed.

Now with these little side triangles the little back poof can lay calmly. Hoorah! I can't wait until I get to try out this sucker. When I wear it I can feel a little like Rosie the Riveter, except for the fact that it's not a jumpsuit, I'm not building any machinery, and it's not the 1940s. 

Now I have to wait for Summer to come around to wear the shorts. 

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P.S. I apologize for the crummy photo quality. I was using my laptop's camera because I just passed down my 6 year old DSLR to my sister to learn on. Until I can upgrade my equipment, this is what I have to use. Lame.

P.P.S. I've decided to keep this version of the blog until further notice. I think that if I update the tumblr version, it might make it easier for me to update here. You think? I hope it works out. Feel free to follow me on tumblr if it's more convenient for you.

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